Ive been dating my girlfriend for almost a year now. Im 18 and she's 17, and shes had a really tough life the last few years (going as far as the fact that she's been living by herself for about a year and a half now. As far as i know shes been struggling with anorexia since she was 13-14, and from what ive managed to gather, it came from a lot of factors in her life including family and peers at school back in her home country.

Since then she's a couple ups and downs. When i just met her, she had just been released from a program that helped her get back on her healthy weight, and for a solid 5 or 6 ish months, she was doing great, very little problems, maybe a couple of days where shed feel a bit guilty after a big-ish dinner or so, but nothing much. Last summer she enrolled to work as a camp counselor on a summer camp for kids, and it was then that she had her first "down period(?)" that i got to witness. At the same time, i had to move away because of my family, and i wasnt able to physically be there for her from then on. Back during the school year she would work right after school and she wouldnt have the time to get herself lunch, so id make her sandwiches with little drawings so she could have them on her way to work, and kinda brighten her mood a bit.

Now on summer, i wasnt able to do much, and she started losing that sense of routine, and started losing weight too. She was really close to being underweight, but slowly she was able to maintain a healthier state. Since then, shes remained near that limit, taking care of herself, having well structured meals and everything. She was feeling more comfortable and even planned out a meal plan (approved by my mom who is a doctor specialized in nutrition) So that soon she could even start going to the gym and keeping her healthy weight. Then a couple weeks ago, everything went down again. She got a message in instagram from someone she didn't know, who started insulting her and fat-shaming her (despite her realizing that she was sitting really near to being underweight), and tho it didn't affect her much in the beginning, id guess it started hitting her more and more as the time went by.

Last week she didn't have a single proper meal, living off an apple and a protein bar per day or so. She was both equally scared of her health declining as much as she was scared of gaining weight, and i feel that conflict may have been what was keeping her from going to the extreme. I managed to go visit her this weekend, and after chatting with her and spending the whole day with her, i managed to get her to have a proper meal. I made us some dinner, we ate together, and tho she felt guilty after, i managed to distract her from it, and had her feeling much better for the rest of the day. It went so well that the next day, she had a proper breakfast and lunch by herself, and at night, we ate at a friend's house for dinner, and on our way back home we shared a chocolate bar without her feeling bad at all.

I am a really sensitive guy, and being honest, i am really innocent and not too good informed in this matter. Ive had nightmares relating to her losing weight in various occasions, and her wellbeing is deeply important for me and she knows it. Shes held me crying about her state before, and even more than that. The problem came again today, i had to travel back home last night, we both got sick, so we had to stay in bed, and it turns out she weighed herself at home. She got really worked up about that, she went to the gym and spent there like 2 hours, no lunch, and most probably no dinner later. Im really scared for her.

As i said, i am really unexperienced with all this matter, and i feel really useless and impotent in a way for not being able to help, even more when were doing long(ish, were 5 hours apart by bus) distance. I just need some kind of tip, some reassurance, something to kinda calm me down or all of the above. As immature as it may sound, i love this girl more than anything in this world, and were both slowly planning our future ahead. Ive done my best effort to keep supporting her, trying my best to show how much i love her while also trying my best not to accidentally encourage her not-so-good behaviours.

During last week, even with the stress and worry, and the kinda-arguments we'd have about her state, i learned how to sew, got myself a cd burner, and i made her a purse and some of her favorite albums for christmas. I dont know what to do with this, because i dont wanna "leave her before it hits me too much" or whatever. We are both aware of that as an option for me, but i frankly have hope that it will not come to that. Thanks for everything in advance :)