Anorexia Nervosa: Self-Starvation

6 Pages 1563 Words

ed food intake by pushing the food around on the plate and hiding food in napkins. To dress in layers to hide the distinct weight loss and to avoid social activities where eating is involved are common behavioral symptoms. Behavioral symptoms of the anorexic can go unnoticed by most people. These symptoms are very secretive and oblivious to outsiders because the behavior is not out of the ordinary. Although the behavioral symptoms of the anorexic appear to be ordinary, the sum of the behaviors is dangerous because it leads to physical and psychological symptoms that are life threatening.

Severe symptoms of anorexia are classified as such because they result in devastating physical side effects and death. The dropping of body fat due to self-starvation can cause amenorrhea, an absence of the menstrual cycle. Amenorrhea can put stress on tiny bones that result in breakage if untreated and can interfere with fertility as well as estrogen, the reproductive hormone that protects the body against heart diseases and osteoporosis. The absence of the men...