What Is Anorexia
What is Anorexia? Anorexia is an eating disorder that is likely to affect your body, mind and even life in a way that you may not like eventually.
It happens when there is severe starvation and you begin to lose all the fat you have.
Even though everyone around sees the obvious emaciation or thinning, anorexics do not feel thin at all till they barely have only their skin left.
It is also called Anorexia Nervosa.
The goal is to thin out. Is that your goal? It WAS my goal.
Do you want very fast, if possible instant thinning results?
Yes? Hmm… Anorexics usually do excessive body exercises daily, use drugs to purge, set up do-or-die eating rules, and increase their hatred for different food types to see if they can get instant thinning out result.
If your weight drops 15% lower than your normal body weight, watch it…You are living an anorexic lifestyle, except of course there are other health issues.
Yes, some health challenges could cause severe weight loss.
But, if you are Deliberately losing weight because you want to be thin, you are starving yourself, then you are living an anorexic lifestyle.
As usual with other anorexics in different parts of the world, you always see yourself as Overweight, too fat even when far thinner and lighter than your normal body weight.
I
don’t know why more females are interested in thin body figure than men,
generally. If you check among your friends, you’ll notice what I am talking
about. Girls, even at a young age of 11 through teen years and ladies want to
keep trim, thin out to feel trendy. It was my quest for this thin figure that
drove me into anorexia which they also call anorexia nervosa. Anorexia simply
means aversion or hatred for eating foods and nervosa means, involving the
nervous system. And guess who asks the what is anorexia question most? Females!
I had several warnings to desist from my dangerous anorexic lifestyle.
Even the death of the pop singer, Karen Carpenter, in 1983, didn’t send enough shock waves to stop me from meddling with this slow suicide. You well know how we easily dismiss such things as mere scarecrows.” Karen didn’t manage herself well’, we would often say. They talk about anorexia having the highest mortality rate among all eating and mental disorders, but I didn’t believe it till I was face to face with the initial complications and then, a terrible crisis. I hope you haven’t and never will face those. I practically begged for my life back and promised, “Never Again.” Now I know that experience is a very bad teacher. I don’t know about you, but for me, Right information at the right time and place is the very best teacher. That’s why I put up this website. For timely and right information.
Sure my quest for a real thin figure was a major cause of my choosing anorexia for a lifestyle. But, there are other…
Causes of Anorexia
- Peer Pressure. I don’t know if you had this. I was fat and daily teased by my school mates, siblings and even total strangers. Consequently, as early as my early teen years, I started skipping meals, or eating to force a purge later. I saw Thin as acceptable and beautiful. Initial Thin-results made me starve more for more thinning.
- Heredity. Some families are bedeviled with extreme eating disorders. One generation lives as heavy bingers, next generation wouldn’t want to live with overweight. They become bulimics (eating heavy and vomiting to avoid weight gain). Later, they make a choice for anorexia, since it seems a cleaner approach than eating and vomiting or purging.
- Emotional Stress. Emotional upset caused by relationship issues, like divorce, breakups, challenges, death, loss of a job, business or property can cause loss of appetite. But this lack of appetite could be stretched to a complete hatred for eating. We all sometimes, feel overwhelmed by challenges. Eating at this time becomes secondary as you could hardly appreciate the nice taste of the food. This loss of appetite could develop into a choice of keeping ones appetite in check. Yes, for the excitement of building a new self-image after the crisis. Unfortunately, you could easily lose this control as you go deeper into this lifestyle, developing deeper fear of gaining weight.
There are other causes of anorexia which you may wish to read about.
Yes, read More Causes Of Anorexia here!
Symptoms of Anorexia
There are many symptoms of anorexia. Like many anorexics, I didn’t experience all at the same time.
- Feeling and seeing self as fat when grossly underweight. My mirror always showed me Fat, instead of the Too Thin others saw.
- Withdrawal from family and friends especially over food eating. I lost some friends by this.
- Amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation), or irregular cycle. Mine wasn’t just irregular, it was painful.
- Frequent health breakdowns
- Easy victims of cold
- The Heart pain I had as a result of anorexia was truly frightening. But I never knew it came because of my anorexic lifestyle.
Anorexia Diagnosis
I lived with this anorexia for a long time without really being ‘caught.’ Reason is because I often acted a lot in secret: from eating in secret to checking weights in secret, to using measuring tapes to measure different parts of my body, and the constant gaze at the mirror that always reflects a Fat me.
Identifying this disorder is further made difficult by the fact that there are no laboratory tests to specifically diagnose it. It is not caused by bacteria or viruses. However, if symptoms are present as in my case, the doctor uses various diagnostic tests to eliminate physical illnesses as possible cause of the acute weight loss. The damages caused by the extreme starvation and weight loss are also evaluated for further attention. I look back and shudder at my gross irresponsibility: abusing my God-given body just in order to fit an unrealistic mold.
Mine didn’t get to this, but sometimes, you could be referred to a psychiatrist, psychologist and or expert healthcare professionals who treat mental illnesses to assess, design and recommend a treatment plan that would suit you.
Anorexia Treatments
Because the effects of anorexia didn’t manifest the initial time I started out on the lifestyle, I already had complications before accepting to seek help. I had a crisis. I couldn’t eat at all, I couldn’t sleep for days and nights, and my heart was racing. Now, the thought of the whole episode sends shivers through my body.
Treatment often involves medical intervention, nutritional and psychological counseling, family’s and friends’ understanding and support. Depending on the severity of the conditions, a victim may be hospitalized.
My own medical intervention was just timely. The use of intravenous fluid as prescribed by the physician was very helpful in my case.
If left untreated for long, anorexia nervosa can result in the following complications.
Complications of Anorexia
- Irregular heart beat and heart pain
- Lowered body temperature
- Damaged organs, especially, heart, kidneys and the brain
- Almost constant headaches
- Drop in blood pressure and pulse
- Constant brain fogginess
- Bone thinning (Osteoporosis)
- Very low productivity at work, school, home or any other place
Generally, anorexia nervosa is better never to be trifled with than to be identified, diagnosed or treated. You could, like me, recover permanently from anorexia. Some people experience relapses, though. But, just like any other habit you choose to break, when I chose to break away from anorexia, the lifestyle didn’t resist my choice. It gave way. Now, I live healthy. I eat healthy and I exercise for health not in order to thin out.
Tell you what? You too can permanently live healthy, with no anorexia at all.
You are most welcome to this site…..
