Have there been identical twins where one has anorexia and the other doesn't?

Answer 1

I have been battling against the disorder with ups and downs for the past 5 years and my identical twin has watched me all this time with frustration, anger and fright. She has always been a healthy weight despite her stages of depression due to my disorder. However currently she has dropped a lot of weight. Friends tell me she is bingeing at night time. I notice at meal times now that she eats VERY little and she has a very vigorous exercise regime; she runs for 40 minutes, goes on the cross-trainer for 30 minutes and then finishes with about half an hour of stomach exercises...DAILY! She is perhaps mirroring what i was doing in front of her. However i am more concerned as at 12 years of age i did not have access to gyms, weights and i was still served food. The danger at 17 is that now she can go to the gym whenever she wants, she has the right to eat what she wants.

To answer your question, I think twins take things in turns... situations normally occur one after the other. It does sound bizarre but I am 90% certain that this is true. Although we are different people I think we both rely on maternal care. I perhaps lacked that as an adolescent but in the past five years our mother's focus has been concentrated on finding care for me...Katharine has therefore felt alone and lost. I think this is another reason why the anorexia has developed in her... it is after all based around attention.