What Is Anorexia Nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder which for me was characterized by the person’s low weight, fear of gaining weight, and a strong desire to be thin. The disease gives the person an idea of a distorted image of themselves. It is one that results in food restriction, so in effect you become malnourished and underfed but it does not mean that some one who is anorexic will be stick thin. They are many forms of Anorexia. Many people with anorexia see themselves as overweight even though they are in fact underweight, just as I did and still do but this proves that this is a mental illness which affects the physical body, one way or another.

Having said that Anorexia Nervosa is a mental health illness not a physical one. The physical health is affected through the mental health. The levels of this delibitating disease can vary, hence it can have different outcomes.

face trapped I use to look at the mirror and see an overweight person looking back. I never saw anything else but a fat person and inside I felt trapped by those feelings.

Now, they measure one’s BMI to work out if you have an ideal weight but back in the early 1980s we were weighed and if bone could be seen, then they knew you were underweight. I was a size UK six and even then, my skirts needed a belt. So now BMI is a way to evaluate whether a person is of normal weight, overweight or underweight. Healthy adults usually fall between 18.5 and 24.9 on the BMI chart. A BMI below 18.5 signals a problem which may exist, while a BMI below 17.5, especially in adults, is usually present in people suffering from anorexia nervosa. At my worst I weighed around six stones which is around thirty eight kilograms. I was seriously ill.

The exact causes of anorexia nervosa are unknown. However, the condition sometimes runs in families; young women with a parent or sibling with an eating disorder are likelier to develop one themselves. Then there are psychological, environmental, and social factors that may contribute to the development of anorexia. I would say from my past experience that it was a mixture of all those factors mentioned above.

chains and shakled by emotions.jpg In men or women with an abnormal preoccupation with food, several other behaviours should also be recognized as clear warning signs of anorexia nervosa, or possibly other eating or body image disorders: excessive exercise. flat mood, or lack of emotion. repeated weighing of themselves. I had an obsession of weighing myself to the point that I could no longer get on a weighing scale and it was then that I began to be severely depressed. I felt consumed by pure darkness and negativity, I felt dirty and no matter how much I showered or bathed, I still felt dirty.

Are Anorexic Always Visible?

NO, they are not and this is the danger that form as they can be overweight people who are anorexic. They would binge eat and then starve themselves for a week. The result can be hidden from friends, family and the public. The danger would be because they would go unoticed and yet just as potentially dangerous and leading to many diseases such as osteoporosis.

What are Anorexic Treatments?

The treatment for anorexia nervosa usually involves a combination of psychological therapy and supervised weight gain. It’s important for a person with anorexia to start treatment as early as possible to reduce the risk of serious complications of anorexia, particularly if they’ve already lost a lot of weight. The doctors had the nurse weigh me on a monthly basis, it seemed endless. I had an eight week course of group therapy which did nothing to boost our confidence nor help my situation but that was due to them not knowing much about the disease at the time. Now, their has been extensive research and proven methods to help, so don’t ignore group therapy, it could be your way out back to learning how to eat healthy and live with yourself in a positive manner.

Anorexia nervosa takes an enormous toll on the body and it did with mine. I had numerous complications, pleurisy, water and kidney infections. It was near end stage of the disease. But that’s not all. It has the highest death rate of any mental illness. Between 5% and 20% of people who develop the disease eventually die from it and it is not just a female gender disease, I witnessed a male acquaintance with this disease, who did unfortunately die.

I had to ‘Educate Myself’, especially when I got pregnant. All I had ever wanted was to have children and I wasn’t about to ruin it for myself but it was a long journey back to any kind of normality. Still now, if someone tells me I look fat, whether I do or not, I am in there, watching what I eat.

Learn all you can about anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Awareness will help you avoid judgmental or mistaken attitudes about food, weight, body shape and eating disorders.
Avoid categorizing foods as “good/safe” vs. “bad/dangerous.”

Your treatment plan may include: group therapy

Individual or group therapy. Therapy can help you explore the issues underlying your eating disorder, improve your self-esteem, and learn healthy ways of responding to stress and emotional pain. …
Family therapy. …
Nutritional counselling. …
Medical monitoring. …
Residential treatment.
Knowing how to eat a healthy dite

Don’t suffer on your own, go out there and seek help. Don’t just Google it because it is too dangerous a disease to combat this on your own. Even, if it is me. If I can be of any support to you or comfort for you, then I would be honoured.

References

Address For you to research further and attain help

They are many more countries with available help please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need too, don’t suffer alone. Either Private message me on Facebook Page or through here by commenting or E-Mail me at gemmadupont@mail.com. Hope you have enjoyed this topic and hope it helps. Please leave a comment.

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What Is Anorexia Nervosa?

Are Anorexic Always Visible?

What are Anorexic Treatments?

Don’t suffer on your own, go out there and seek help. Don’t just Google it because it is too dangerous a disease to combat this on your own. Even, if it is me. If I can be of any support to you or comfort for you, then I would be honoured.

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