What is Anorexia Nervosa?
What Are The Signs And Symptoms? 

Anorexia Nervosa is probably the best known of all the eating disorders. It is characterised by extreme loss of weight, sometimes to life-threatening degrees.

The words literally mean “loss of appetite from nervous reasons” but this does not really describe the condition adequately. Rather than someone ‘losing’ their appetite, it is more the case that Anorexia Nervosa sufferers do not allow themselves to satisfy their appetite due to emotional and psychological reasons.

picture by Zanastardust flickr.com

These emotional reasons are often expressed as an intense fear of fat and a desire to be as thin as possible – almost to the point of disappearing.

Anorexic sufferers effectively starve themselves by refusing food, or by only eating very small amounts.

The obsession with food and weight is often the sufferers way of coping with life, and such self-starvation can be their way of demonstrating independence by exerting control over what they feel are the only things they have control over; namely food, eating, and their bodies.

To achieve such extreme weight loss, an Anorexia Nervosa sufferer will sometimes also use additional methods such as extreme exercising, self-induced vomiting, or abusing laxatives or diet pills, such as also occurs in one of the other common eating disorders, Bulimia Nervosa. These are especially used to compensate for any episodes of binge eating if or when it occurs.

A diagnosis of Anorexia is therefore often sub-divided into two categories: the Restricting Type (where weight loss is achieved by extreme dieting but without any patterns of vomiting or binge eating), and Binge Eating or Purging Type (where patterns of bingeing and purging do occur).       

• Who suffers form Anorexia Nervosa?

Although the condition is most associated with teenage women, it can affect anyone of any age and of either sex. Statistics suggest that in western countries it may affect around 1 in 250 women, and 1 in 2000 men.

However, the condition also impacts heavily upon the sufferers family, and carers will benefit from finding support and guidance from experienced, specialist sources in how best to help their loved one recover.

The difference between an Anorexia Nervosa sufferer and someone who is following an extreme diet in order to obtain an ‘ideal’ weight, is that someone who is anorexic will continue to be obsessed with losing more weight even though they are already thin. Indeed, the continuing weight loss itself exacerbates the condition as resulting chemical changes in the body affect the brain, making rational thinking and decision making more difficult.

Sufferers sometimes describe the condition as having a ‘voice’ that challenges accepted views of weight and eating. They will often have a distorted body image of themselves, considering themselves still too fat even though loved ones are expressing concerns about how thin they are and telling them that they are worried about their health.

• What Are The Signs and Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa?

Just some of the signs and symptoms of this eating disorder include:

• Continuing loss of weight
• Refusal to eat food
• Cutting food into tiny portions and eating reluctantly or very slowly
• An obsession with examining their body
• Obsessive thoughts about weight and thinness
• Obsessively looking at images of thin models in fashion magazines and on web sites
• A denial of their own low weight
• Mood swings
• Withdrawal from social and family interaction
• Digestive problems, bloating or constipation
• Lack of periods
• Faintness or dizziness
• Trouble sleeping
• Tiredness and physical weakness
• Dry skin
• Poor circulation
• Feeling cold
• Restlessness or hyperactivity
• Wearing baggy clothes to disguise body shape
• Bad breath or discoloured teeth if vomiting regularly
• Hair loss from top of head
• Growth of downey facial hair
  
  
• What are the long-term health risks of Anorexia Nervosa?

Being underweight can be as dangerous to health as being over weight, and being anorexic can lead to vital organs such as the liver, kidneys or heart failing. If untreated, it is an extremely dangerous condition, and does in fact have the highest mortality rate (death rate) out of all the various psychological illnesses.

Other long-term health risks include fertility problems, mental health problems, repeated illnesses and infections from an impaired immune system, and Osteoporosis.

It is best if help and treatment is sought as early as possible. Recovery can be long, slow and difficult, but it IS possible. Please read our pages about Anorexia Treatment and help for Eating Disorders.