What is Anorexia (Anorexia Nervosa)?

Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by the restriction of food and the refusal to maintain a minimal normal body weight. Any actual gain or even perceived gain of weight is met with intense fear by the Anorexic. Not only is there a true feeling of fear, but also once in the grasp of the disorder, Anorexics experience body image distortions. Those areas of the body usually representing physical maturity are visualized by the Anorexic as being fat.

Anorexia can cause severe medical problems including hair loss, endocrinological irregularities, gastrointestinal problems, neurological complications and cardiac failure.

For some Anorexics, weight loss is so severe there is a loss of menses. In the obsessive pursuit of thinness, Anorexics participate in restrictive dieting, compulsive exercise, and laxative and diuretic abuse.

If Anorexia Nervosa is left untreated,
it can be FATAL.

The following are some of the common warning signs which indicate that a person may be suffering from anorexia:

• Is thin and continues to get thinner, losing 15% or more of his or her ideal body weight

• Diets or restricts food, even though he or she is not overweight

• Is preoccupied with food, calories and nutrition

• Exercises obsessively

• Constantly weighs him/herself

• Has a distorted body image

• Complains about feeling bloated or nauseous, even when eating less than normal amounts of food

• Feels cold and needs to dress warmly, even in mild temperatures

• Has thinning or loss of hair