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Anorexia Nervosa is a dangerous disorder due to the severe medical complications that it can cause. Anorexia Nervosa is a condition where a person starves him or herself and/or exercises excessively, to the point of where his or her body suffers from the symptoms and complications of severe starvation-induced malnutrition. The symptoms and effects of Anorexia are the same as they are with people who suffer from malnutrition due to famine.
The first sign of starvation due to Anorexia is weight loss that continues despite reaching or already being at a healthy weight. Rapid weight loss can also be a sign, although with some medically supervised weight loss programs rapid weight loss is expected.
Most Anorexics either eat very little, or they purge when they do eat, so the body cannot get the nutrients it needs to function adequately. After experiencing starvation for a period of time, the body will try to protect the heart, brain, and other vital organs by slowing down its metabolism and decreasing the heart rate, thyroid function, and blood pressure.
Anybody that has ever had anorexia or has witnessed somebody that is struggling with this disorder is perfectly aware of how difficult it can be to get back to a normal life style. But just because you have suffered from this disorder in the past, does not mean that you cannot live a normal life. There are thousands of people that have beaten anorexia and are now problem free.
If you are having trouble coming to grips with your new body, there are a few things that you can do for help. First off, there is nothing wrong with seeking professional help as a way of getting back on track.
There are many doctors and psychiatrists that specialize in eating disorders and by seeing one of these professionals you will be taking a big step to being fully recovered. If you do not feel quite comfortable speaking with a doctor, you can seek out the help of a friend or family member.
Activity anorexia is when there is a drastic change in dramatic decline in eating brought on by increasing exercise, the additional exercise reduces your intake of food and a vicious circle is created. Activity anorexia is thought to happen to about 75% of all anorexic sufferers and is most common in athletes many of whom have performed successfully whilst suffering from activity anorexia.
The Symptoms
The person suffering from activity anorexia not only worries constantly about there weight but also about there diet, the everyday person suffering will take more and more time away from work, school and there friends and family purely just to exercise.
They will have a tendency to avoided multiple food groups to self diagnose food allergies and will very often develop severe gastrointestinal problems as a result of there actions. Many activity anorexia sufferers will develop an almost vegetarian style regime in the heating habits, eating an unbalanced diet.
Having an anorexic in the family takes a huge toll on all of the family members involved in many different ways. It is not only the person actually suffering from anorexia that has the problem and some people never think of the others involved but only of the person actual suffering from the disease.
Anorexia not only affects the way they feel about food and its not just simply the refusal to eat, the anorexic will have deep seated feelings and thoughts about themselves, mostly negative thoughts and this affects the way they think of other family members too.
Very often the disease will have a devastating affect on the family’s relationship to the point of almost total breakdown within the family unit, gone are the days when the family sat around talking and laughing discussing what happened at school or work almost total communication may have been lost.
Here we have compiled a dossier of frequently asked questions concerning Anorexia and Bulimia which you may find helpful. If you have a question to ask that isn’t already covered in the FAQs, drop us a line.
Q2: What types of Anorexia are there?
Q3: What is the diagnosis for Anorexia?
Q4: What are the effects of Anorexia?
Q5: What is the difference between Anorexia and Bulimia?
Q6: What are the effects of Bulimia?
Q7: What are the symptoms of Bulimia?
Q8: What types of Bulimia are there?
Q9: What treatments are available for Anorexia and Bulimia?
Q10: Do men suffer with Anorexia and Bulimia?
Q1: What is Anorexia?
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that most commonly affects teenage girls and young women. However, it can also occur in adults, both male and female. People with anorexia nervosa are extremely conscious and obsessive about their weight. Read More…
Q2: What types of Anorexia are there?
There are two different types of Anorexia that people suffer from; the first is restricting anorexia and the second, binge eating/purging anorexia. The underlying characteristics for both types are basically the same; with both types of anorexia the sufferer will have a total fear of weight gain. Read More…
Most people think of women, especially young women and teens, when they hear about Anorexia Nervosa. The reason for this is sound, since teen girls and young women tend to be under a lot more pressure than teen boys and young men when it comes to being and looking thin.
Peer, media, and societal pressures aside, however, Anorexia can, and does, affect males also, although admittedly in smaller numbers. Males under the age of 14 account for about five percent to ten percent of diagnosed Anorexia Nervosa cases, and nineteen percent to thirty percent of diagnosed cases are older male teens.
Despite the fact that Anorexia Nervosa is less common in males, the symptoms and causes of the disorder when it does present itself appear to be the same for both sexes. This would be pressure from outside influences, although with males it may manifest itself more in over-exercising or extreme muscle building without consideration for proper nutrition and weight maintenance.
Anorexia and Bulimia are equal opportunity eating disorders. There is no certain race, gender, sexual or religious background in which these eating disorders are more predominant. Anorexia and Bulimia are psychological problems that just happen to deal with food. There are some similarities in the two eating disorders, but they are not necessarily two sides of the same nervosa coin.
Anorexia and Bulimia – The Similarities
Both Anorexia and Bulimia have the same underlying cause – low self-esteem. With today’s society putting so much emphasis on what is perceived as the “perfect” body and weight, those people with eating disorders see themselves as imperfect.
However, that is not the only underlying cause. Depression and abuse – emotional, verbal, sexual and physical – are also common factors that contribute to the eating disorders of Anorexia and Bulimia.
Bulimia is widely thought of as some type of obsession with food. However, food really has nothing to do with the root of the problems that can trigger bulimia.
Rather, bulimia is really all about control. A person with bulimia feels that they are not in charge of their life. That lack of control is often what instigates the destructive binge-purge cycle called bulimia.
There are a number of factors that can contribute to bulimia, many of them about physical appearances. This is probably why bulimia has the highest concentration among teenage girls.
Many people have a basic understanding of what Anorexia is but there are a few who have some misconceptions regarding the eating disorder called Bulimia Nervosa. For many people suffering an eating disorder, they are seeking a way to cope with various pressures in their life.
And if their self-image and self-esteem has taken a beating, monitoring their food is sometimes the only way to maintain a sense of control in their lives. People with Bulimia have what is called a binge-purge eating cycle.
They will eat large amounts of food, gorging as if they were on autopilot. The binge is their solution to deaden their feelings about certain events in their life. However, after binging for a while, they start to feel uncomfortable and become anxious at the thought of gaining weight.
Bulimia is an eating disorder which strikes people who have a problem with self-image. They are fixated with their weight and tend to judge themselves harshly for imperfections that most likely no one else sees. Bulimics may appear normal to their peers, but they live in their own world of guilt and shame.
In order to quiet those feelings, these people with bulimia go through cycles of bingeing and purging. Eating large amounts of food temporarily silences those personal demons they fight with, but soon the real world creeps in.
Then they try to find ways to lose those calories they consumed. Bulimics purge through vomiting, exercising excessively and even abuse laxatives, diuretics and enemas. This binge-purge cycle takes a toll on the health of people with Bulimia. They know what they are doing is wrong, but feel helpless to stop it. Sometimes, it takes a health emergency to shake them up and seek help. Bulimia is serious business and can be fatal if treatment is not sought.
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