What Is Anorexia Nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa is a complicated eating disorder related to excessive weight loss because a person starves her/himself. It is characterized by an obsessive idea to limit food consumption since one perceives her/himself as overweighed, even when severely underweight. Because of biological, psychological and social factors, the symptoms of the disease have significantly increased among the teenagers and have developed in pre-teen girls and boys.

What Causes Anorexia Nervosa?

There are various hypotheses concerning the appearance and development of such a complex health condition in a premature and mature age. Lots of social, psychological and biological factors contribute to the promotion of Anorexia. Fashion, most of the teens try to catch up with, is one of the powerful forces, which has a traumatic influence on person’s self-perception. The youngsters start being not satisfied with their body condition and try to lose their weight. Another reason of Anorexia may be deeply rooted in person’s previous experience: bullying, humiliation, sexual harassment, troubled family relationships, etc. All these factors have a psychological impact on a person, making his/her self-esteem lower. The attempts to maintain control over the body and becoming thinner help such people to get a deceptive feeling of confidence, which often results in a difficult to treat disease – Anorexia Nervosa.

Alarming Signs of the Disorder

Suffering from Anorexia involves a wide range of alarming signs, which should call one for action to prevent the disastrous consequences. People suffering from Anorexia are obsessed with a food subdivision into “bad” and “good,” making the lists of “safe” foods (low in fat and calories) and constant complains of being too fat, even if, in fact, they are not. They refuse to consume food and find various excuses to skip the meal. In case, you start to notice that a person denies that he/she is hungry after not eating for a while, keeps dieting or has secretive food rituals, you have a deal with Anorexia disease.

A conscious refusal to eat is considered to be the first stage of the development of the disorder. The second phase of Anorexia starts to distort the person’s look severely. An abnormal thin appearance, protruding bones , brittle nails, loss of hair, intolerance of cold, dehydration, dry skin, constipation, irregular menstruation or its absence are the symptoms of Anorexia, which are obvious for other normal people. Other behavioral symptoms include unreasonable irritation, depressed spirits, constant fear of gaining weight, explicit refusals to eat, and the feeling of fatigue.
Anorexia has a destructive effect not only on a person's body, but also his/her life in general.

As soon as you start to notice some deviations or changes in your behavior or perception or behavior of a person, who suffers from Anorexia, immediately turn for help to specialists. Don’t let the obsessive idea to be thin ruin your existence!