What You Need to Know About Anorexia

By Jill Gonzalez

Anorexia nervosa, more commonly referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder that is characterized by an obsessive worry about being or becoming fat. People with anorexia look at themselves in a mirror and see a fat person, regardless of how thin they really are.

Anorexia is a very serious eating disorder that, if left untreated, can cause tremendous physical and emotional damage, or even death. For the most part, people who have this eating disorder will not admit to having a problem to anyone, including themselves.

Learning to Recognize Anorexia

This particular eating disorder is most common among Caucasian and Hispanic women between the ages of 15 and 23. Approximately 1 percent of females in this age group suffer from anorexia, and many of them never receive anorexia treatment.

It is important to realize, however, that anorexia can appear in anyone at any age. It is not a disorder that is limited to young females.

In order to recognize the presence of anorexia in someone that you know and care about, you must be able to spot the characteristics that are indicators that something is wrong:

• Extreme fear of gaining weight, even when the person in question is underweight.
• Refusing to maintain even a minimal normal body weight.
• Having a distorted view of one's own body or weight and/or denying that one's weight is too low.

Symptoms and Signs of Anorexia

If you think that you know someone with anorexia, there are some additional things you can look for that will alert you to a problem. You should be aware, however, that people with anorexia usually try their best to hide their condition, so it is generally very difficult to spot the signs of this disorder.

Symptoms of anorexia include the following:

• Constantly dieting: This occurs even if the person is already thin. He or she follows a rigid diet that usually eliminates all fatty foods and carbohydrates.
• Obsessed with counting calories and fat grams: Measuring and weighing food is common practice, and the person may keep a food diary to record everything eaten.
• Drastic weight loss: This usually occurs suddenly without warning or medical reason.
• Overly critical of appearance: Spending a lot of time in front of a mirror looking for something to be critical of.
• Using laxatives, diet pills or diuretics: All of these are routinely used by people for weight loss.
• Excessive exercising: This generally means working out for at least one hour at a time, most days of the week.
• Vomiting after eating: After eating, the person immediately goes to the bathroom to "purge." This is often disguised through the use of mouthwash, breath mints and running water to mask the sound.
• Preoccupied with food: Even though the person is extremely particular about eating anything, thoughts of food are constant.

Dieting or Anorexia: What's the Difference?

Eating disorders such as anorexia often begin with a simple diet in an attempt to lose a few pounds. A person might initially diet and exercise to get more fit and healthy, but once a few pounds have been lost, an obsession begins to develop with losing even more weight.

With anorexia, people feel the need to be in control of some aspect of their lives. Controlling what they eat is a powerful feeling, and it is one that they begin to thrive on over time. The short-term result is that people begin to feel a greater sense of self-esteem, but in the long-term their old feelings of low self-worth begin to manifest again.

In addition to understanding the thought processes that people with anorexia go through, it is equally important to realize the underlying risk factors for developing anorexia in the first place. Cultural influence is a huge factor, as women in the United States are made to believe that they have to be pencil-thin in order to be beautiful and accepted by society. But, there are other factors that must be considered as well:

• Genetics: Researchers have concluded that a genetic predisposition for anorexia may run in families. For example, a girl who has a sibling with anorexia is 10 to 20 times more likely than other people to develop anorexia at some point in her life.
• Personality traits: People who become anorexic tend to be overachievers and perfectionists who are often focused on doing things to please other people. They believe that if they are not perfect, they have failed.
• Family environment and social pressures: Aside from the cultural pressure that exists in the United States, parental pressure can have a negative impact on children. When parents are overly critical, expect perfection or frequently make comments about wanting their kids to look good, it can trigger anorexia in a teenager who is already insecure about his or her looks.

When the human body does not receive the nutrients that it needs through a regular diet, it slows down and eventually begins to consume itself in an attempt to conserve energy.

If left untreated for an extended period of time, anorexia can ultimately lead to depression, mood swings, kidney failure, infertility, heart problems and thoughts of suicide. Fortunately, anorexia is a treatable condition, and people suffering from the eating disorder can make a full recovery professional anorexia treatment.