Read and choose the TRUE statements:

THE STORY OF A PERFECTIONIST
By Anya Barca-Hall from medium.com

I have always been a perfectionist in everything I do, pushing myself to my limit and beyond. In high school I wanted to be a straight A student, a D-1 athlete and, what’s more, I wanted to be skinny.
At the time, like many girls of my age, I had body image issues. I was constantly comparing my body to others. I followed fitness and health food accounts on Instagram and became obsessed with being as fit as possible.

When my gymnastics coach told me I needed to lose ten pounds, I was determined to do exactly as he said. Thinking I was doing right, I began to vomit after dinner. I began doing extra cardio daily and constantly felt like there was something more I could do. I gave into the “gluten free” fad. I mainly ate salads — and took the dressing off. I drank tons of water to fill myself up. I stopped putting milk in my coffee. My favorite foods — avocados, sushi, peanut butter, bread — became fear foods. I no longer ate carbs, and eventually even the calories in gum seemed to be too much for me.

I was still competing for my team and earning straight A’s. I was even getting compliments on my appearance.

As I began to get sicker, I pulled away from my friends and family. I was constantly tired, unhappy and cold. My hair was falling out and my skin was dry and dead looking. As I deprived my body of nutrients, I deprived my brain of essential fat, thus making rational decisions nearly impossible. I didn’t know that my kidneys were failing and my organs were shutting down because my body was deep in starvation mode.

Finally I recognized how weak and sick I felt and I was scared. My Facebook pictures shocked my mom. She arrived in tears and took me to the hospital. On April 15th, I began the toughest chapter of my life thus far: recovery. I spent five weeks in hospital with continuous monitoring of my heart and other vitals.
As soon as I began recovery, I unfollowed all food and health accounts on Instagram and deleted my snapchat in order to quiet the noise about weight loss and fitness that surrounds so much of today’s media. I needed to stop seeing what other people were eating, or what they were doing for exercise or how they looked in their gym clothes. I just needed to get better.

Most of my classmates and friends travelled in summer, held prestigious internships or took summer courses, I was recovering. I spent my summer in doctors’ offices and labs and therapy sessions week after week and it has been as exhausting and taxing as a full-time job.

After 5 weeks in hospital I really understand how dangerous it is to try to alter your own body. In order to stay healthy, I have to remember that good health is something that is continuous and cannot be compared to others.

• If the author hadn't been a perfectionist, she would have had health problems.
• If she hadn't compared her body with others, she wouldn't have followed online fitness communities.
• If she hadn't vomited after dinner, she would have been at risk.
• If she hadn't drunk much water, she wouldn't have felt full.
• If the author's mother hadn't come, she wouldn't have stopped her habits in April.
• If she hadn't been starving, her hair would have fallen out.