What Causes Anorexia Nervosa
This day and age, there is no reason why a normally healthy adolescent or adult would starve themselves, sometimes to the point of death, voluntarily. In North America and Europe, there is more than enough food, and even for those who can’t afford it, the government makes sure those in poverty have enough to eat to survive. So why would someone choose self-starvation over living a healthy life?
If there are physiological reasons for anorexia nervosa, none have yet been found. To date, no series of laboratory tests have discovered faulty DNA, the “heredity factor” is absent, and anorexics show no abnormalities of the brain through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
Ruling out physical causes leaves us to turn to emotional/psychological causes of anorexia. Countless studies indicate these possible psychological causes of anorexia nervosa: Patients exhibit obsessive-compulsive features in many life areas e.g. maintaining rigid schedules, making lists, and “checking” behavior common to those with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Anorexics very seldom self-refer themselves for treatment. They come to the attention of mental health therapists by their physicians and/or deeply concerned family members who fear for their lives.
Anorexic patients do not see their behavior as problematic; they see themselves through distorted eyes that tell them that they need to lose even more weight through starvation and excessive exercise. Patients often have co-morbid conditions such as major depression, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive features.
Anorexics never eat in public, have feelings of personal inadequacy, have a sense of perfectionism, seldom have a social life, and display rigidity in thinking patterns.
Patients have a very restricted emotional affect; real emotional displays (either positive or negative), are superficial or completely absent. Anorexics have an intense need to control what goes into their bodies. If they believe they lack control in other aspect of their lives, only they have the power to eat or not to eat.
A fairly recent finding in the etiology of Anorexia Nervosa suggests that many sufferers were physically and/or sexually abused as children. As a result of this intrusion to their bodies, they subconsciously seek to make themselves unattractive to avoid future sexual exploitation. They share this characteristic with those suffering from Bulimia Nervosa where sufferers become obese to make themselves unattractive sexually.
After reviewing the facts, it would seem that anorexia appears to be the sole result of psychological factors, all of which lead the sufferer to extreme self-starvation and obsessive behavior. Left untreated, this condition is always fatal.
By Health Editor
