What is Anorexia?

It can strike fear into the heart of any parent to see your child wasting away before your very eyes because they just won't eat. It's not a matter of the child being a picky eater. It's that they look at food as being the enemy. Unlike most parents who reprimand their children for eating too much junk food, a parent with a child who has an eating disorder ends up praying that their child will eat enough morsels of food to keep their body alive.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is characterized by a person with extreme low body weight and a distorted psychological body image of themselves. People who have anorexia and bulimia are terrified to eat food for fear they will gain weight. Many times, they get to the point where they'd choose death over getting fat.

You could argue that most teenagers in America have a poor body image and are afraid to eat because they won't look good in a pair of jeans or their bathing suit at the beach. These teenagers don't have anorexia nervosa. That is just normal adolescence.

But when a teenager or an adult looks at their body in the mirror and sees a fat person when the rest of the world sees skin and bones reminiscent of a skeleton, there's a problem.

Anorexia is more than just a problem with not eating food. In fact it goes much deeper, affecting a person's psychological outlook of themselves. Where a person who overeats might think about food more than the average person, a person with anorexia also thinks about food but focuses their thoughts on how they can limit it, hide it, even though they know they need food to stay alive.

Psychologists believe that people with anorexia use food as a way of controlling their life, to ease tension, to deal with anger they may feel, or as a way of coping with anxiety that is plaguing them. It really has nothing to do with the food itself. Starvation and excessive-compulsive tendencies to lose weight and exercise are just symptoms of a bigger problem.

Ninety-five percent of all people with anorexia nervosa are female. Because the majority of people with anorexia nervosa are female, it is thought of as a girl's disease. But boys and men can also be affected by anorexia. In fact, the number of young boys who are becoming anorexic is rising.

Whether male or female, all people who have anorexia exhibit the same behavior and characteristics.

 Low body weight for her or his height and body frame

 Unable to keep a normal body weight

 Exhibits an intense fear of gaining weight even when the body is already too thin

 Holds on to the belief that she or he is fat even when very thin or skeletal

 Misses three menstrual periods in a row (for girls or women who have already started to have their menstrual cycle)

If you fear that someone you love is suffering from anorexia nervosa, it is imperative that you get them to see a doctor immediately so they can begin treatment. Even if it turns out that they are not anorexic, it is better to be safe than sorry.

The earlier a person is diagnosed and begins treatment, the better their chances are to prevent long-term medical damage to their body.