Anorexia and its causes

What is anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa is a type of eating disorder. Eating disorders refer to a group of illnesses where someone has a distorted view of body shape and weight and they have extreme disturbances in their eating behaviour. People who have eating disorders generally have a very low sense of self-esteem and poor sense of self. Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Compulsive Overeating, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) and Binge Eating Disorder are all types of eating disorders. Anorexia is characterised by:

Extreme concerns about weight
Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat
Deliberate maintenance of a very low body weight
Often absent menstrual cycles

People with anorexia have an intense desire to for weight loss and be thin (often unhealthily so). Although people with anorexia are usually underweight, they generally believe that they are "fat." Food, weight and appearance often become the main focus for someone who has anorexia. Concentrating on food and weight becomes a (conscious or unconscious) way of dealing with or managing intense emotions or emotional difficulties that they are experiencing.

Both males and females, from any social or economic background, can suffer from anorexia. Although the disorder usually begins in the late teenage years it can manifest at any age, and its onset is often associated with a stressful event or a period of dieting. Some of the common signs of anorexia may be:

Being afraid of putting on weight
Calorie counting and/or obsessively avoiding of high fat food
Marked weight loss
Not wanting to eat
Being hungry but not wanting to admit it
Over exercising
Obsessive weighing