How to go about confronting her?!

How to go about confronting her?

Hi..I've moved out of home as I'm at uni, but today my mom called me about my 15-year-old sister. She's pretty sure she has an eating disorder of some kind, due to various clues...the first is, she's found bags stuff with food under my sister's bed. This is food she's been given to eat while at school, and partially food my mom made for dinner which my sister hid and brought back up to her room instead of eating it. My mom got a bit scared and read a bit of my sister's diary while she was away for a few days...not really something I support but she's very worried. Anyway in the diary was a page with the words "I will not eat" written out a couple hundred times.
Listening to this I'm pretty sure she has an eating disorder too, especially as I saw her the other day and she did seem a bit paranoid about her weight (she's neither fat not unhealthily skinny, she's actually just right, but she seemed a little weird about staying for dinner). My mom isn't sure what to do. Any suggestions?

I've been in your shoes, twice.

First, you or your mom should confront her and say that you found the bags of food (nothing about the diary reading or she might get really upset and uncooperative). Tell her you're worried for her, and try to get her to say what caused this. Try to find out how long she's been doing this, and if she makes herself throw up too. Two of my close friends have been through this, and I hope your sister's case is not that serious. Let's hope it's just some teenage identity crisis and not a medical problem already.

Either way, definitely have her see a nutritionist. The doctor should be able to run some simple tests to prove her she's not overweight (since you say she's not), and especially see if the levels of minerals in her system (iron, calcium, etc) aren't too low. They often drop with eating disorders. He should give her healthy tips on how to obtain a more graceful body (yes, exercise. A very good common tip but people tend to take it more seriously when they hear it from a doctor's mouth).

Don't scare or pressure her to change right away. Just let her know you're on her side. She just has to realize this is a real health-threatening problem, with effects ranging from hair falling off and unhealthy teeth to shrinking of the uterus and losing your periods, and even death in the most serious cases.

One of my friends is now completely over this, and the other -almost. The longer you stick with a bad practice, the harder it is to give it up, but in both cases what made them stop was a change in their way of thinking. You just have to try and trigger that in your sister from the outside.

Another thing I've learned from talking to my friends: people with eating disorders want to be impossibly thin, but not for the sake of thinness itself. It's something that gives them an illusion of control on their life, a way of proving one's worth or punishing oneself, or simply coping with extreme stress. It's quite messed up, and as I said, the change must come from within.

I'm sorry I'm not an expert so I can help more. Good luck.