WYNCOTE, Pa. We are a nation that is weight obsessed. Almost half of all U.S. women are on a diet and that's translates into 10 million women believed to be struggling with eating orders.
One mother and daughter conquered their own demons and now want to help others.
Ivy Silver and her daughter Rachel were dying to be thin. "From the time I was 15 to 23 or so I was an active bulimic," said Ivy.
There's no delicate way to say it: Ivy would eat and then, vomit.
Rachel, a 19 year-old college sophomore had her own demons.
"I thought I wasn't worth anything to the world unless I was skinny and perfect, so I started dieting," said Rachel.
Dieting driven by messages fueled by fashion fantasies and celebrities whittled to the bone in the name of adulation. And now two young high fashion models have starved to death in the last three months.
Ivy and Rachel live in Wyncote, not Hollywood. Still as mother and daughter, decades apart, eating disorders ruled their lives.
"I would go to the bathroom and I would close the door behind me, throw up everything I had for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner," said Ivy.
"It takes over your mind," said Rachel.
And it can deceive even those closest to you. Today 10 million women struggle with eating disorders.
"Complete recovery is totally possible and it's totally obtainable."
If you can complete treatment, even after medical insurance no longer covers it.
That realization led the silvers to establish a foundation to help pay for treatment so all women with eating disorders have a chance to heal.
"If you're going through an eating disorder, don't resist treatment," said Rachel.
Anorexia is the number one killer of women 15 to 24.
Rachel and her mother say dying to be thin should be too high a price.
