Anorexia: The Horrible Truth
Imagine that the reflection in the mirror shows
rolls of fat drooping from every area of your body. Heavy bulges of
fat wrap your body like a blanket. This is what anorexics see every
time they look at themselves, even if they are dangerously
underweight.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is
described by the intense fear of being fat accompanied with a
distorted self view where the inflicted person only sees themselves
as overweight. Anorexics starve themselves without mercy. Becoming
15% below a person's normal body weight is typical of an
anorexic.
This weight loss is achieved though several unhealthy methods.
Often an anorexic will exercise excessively, take laxatives, starve
themselves, or use of combination of these. This, combined with the
low body weight, often causes the anorexic to become severely ill,
and often close to death.
Strange eating
habits can also accompany anorexia. An anorexic might not want to
let people see them eat, or they could cook a huge meal for other
people and then refuse to eat any of it. Anorexia is a
psychological disorder, so it is going to take a lot of support
from family and most likely a trained professional to guide the
anorexic back to health. Resistance to help is common among
anorexics, so anger and denial can easily surface.
The list of dangerous medical problems associated with anorexia is
frightening. Shrinking of bones and mineral loss are dangerous
enough, but they also lead to osteoporosis. An irregular heartbeat
as well as a low body temperature can also develop.
Anorexia usually sets in around puberty, but it is also associated
with people of high socioeconomic class. Modeling, theater, long
distance running, and any other activities where thinness is
encouraged are susceptible to anorexia. Roughly 1% of teenage girls
will fall victim to anorexia nervosa in the United States, and an
estimated 10% of these girls will die from the effects that follow.
Though girls are more likely to fall victim to anorexia, boys are
not immune.
Warning signs to look for to identify anorexia nervosa are: loss of
menstrual period, dieting obsessively without being overweight,
being 15% or more below normal body weight, an obvious
preoccupation with food and calories, claiming to be overweight
when they are not, denial of hunger, and obsessive exercise.
The best coarse of action for someone that fears a friend or family
member might have fallen victim to anorexia nervosa is to contact a
trained health professional. There are eating disorder specialists
who are trained specifically for identifying and treating of people
with these illnesses.
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