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Anorexia is a disease characterized by someone who literally starves himself or herself. Most of these people are middle class teenage women. Others include athletes (men and women) that must maintain a certain body weight such as wrestlers and gymnast. This disease may be deadly and it is important to act on it as soon as possible.
Anorexics often have the fear of becoming fat and often lose up to 35% of their body weight. They achieve this weight loss through vigorously exercising, self-induced vomiting. Laxative use, and refusing to eat.
When trying to determine if someone you care about has anorexia, look for the following:
Does she insist she is fat although it is obvious that she is very thin?
Does she refuse to eat and insist she is not hungry?
Does she have an abnormal fear of becoming fat?
Do she exercise excessively?
Has her menstrual periods stopped?
Does she get sick after eating a normal size meal?
Also, look for these physical signs:
Dry skin
Cracked Lips
Loss of hair
Constipation
Weak brittle fingernails
Appears bloated
Constantly cold
Hairy Skin
Cannot sleep
Dry-Brittle hair
Dry scaly looking skin
Contrary to popular belief, Anorexia is not only about food. It is often about situations in her life she can not control. Stress concerning her life such as her social, family, and school life may trigger anorexia.
What can you do? Confront her about your concerns as soon as you suspect. If you wait until she has lost too much weight, it may be too late. Enlist the support of friends and family. Contact a medical professional about your concerns as well. You can find someone from your local mental illness association or contact a help line. It is important for anorexia to get medical help before it is too late.
After treatment, anorexics often develop bulimia. Bulimia is not as dangerous as anorexia and is hard to detect because they often have normal body weight, but it is still unhealthy. Contact your health care provider for signs of bulimia.
Be prepared, anorexics often deny that they have a problem because the don't feel there is a problem. Be persistent, patient, and supportive. If she obtains help as soon as possible, a full recovery is possible.
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