Responding to sailors' pleas, the Navy is working on a program to prevent and treat eating...

Retired Navy senior chief Leah Stiles caused a stir this summer when she posted a personal account of her 20-year military career on social media. She revealed that she spent much of that time desperately trying to hide an eating disorder that now requires inpatient treatment.

“This is my life, man," she said. "I'm at the end of things here."

The 43-year-old former public affairs officer got used to purging, restricting her food intake, and over-exercising to pass the Navy’s twice annual weight screenings. Her routine included laxatives, hours in the sauna, dehydrating herself, and other extreme measures.

She remembered feeling humiliated when she failed to make weight. She was ordered to take off her shirt and be measured in front of her shipmates.

“I was like, ‘Okay, so I'm never doing that again," she said. "I'll be making weight from now on.’”

Stiles said purging turned into a coping mechanism. Some sailors smoked; Stiles vomited. She got promotions and received positive comments about her physique, so she connected the weight loss measures with success. Now, from her home in Florida one year into retirement, she said therapy and out-patient treatment aren’t working. She can’t stop.