The Destructive Self-Image.

Doesn't this sound just like one of those pro-life articles trying to scare women away from abortion? And yet it is only the mainstream campus newspaper at UC-Irvine.

"Maggie Baumann was a young mother in her 30s when she was rushed to the emergency room, where doctors delivered her devastating news. After years of hazardously excessive exercise, Maggie’s organs had begun to deteriorate, and her heart was gravely close to cardiac arrest. Five days after she was admitted to the hospital, Maggie visited an eating disorder support group she credits for saving her life.

Like most women with eating disorders, Maggie is a perfectionist. Yet it wasn’t simply Maggie’s dissatisfaction with her appearance that led to her condition. Instead, Maggie believes that her disorder developed in order to cope with an abortion she had in the past. Her symptoms, most notably compulsive over-exercising, first manifested while Maggie was pregnant with her eldest daughter. According to Maggie, her rigorous exercise routines were an attempt to escape the guilt she experienced because of her abortion."