What is Anorexia Nervosa?

Main Category: Eating Disorders
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Mental Health
Article Date: 12 Sep 2004 - 1:00 PDT


Anorexia alters an individual's body-image to the point that they may see themselves as being fat and bilious irrespective of their actual size: this distorted body image is a source of considerable anxiety, and losing weight is considered to be the solution.

However, when a weight-loss goal is attained, the anoretic still feels overweight and in need of further weight-loss.

The attainment of a lower weight is typically viewed as a victory, and the gaining of weight as a defeat. 'Control' is a factor strongly associated with anorexia, and an anorectic typically feels highly out of control in their life. However the nature of the condition with respect to such psychological factors is highly complicated.

It is often the case that other psychological difficulties and mental illnesses exist alongside anorexia in the sufferer. Mild to severe manifestations of depression are common, partly because an inadequate calorie-intake is a well-known trigger for depression in susceptible individuals. Other afflictions may include self-harm and obsessive-compulsive disordered thinking (aside from such disordered thinking connected to their eating disorder). However, not all anoretics have any such problems besides their eating disorder.

Many anoretics reach a low level of bodyweight where hospitalisation and forced-feeding are required on a long-term or recurring basis in an attempt to keep them from literally starving themselves to death. It is an unfortunate fact that prolonged starvation will result in death as the body's systems shut down, this in itself being the major danger-factor of anorexia aside from mental suffering and the risk of suicide.

Some anoretics may incorporate bulimic behaviours into their illness; binge-eating and 'purging' (themselves, of food) on a regular or infrequent basis at certain times during the course of their disease. Alternatively, some individuals might switch altogether from having anorexia to bulimia. While bulimia poses less of a mortal danger to life and limb, many who have suffered both say that bulimia involves more mental suffering.

Anorexia alters one's body image so that one does not see the truth about oneself even when one looks in the mirror - to the anorexic mindset, there is no such thing as being too thin. Anoretics acknowledge their condition to different degrees - at one extreme they do not see their 'disease' as dangerous and resent being labelled as psychologically ill, while at the other they understand and accept that they have a problem, yet the anorexia still takes control over their thinking to fluctuating degrees. In ways not too dissimilar from people who have had cult programming or post-traumatic stress disorder, an anoretic may be 'triggered' into manic disordered thinking by being exposed to certain words or conditions.

Some people eat unusually small amounts of food for reasons other than their own perceived obesity. Examples include those who fast for religous reasons, execute a hunger strike as a political statement, or are attempting to lengthen their lifespan through caloric restriction. Such individuals are not oridinarily considered anoretic, although some modern critics of religious asceticism have likened habitual fasting to anorexia. CONTINUES...

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