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How to Tell If It's Anorexia
Tabloids detailing the lives of celebrities--as well as many of the unpublished stories about those in our communities, our families, and even ourselves--continue to highlight the persistent and dangerous prevalence of anorexia.
Individuals--girls, women, boys, and men--suffering with anorexia have an intense fear of being overweight and develop extreme and dangerously unhealthy eating habits in their attempts to be thin. The basic symptoms of anorexia include:
* Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height;
* Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight;
* Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight;
* Infrequent or absent menstrual periods (in females who have reached puberty);
People with this disorder see themselves as overweight even though they are dangerously thin. The process of eating (and not eating) becomes an obsession. Unusual eating habits develop, such as avoiding food and meals, picking out a few foods and eating these in small quantities, or carefully weighing and portioning food.
People with anorexia may repeatedly check their body weight, and many engage in other techniques to control their weight, such as intense and compulsive exercise, or purging by means of vomiting and abuse of laxatives, enemas, and diuretics. Girls with anorexia often experience a delayed onset of their first menstrual period.
The course and outcome of anorexia nervosa vary across individuals: some fully recover after a single episode; some have a fluctuating pattern of weight gain and relapse; and others experience a chronically deteriorating course of illness over many years. Anorexia can cause a wide range of medical crises, including serious heart conditions and kidney failure which may lead to death. The mortality rate among girls and women with anorexia is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population.
Treatment of anorexia calls for a specific program that involves three main phases:
(1) restoring weight lost to severe dieting and purging;
(2) treating psychological disturbances such as distortion of body image, low self-esteem, and interpersonal conflicts; and
(3) achieving long-term remission and rehabilitation, or full recovery.
Early diagnosis and treatment increases the treatment success rate. Use of psychotropic medication in people with anorexia should be considered only after weight gain has been established. Certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to be helpful for weight maintenance and for resolving mood and anxiety symptoms associated with anorexia.
The acute management of severe weight loss is usually provided in an inpatient hospital setting, where feeding plans address the person's medical and nutritional needs. In some cases, intravenous feeding is recommended. Once malnutrition has been corrected and weight gain has begun, psychotherapy (often cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal psychotherapy) can help people with anorexia overcome low self-esteem and address distorted thought and behavior patterns.
Reference: National Institute of Mental Health
Link: Find a Therapist
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