Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia, scientifically referred to as Anorexia Nervosa, is a psychiatric condition with physical manifestations. Simply put, a person with anorexia nervosa is obsessed with the idea of remaining slim, and petrified about putting on weight.

That fact, of remaining slim, becomes the single obsessive focal point for anorexics, as people with anorexia nervosa are usually called.

Things can reach an extent that even when they are thin, they feel that they are actually fat, and continue to exercise and diet rigorously to ‘get rid of the fat’. The result is that most anorexics remain painfully thin.

This is not too good for the health too, as it upsets the natural balance of the body, and can cause serious damage to internal organs. We will discuss these possibilities in detail later in this article.

A psychological disorder

Anorexia is not just about not feeling like eating too much or a mere conscious effort at staying slim. It has devastating consequences too. It is the psychiatric disorder with the highest mortality rate – nearly 10% of all anorexics die due to causes related to starvation.

The incidence of suicide is also high among anorexics, in fact, higher than the suicide rate among the non-anorexics. That isn’t all. Studies have shown that the numbers responding to treatment are not always encouraging.

Next, let us try and understand why people suffer from anorexia.

Causes of Anorexia >>