What is Anorexia?

What is Anorexia and what are the affects? Its actual name is Anorexia Nervosa. This eating disorder can affect anybody. It usually happens with young people. Topics covered will be what is anorexia, who develops it, signs, treatment, and more.

What is Anorexia?
Anorexia is an eating disorder where people starve themselves. People who have it suffer extreme weight loss, usually 15% below a person's normal body weight. They have a fear of becoming fat. These people are generally very skinny but still think that they are overweight. they are obsessed with being thin.

Even after becoming extremely skinny they still think that the are overweight to the point that they will become very ill or near death. Often they will develop strange eating habits such as refusing to eat in front of other people. It is often an attempt to use food and weight to deal with emotional problems.

Who Develops Anorexia?
This disorder generally happens to bright, attractive young women that are between 12 and 25 but it can happen to them before or after those ages. Only about 10% of the people with Anorexia are males. However, more research is being done to get a better grasp on the actual number of males have the disorder.

People that are eager to please, conscientious, hard working, and good students are often the ones that develop anorexia. They often feel stressed and anxious when they are faced with new situations.

Signs
Some signs of anorexia include: anxiety, deliberate self-starvation with weight loss, fear of gaining weight, refusal to eat, denial of hunger, brittle skin, constant exercising, greater amounts of hair on the body or face, weakness, sensitive to the cold, loss of scalp hair, self-perception of being fat when they are actually too thin, and obsessed with calorie intake.

Treatment
The treatment of anorexia is difficult, because the people that have it believe that there is nothing wrong with them. If a patient has a small amount of weight loss or it has been less than 6 months, since anorexia started, may be successfully treated without having to be admitted to the hospital. However, they must want to change and have family and friends that will be there to help them.

More serious cases require the care of the hospital and usually involves a special unit for people with eating disorders. This treatment deals with more than just changing the person's eating habits. They will often need to see a counselor for a year or longer to work on changing the feelings that cause eating disorders. In some cases medication is prescribed to help make them feel less depressed.

If anorexia goes untreated that are many medical consequences that include shrunken bones, mineral loss, low body temperature, irregular heartbeat, permanent failure of normal growth, development of osteoporosis and bulimia nervosa.

Many celebrities have admitted to having anorexia. Some of them are: Fiona Apple, Victoria Beckham, Kate Beckinsale, Mary-Kate Olsen, Calista Flockhart, and Courtney Thorne-Smith.

Now that you know what anorexia is and what signs to look for you should be able to tell if someone you know has this eating disorder. If you know someone has anorexia make sure you seek help. Talk to their family and get advice on what steps to take next from a professional that has dealt with people who suffer from the disorder.