• Anorexia Bulimia
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Anorexia Treatment Program
• Binge Eating Disorder
  Treatment »
  • Binge Eating Treatment
• Bulimia Nervosa »
  • Bulimia Help
• Bulimia Treatment Program
• Compulsive Overeating »
  • Compulsive Over Eating Disorder
  • Compulsive Overeating Help
  • Compulsive Overeating Programs
  • Compulsive Overeating Treatment
• Drug Addiction »
  • Addiction Help
  • Drug Addiction and Eating Disorders
  • Drug Addiction Help
  • Prescription Drug Addiction
  • What is Drug Addiction?
• Dual Diagnosis
• Eating Disorder Center »
  • Eating Disorder Treatment Center
• Eating Disorder Treatment »
  • Eating Disorder Addiction
  • Family Eating Disorder Program
• Food Addiction
• Gastric Bypass
• Lap Band Treatment
• Obesity Treatment »
  • Weight Loss Program
•  

Anorexia Nervosa Treatments

Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms, Signs and Treatments

Anorexia Nervosa – The Background

In a society where thinness is equated with success and happiness, nearly every American woman, man, and child has suffered at one time or another from dieting issues of weight, body shape, and self-image. As a result, many people have disordered eating.

Disordered eating refers to troublesome eating behaviors that include skipping meals, crash dieting, fasting for short or long periods of time, bingeing, and purging. The physical, mental, and psychological effects of disordered eating vary depending upon the duration and severity of the negative eating pattern. It can mean not eating enough and it can also mean eating too much and ignoring natural feelings of fullness.

Anorexia nervosa is more than disordered eating. Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder in which preoccupation with dieting and thinness leads to excessive weight loss. People with anorexia are intensely fearful of being fat and gaining weight. This obsession with food and weight is usually a manifestation of underlying psychological problems. Individuals with anorexia nervosa symptoms may not admit that their weight loss or restrictive eating are problems until it is too late and medical complications start to appear.

Who Develops Anorexia Nervosa?

While anorexia nervosa can affect men and women of all ages, it is most prominent in adolescent girls. In fact, research has shown that as many as 1% of teenage girls develop anorexia. Unfortunately, teenage boys are also developing anorexia in greater and greater numbers.

Anorexia in Girls

Adolescent girls can be particularly sensitive to media images that portray women as extremely, often dangerously, thin. Thin celebrities and models are often depicted as beautiful and successful; the type of women that young girls want to emulate.

During puberty, girls’ bodies change dramatically. Their percentage of body fat increases almost 100% during this time, normally depositing on the stomach, hips and legs. Girls may view this type of healthy, normal body development as being "overweight," causing them to use dieting to control their weight. Unfortunately some girls become obsessed with losing weight and mastering control of their bodies. Eventually their “diet” turns into an eating disorder.

Anorexia in Boys

While boys are less likely than girls to consider themselves overweight, they may also want to control their bodies. Males with anorexia often started to diet as a means to an end – to avoid being teased or to improve athletic performance. As with girls, the dieting develops into a dangerous eating disorder.

Youth with anorexia often:

• Come from health and weight-conscious families
• Are Caucasian (although increasing cases of anorexia are being seen in minorities)
• Have an upper or middle economic background
• Have a goal-oriented family or personality type

Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms

Anorexia Nervosa has four primary symptoms:

• Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height
• Intense fear of weight gain or being "fat" even though underweight.
• Disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight.
• Loss of menstrual periods in girls and women.

Eating disorder experts have found that prompt ,intensive anorexia disorder treatments significantly improve the chances of recovery from the condition. Therefore, it is vital to be aware of some anorexia nervosa warning signs.

Anorexia Nervosa Warning Signs:

• Significant weight loss resulting in a body weight at least 15% below the normal healthy weight for the person’s height and age.
• Preoccupation with dieting, weight, calories, food and fat grams.
• Refusal to eat certain foods, progressing to restrictions against whole categories of food (e.g. no sugar, no carbohydrates etc.).
• Denial of hunger.
• Development of food rituals (e.g. chewing excessively, cutting foods into small pieces before eating, rearranging food on the plate, eating foods in specific orders).
• Frequent comments about feeling "fat" or overweight despite dramatic weight loss.
• Great anxiety about gaining weight or being "fat."
• Consistent excuses to avoid mealtimes or any situations involving food.
• Strict, excessive exercise regimen--despite fatigue, illness, weather, or injury. The person feels they must “burn off” any calories consumed.
• Withdrawal from usual friends, hobbies and activities.
• In general, behaviors and attitudes indicating that weight loss, dieting, and control of food are becoming primary concerns.

Anorexia Nervosa – The Health Consequences

Anorexia nervosa starves the body of the essential nutrients it needs to function. In an effort to conserve energy and the small amount of nutrients available, the body’s processes will slow down. This “slowing down” can have grave medical consequences, including:

• An abnormally low blood pressure and slow heart rate caused by weakening heart muscles. This increases the risk for heart failure.
• Muscle loss and weakness.
• Osteoporosis. Reduced bone density causing dry and brittle bones prone to breakage.
• Severe dehydration, which may result in kidney failure.
• Fatigue, fainting spells and weakness.
• Lanugos, a downy layer of hair that appears all over the body including the face in an effort to keep the body warm.
• Dry skin and hair.
• Hair loss.

Avoid the health consequences of anorexia nervosa. Treatments are readily available that can help you recover.