Anorexia Nervosa
A serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation, excessive weight loss and loss of menstruation due to low body-fat content.
Symptoms
- Resistance to maintain body weight at a minimally normal weight for age and height.
- Intense fear of weight gain or being "fat," even though underweight.
- Distorted body image; denial of low body weight; and an unusual emphasis on body weight, shape or size.
- Loss of menstruation in girls and women post-puberty.
warning Signs of Anorexia Nervosa
- Dramatic weight loss.
- Preoccupation with weight, food, calories and dieting.
- Refusal to eat certain foods, progressing to restrictions against whole categories of food, such as no carbohydrates and/or fat grams.
- Frequent comments about feeling "fat" or overweight despite weight loss.
- Anxiety about gaining weight or being "fat."
- Denial of hunger.
- Development of food rituals, such as eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing or obsessively rearranging food on a plate.
- Avoidance of mealtimes or situations involving food.
- Excessive, rigid exercise regimen – despite weather, fatigue, illness or injury to burn calories.
- Withdrawal from friends and activities.
- Weight loss, dieting and control of food seem of primary concern.
Health Consequences of Anorexia Nervosa
- Abnormally slow heart rate and low blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart failure.
- Bone density loss, which results in dry, brittle bones and eventually osteoporosis.
- Muscle loss and weakness.
- Severe dehydration, which can result in kidney failure.
- Fainting, fatigue and overall weakness.
- Dry hair and skin, hair loss.
- Growth of a downy layer of hair (lanugo) all over the body, including the face, in an effort to keep the body warm.
About Anorexia Nervosa
- Typically appears in early to mid-adolescence.
- One of the most common psychiatric diagnoses in young women.
- Approximately 90-95 percent of sufferers are girls and women.
- Up to 1 percent of American women suffer from it.
- Has the highest death rate of any mental health condition.
- Five to 10 percent of sufferers die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20 percent will be dead after 20 years; and 30-40 percent fully recover.
Description adapted from the