Anorexia

6 Pages 1578 Words

INTRODUCTION
Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness in which a person has an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of their weight and body shape. People with this illness believe themselves to be fat even when their weight is so low that their health is in danger. A person with anorexia nervosa severely restricts food intake and usually becomes extremely thin. This eating disorder rarely occurs in life after 25 years of age, because it mainly affects teenage girls. In Australia children as young as 8, and in one instance a 4-year-old has been affected by the eating disorder. (Health & Medicine Week) The population of men with anorexia is growing. Anorexia is a very serious disorder that becomes a physical, mental, and a social problem.
Anorexic people can only see themselves as overweight, even though they are skinny. Most anorexics have an intense fear of weight gain and are never satisfied with their weight loss. (Hales) Anorexia often starts as a diet, and later becomes more and more severe in which it might lead to death. Anorexia may cause serious mood swings, starving, breaking down of muscles and critical body organs. Many are so focused on outward appearance that they have little awareness of internal sensations such as hunger and fullness. At meals, they may cut their food into tiny pieces, eat very slowly, and dispose of food secretly. About 30 percent of people with anorexia nervosa also develop bulimia nervosa. (Netdoctor) This is a type of eating disorder in which individuals engage in episodes of binge eating, or consuming large amounts of food in a short period, and then purging the food from their bodies by self-induced vomiting or abuse of laxatives. The disorder is more common in industrialized countries where thinness is a positive cultural trait.

BREADTH
People with anorexia usually deny that they have a problem. They do not see low weight as a health risk or symptom of a psychological pr...