What is Anorexia?

Anorexia nervosa is a complex eating disorder with three key features:

• refusal to maintain a healthy body weight
• an intense fear of gaining weight
• a distorted body image

Because of the dread of becoming fat or disgusted with how the body looks, eating and mealtimes may be very stressful. And yet, what the patient can and can’t eat is practically all they can think about.

Thoughts about dieting, food, and their body may take up most of their day—leaving little time for friends, family, and other activities you used to enjoy. Life becomes a relentless pursuit of thinness and going to extremes to lose weight.

But no matter how skinny the patient become, it’s never enough.

While people with anorexia often deny having a problem, the truth is that anorexia is a serious and potentially deadly eating disorder. Fortunately, recovery is possible. With proper treatment and support, you or someone you care about can break anorexia’s self-destructive pattern and regain health and self-confidence.

Types of Anorexia

There are two types of anorexia. In the restricting type of anorexia, weight loss is achieved by restricting calories (following drastic diets, fasting, and exercising to excess). In the purging type of anorexia, weight loss is achieved by vomiting or using laxatives and diuretics.

It’s important to understand that anorexia meets a need in your life. For example, you may feel powerless in many parts of your life, but you can control what you eat. Saying “no” to food, getting the best of hunger, and controlling the number on the scale may make you feel strong and successful—at least for a short while. You may even come to enjoy your hunger pangs as reminders of a “special talent” that most people can’t achieve.

Anorexia may also be a way of distracting yourself from difficult emotions. When you spend most of your time thinking about food, dieting, and weight loss, you don’t have to face other problems in your life or deal with complicated emotions.

Unfortunately, any boost you get from starving yourself or shedding pounds is extremely short-lived. Dieting and weight loss can’t repair the negative self-image at the heart of anorexia. The only way to do that is to identify the emotional need that self-starvation fulfills and find other ways to meet it.

The Truth Story Of A Patient's Life With Anorexia

                       

The video depicts about a young age girl with Anorexia. She is 15 years old and she has the Anorexia for almost one year. In her video, she said that disease almost ruined her relationship with her boyfriend even though is her life. Now she is doing her best and fighting with this disease. She encourages all of the people who has the same disease to come out from the difficult time bravely. Let’s bless for everyone who is fighting with the disease together.