The major conflict of Wintergirls  is based around Lia and her eating disorder. Throughout the book I've learned that Lia has struggled with her eating disorder for years and after Cassie's death Lia slowly slipped back to her old habits which caused relationships between her family to slowly disappear. Her struggle to allow herself to eat food without thinking about how many calories she will put into her body made her over think eating in general until her parents started to notice. Closer to the end of the book Lia is pushed to the breaking point and starts to cut herself  after being hospitalized  Lia realizes that she is wanting to change her first step started when her parents got her into a rehab facility for people with eating disorders called New Seasons.  Jennifer her step mother tells Lia that she will not be able to her sister Emma until she gets help, this struck something inside her to  want  to over come her fear in being healthy and getting her to understand what her fears are and how to overcome them. She starts changing her attitude and mood toward her family and how to communicate to them. Getting Lia to finally admit that she has a serious problem was difficult for her to admit to herself and others. While in treatment she starts to realize that no matter what her weight is she will never be happy if she reached one weight goal she would want something lower. Lia realizes that there is no magic cure, no making it go away. There are only small steps upward.

If you had a friend that suffered from a eating disorder and you saw them struggling what would you do to help that person understand how it is affecting them emotionally and physically?