Eating Disorders - Dipsy's World

Anorexia

General Features

Anorexia Nervosa is an illness that mainly affects adolescent girls.It usually starts in the mid-teens and affects 1 fifteen-year-old girl in every 150. Occasionally it may start earlier, in childhood, or later, in the 30s or 40s. Girls from professional or managerial families are perhaps more likely to develop it than girls from working-class backgrounds. Other members of the family have often had similar symptoms.
Although technically the word anorexia means 'loss of appetite', sufferers with anorexia actually have a normal appetite, but drastically control their eating. The most common features are loss of weight and a change in behaviour. The weight loss may become severe and life threatening. The personality changes will be those of increasing seriousness and introversion and an increasing tendency to become obsessional. She will usually begin to lose contact with her friends. She will regress and appear to lose confidence. She may become less assertive, less argumentative and more dependant. Moreover, in spite of her own attitude to eating, she may take an avid interest in buying food and cooking for others.

Causes of Anorexia Nervosa

There are many different ideas about the causes of these anorexia and it is important to stress that not all will apply to every sufferer.The weight loss that triggers the illness is often the result of a very normal weight losing diet, of the sort that is typical of many normal adolescent girls, but may be the result of unhappiness or illness. The families of anorexics are mainly high achieving with high expectations of their children. There is frequently a failure to express emotional issues. There are often a lot of pressures such as exams when the illness starts and stresses arising from difficulties in relationships with friends are also common.
It has to be said that dieting can be a very satisfying activity. Most of us know the feeling of achievement when the scales tell us that we have lost a couple of pounds! It is good to feel that we have managed to control ourselves in a clear, visible way. It can be especially satisfying for girls in their teens who may often feel that weight is the only part of their lives over which they do have any control. So it is easy to see how dieting can become an end in itself, rather than just a way of losing weight.
In societies which do not value thinness, eating disorders are very rare. Television, newspapers and magazines are full of pictures of slim, attractive young men and women. Generally in Western culture 'thin is beautiful'. It is easy to see how this social pressure might cause some young women to diet excessively and eventually to develop anorexia.

Weight Loss and Risk

The human body copes with periods of semi-starvation and weight loss fairly well. Subsequent return to normal weight and eating pattern is usually accompanied by the restoration of physical normality including the ability to have children. Rapid weight loss, the use of vomiting or laxatives to promote weight loss, and the loss of more than 35% of normal body weight are all associated with danger. Prolonged weight loss, of several years, during adolescence may eventually lead to permanent failure of normal growth and an increased risk of osteoporosis in later life.
Girls with anorexia usually stop having menstrual periods. People with anorexia have dry skin and thinning hair on the head. They may have a growth of fine hair all over their body. They may feel cold all the time, and they may get sick often. People with anorexia are often in a bad mood. They have a hard time concentrating and are always thinking about food. Untreated anorexics have an increased risk of developing Bulimia Nervosa.
The starvation experienced by persons with anorexia nervosa can cause damage to vital organs such as the heart and brain. Breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates drop, and those suffering from this illness may experience irregular heart rhythms or heart failure. Nutritional deprivation causes calcium loss from bones, which become brittle and prone to breakage. In the worst-case scenario, people with anorexia can starve themselves to death