
The glee that bubbles up when she realizes she's lost weight, then hits the treadmill and runs for 90 minutes, until her bad knee ''feels like it's exploding.'' Hornbacher's entire young life has beenĭominated by an eating disorder, one so extreme it pared her down to a near-fatal 52 pounds, and as she reveals here, she is by no means ''cured.''

N the final pages of ''Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia,'' Marya Hornbacher describes a recent trip to the gym: she steps on the scale, notes Read the First Chapter of The Secret Language of Eating Disorders By CAROLINE KNAPP

Are people with eating disorders desperate for control or just too sensitive for their own good?
