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Rebecca is fourteen and she lives at home with her parents and her 17-year-old sister named Natalie.
Recently, Rebecca noticed that Natalie hasn’t been eating as much. She skips breakfast before school and at dinner time she takes a few bites of vegetables then says, “I’m full” . Rebecca even made Natalie’s favorite cookies , but Natalie didn’t want to eat them, she said they would make her too fat.
Lately, Natalie has been working out a lot. Rebecca noticed that Natalie goes to the gym for almost 2 hours everyday and if she misses a day she gets upset with herself. For example, one day Natalie said, “ I didn’t exercise today, so I shouldn’t eat dinner”.
When Natalie is at home she spends a lot of time upstairs in her room away from her family. The times she does hang out with her family, she dresses in big sweatshirts because she is always cold.
Natalie shows signs of the eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. She has bad thoughts about her body and she is afraid to gain weight.