How To Identify Anorexia Nervosa |
Sure, we would all like to shed a few pounds, but not all of us obsess about losing weight to the point where we endanger our own lives. Not so the anorexic. Men and women both can be the target of anorexia, a debilitating disorder where a person starves him or herself to reach some level of perfection only he or she can see. Unfortunately, the anorexic never reaches that state of perfection. Instead, the body wastes away from malnutrition and the only state reached is death.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, Version Four, Text Revised, lists, as follows, the primary symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa:
Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, or failure to make expected weight gain during a period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected.
Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight. In postmenarcheal females, amenorrhea i.e. the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles.
To break it down to layman's terms, an anorexic is grossly underweight for his/her age and body type. The patient suffers from numerous obsessive thoughts about being fat. What an anorexic sees in the mirror is not the same thing the people in their lives see when they look at the anorexic. The anorexic still sees fat. When women have been anorexic for a while their bodies stop menstruating.
Many anorexics have a co-existing Body Dysmorphic Disorder; this condition is characterized by preoccupation with a body part, or parts, being unattractive and disgusting to others, even though this is clearly not the case.
One of the biggest false beliefs people have is that anorexics are fighting against their appetite. In fact, anorexics have no appetite to speak of. Anorexics have a long fight to recovery that must begin with retraining their brains to send messages that they are hungry. Years of suppressing this impulse and signal have caused the brain to shut it off. It must be recovered if there is to be treatment.
Here are some highly recommended solutions for eating disorders
Quick Tip #1
Its important to learn to identify the different Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms, so it can be prevented |
Quick Tip #2
If she vomits constantly after eating or not eating at all, those are clear signs of Anorexia |
Quick Tip #3
Anorexia is an eating disorder that requires not just medications but psychiatric help |
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