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.
If the words above were difficult to follow, here is anorexia explained in simpler words; an anorexic suffers from a deeply-rooted belief that the person is fat and could always stand to lose more weight. When an anorexic looks in the mirror, he or she doesn’t see the walking dead person others around him or her would see. No matter what, there is always a belly to lose or a set of legs or arms that could stand to be a little thinner. In women anorexics, the menstrual cycle stops.
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.
It’s technically incorrect to say that anorexics are constantly battling their appetite because they have no appetite. The problem is that the anorexic person has suppressed their desire to eat for so long that the body has simply forgotten how to be hungry. It is a battle to convince the person when they need to eat and how much they need to eat to stay healthy.
By Health Editor
