Krista seems like an average 15-year-old girl, but she is in the midst of a tough situtation that adds a unique twist to her life. She has been living with the eating disorder bulimia for about two years now.

“It’s hard because it’s like a never-ending battle and no matter how hard I try I can never win, or even get my feet on flat ground,” said Krista, who refused to give her last name. “When I see thin people and they look so beautiful, it makes me never want to stop …. It’s a love-hate kind of thing.”

With images showing the "perfect body" surrounding them, it is no wonder teenage girls go to the extremes of dieting, and by doing so they can develop eating disorders.

According to “Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity,” a report done by the medical Web site PDR.net, eating disorders affect approximately 8 million Americans — mostly young women and teenage girls. Eating disorders can be found all around the world, but are most common in industrialized western nations where food is abundant.

What could compel someone to do such a destructive thing to themselves?

“When I throw up I feel empty … but it feels so good,” said Krista, who lives in Hayward. “But it’s so hard to feel satisfied. An eating disorder is something that makes you want to be something that you’re not, and it’s really just an unreasonable way of changing yourself to how you think you should look.”

For the most part teenage girls and young women suffer from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, according to the PDR.net report.

Women in particular are the main targets of the constant subtle and not-so-subtle “thinner-is-better” messages, and those messages are responsible for 90 percent of those with eating disorders, according to the PDR.net report.

Krista said the media’s power has had a lot to do with her throwing up.

“I just want to feel beautiful,” she said. “It’s almost like I’ll do anything to just reach my goal, then maybe I could really live my life.”

But it’s hard for Krista to live that life, because the whole experience also makes her feel like she’s spinning out of control.

According to the PDR.net report, eating disorders are rooted in deep psychological, cultural, and physical dysfunctions. Extreme dieting behavior - from not eating at all (anorexia), to binging and purging (bulimia), to eating nearly all the time (binge-eating syndrome) - takes a combination of medical, psychological, and nutritional therapy to overcome.

Debra Waterhouse, author of “The Female Fat Cell,” wrote in her book, “What I’ve discovered is that when they think about it and get all the facts together, they get sort of angry. They say, ‘Why are we caught up in this trap?’ and ‘This is ridiculous, (because) women are stronger than this and can break free.’”

“I just want the pain to go away,” said Krista.

For more information on eating disorders, or if you need help recovering from an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association at (206) 382-3587, the California Youth Crisis Line at (800) 843-5200, or Overeaters Anonymous at (415) 436-0651.