Raksha Misthry knew it was impossible to reduce her towering frame. So the 1.74m young woman decided she would "shrink" her 63kg figure by swallowing laxatives, overexercising and starving herself. For seven years Misthry battled with her eating disorder until she collapsed at her 25th birthday party, weighing 43kg."For years I was a walking bag of bones."Three years later she has become the poster girl for recovering anorexics, having changed her eating habits and started her own gym, Push Fit Durban, where she is a personal trainer."At one point I was taking up to eight laxatives a day. It was a binge and purge cycle. Every time I didn't feel good about myself I would take them in the hope that I would feel better."story_article_left1Misthry's case is not unique. She is among a growing number of teenagers who use laxatives to achieve the body beautiful.Boys also grapple with their body image, and use steroid muscle enhancers.A study published in the US Journal of Pediatrics recently delved into the abuse of laxatives and muscle-building products.It used data from an ongoing study of more than 13,000 Americans, who were aged between nine and 14 in 1996. By the age of 23 to 25, 10.5% of the women reported using laxatives and 12% of men reported using a muscle-building product in the past year.Imani Addiction Services, an eating disorder treatment centre in Cape Town, is seeing more instances of both among its young clients."Laxative abuse appears to be a last resort with those suffering with eating disorders. As the disorder escalates, the methods become more extreme to control the weight," said clinical director Kathryn de Gouveia.Many "expressed that when they first started they thought they had found the miracle cure to manage their weight. What they didn't know was [ that] more than the physical damage ... it was soul-destroying."Joy Dean*, took 40 laxatives at a time in the belief that she would lose weight.But the 19-year-old was mistaken. "Restriction and exercise were no longer enough. The number on the scale was not low enough. I felt horrible."Laxatives were my relief but I ended up in more pain. They didn't work, they ripped my insides and left me in the emergency room," she said.A 45-year-old woman said she was now wearing adult nappies after 20 years of using laxatives. "My body is damaged. I have a prolapsed anus, all because I wanted to lose weight fast." So why use laxatives?De Gouveia said: "[It] screams quick, fast results. It suits the impulsive generation, who know that all they need to do is click a button and they will have the world opened to them."Sandton clinical psychologist Craig Traub said: "The appeal is often the immediacy effect in terms of seeing some desirable results quickly."The biggest consequences include dehydration and stomach pain and damage to the bowels.Eating disorders were no longer an "exclusively female illness", De Gouveia said. With teenage boys, "there is often a battle between being thin and having very little body fat versus being seen as scrawny".* Not her real name..