Anorexia Tips.......................................

Anorexia has been surrounded with misconceptions. The eating disorder is subjected to poor understanding. It leads people to form biases and judgment.  Here are top 10 common myths about anorexia nervosa.

Myth 1

Anorexia is used to get attention.

Fact: People do not develop anorexia as a desperate means to seek attention. It is considered to be maladaptive but anorexia can be a person’s way to cope with something pain in his or her life.

Myth 2

Vanity causes anorexia. When a person suffering from anorexia says, “I feel fat” then it is said to get compliments.

Fact: Anorexia causes people to experience a distorted body image. It is one of the symptoms of the eating disorder. The way a person with anorexia view his or her body is different from the way we see them. They may lose weight but they still continue to think they look fat. Their appearance can be described as looking in a “fun-house mirror”. IT is certainly not an accurate reflection of their real body shape and weight.

Myth 3

People willfully choose to have anorexia not by chance.

All eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, are forms of psychiatric disorder. It can be a coping mechanism for some people who can’t accept their body shape. Thus, it is not a decision made out of nothing. It is a cry for help for acceptance.

Myth 4

All eating disorders are only about food and weight.

Eating disorders and anorexia are not primarily a problem brought about food. In fact, anorexia in itself is only a manifestation of underlying issues in symptoms such as food restriction, fasting, and purging.

Myth 5

Anorexia affects the rich, young and white girls.

Anorexia is not selective on who should suffer from it. A person who is anorexic can be from any race, ethnicity, or economic background. It is not based on gender as well. Both men and women of different ages are known to be sufferers of anorexia.

Myth 6

People with anorexia do not engage in binge eating.

The obsession of thinness results to eating disorders such as anorexia. In order to accomplish this, some people who suffer from the eating disorder may sometimes binge eat. Episodes of binge eating are often followed by an attempt to purge what has been consumed with the use of laxatives, vomiting and excessive exercise.

Myth 7

It is impossible for a person to have anorexia when he or she eats three meals daily.

This myth is certainly not true. Fasting is not the only way for a person to develop anorexia. There are instances when people who are anorexic may pretend to eat during meal times. They can also limit the types of food eaten or the amount of food eaten. A person may eat a normal amount of food for several days but then continue with severe calorie restriction.

Myth 8

You cannot die from anorexia for as long as you exercise to maintain a strong heart and a strong body.

This belief is an attempt for people who have anorexia to convince themselves that their disorder is only normal and acceptable. Supplemental vitamins are often taken to protect their bodies from the consequences of malnutrition. They believe that they can avoid the health risks associated with anorexia. In the end, the health complications of starvation and malnutrition are unavoidable and will inevitably become real. The longer anorexia is ignored by the sufferer himself or herself, the greater the extent of damage done to the body.

Myth 9

Anorexia takes a lot of control.

It is vital to clarify this misconception about anorexia and how it is all about control. A person with anorexia is practically fighting against a battle between the well-controlled food intake versus an uncontrollable fear of gaining weight. A person with anorexia feels he or she is unable to make a difference or influence on certain life events and their outcome. He or she then attempts to control food intake as a means of having familiarity and mastery over an area of life. There are some patients that turn to anorexia as a complex distraction from other painful and unmanageable events and feelings. A recovery process is to adopt other healthier ways to cope with life and its challenges.

Myth 10

Anorexia is only a phase. People suffering from anorexia will soon get tired and decide to eat normally.

Anorexia just like any other eating disorders. It is definitely not normal and can become fatal in the long run. It needs immediate attention from loved ones. Most often than not, it is difficult to determine if your loved one is suffering from anorexia. Most people with eating disorders are good in hiding their condition thus often denies that they are suffering and need help

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Take a look on how anorexia affects loved ones. Anorexia is a mental battle best understood by those who experienced having a eating disorder themselves. Ali battles anorexia for three years. Look at how she feels on anorexia and her life story.

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Anorexia leaves significant bone loss that is not reversed by any conventional treatment.

A study of 130 anorexic women in 20s, found that 92% had ostopenia or bone loss in the spine or hips. Almost 38% of the women suffered bone loss that is serious enough to be categorized as osteoporosis.

A research team in Massachusetts General Hospital found out that hormone supplements such as calcium or vitamin D did not improve bone density of anorexic patients.

Lead researcher, Anne Klibanski, director of the hospital’s neuroendocrine unit shared: “Some of these young women are experiencing bone loss comparable to that of women many decades older, despite estrogen therapy.”

The severity of osteoporosis among women who suffers form anorexia puts more emphasis of the importance of screening.

Irreversible and permanent damage

Signs of bone loss as a direct complication of anorexia nervosa could be permanent.

The mentioned study yielded the strongest predictor of bone loss is shown by the woman’s height, with those weighing least showing greater levels of osteopenia.

One quarter of the participant is undergoing estrogen therapy while more than half had been prescribed estrogen.

Another expected outcome of weight loss is amenorrhea or absence of menstrual period. The absence of menstrual period was reversed in some of the women taking estrogen but the research team found that the hormone had no positive effect on bone density.

Vitamin D supplements with calcium as a treatment had no effect to help counteract the effect of anorexia on the bones.

The study concluded that regaining and maintaining a healthy weight is the key to prevent or reduce bone loss.

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Watch this disturbing video on how an anorexic sees food.

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Isabelle Caro is the face behind a poignant Italian ad campaign that depicts anorexia in its truest form, one that has shocked the fashion industry.

(Courtesy of CBSNews.com)

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Depression is a disorder that can affect anybody at any time in life. It is most often associated as one of the symptoms people with anorexia nervosa has to face and deal with. The symptoms of depression can manifest at the same time when you have been sick for several weeks.

Are eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa related to depression? The answer is a big yes! Depression and anorexia come together hand in hand. Depression can trigger your eating disorder in the first place or you may have gone into depression resulting from the effects that anorexia has had on you.

The person suffering from anorexia can be suffering from depression at the same time. He or she usually feels symptoms of worthlessness, hopelessness and self hatred.  Depression and anorexia robs a person of happiness and self worth and can easily wreak chaos on innocent lives.

A loss of a loved one can trigger a major emotional crisis. When a death takes place, you may experience a wide range of emotions. Many people who suffers from depression report feeling an initial stage of numbness when the realization of death sets in.

You may experience some emotions including:
Denial
Disbelief
Confusion
Shock
Sadness
Yearning
Anger
Humiliation
Despair
Guilt

The forms of depression

Depression is known to be of three different forms, normal, mild, and severe.

Normal depression - This is a natural reaction to the loss of a loved one. It caused sadness, lethargy, and in some serious cases is grief to the point of loss of appetite, insomnia, anger, obsessive thought about the loved one who passed away. The difference of a normal depression from other forms is that most people eventually recover and resume to their typical moods after encountering normal depression. When the mood of the person do not lift and instead lingers, then mild depression sets in.

Mild depression - When a person become chronically depressed, holds low self esteem, and has some symptoms of severe depression, then they are considered to have mild depression. A person with mild depression can still function in daily living. It is hard, however, for them to beat “the blues” Often, the mildly depressed person has nothing to do to be accountable for their altered mood. A person progresses to mild depression when his or her moods do not lift and instead continues.

Severe depression - When a person has a severe depression, he or she feels utterly hopeless and feels such great sorrow resulting to lost interest in life. It causes the person to be incapable to rouse out of bed. The more you try to encourage the severely depressed person to do activities, the person feels anxious, irritable, agitated, and chronic indecisiveness. Similar to mild depression, severe depression often does not sink in after a traumatic event or the loss of a loved one. Intense feelings of grief, guilt, and unworthiness are experienced just the same like the other forms of depression. Untreated depression has an estimated 25% depressed persons try to kill themselves after 5 years of suffering from the chronic mood disorder.

What triggers depression to happen?

The question on finding out which triggered what ends up similar to a game whether egg or chicken comes first. The most important thing is to determine the main cause that triggers the depression currently.

The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness from anorexia can easily aggravate somebody’s moods. The person suffering from an eating disorder feels helpless like spiraling out of control, while desperately searching for control or starvation or purging. These people equate self worthiness to losing enough weight as their ultimate goal.

Approach in treatments

It is a sad reality that we are living in a “pill society” where therapists tend to treat depression alone with drug therapy instead of a more psychological basis. Just like other disorders, depression must be treated along with the eating disorder. Often depression treatment includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that identifies the ten forms of distorted thinking found in depression. Apart from CBT, drug intervention consisting of anti-depressants are used. It includes the famous Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. It is known that a person generally progress well when placed under a medical therapy but depression resurfaces and relapse into old thinking patterns once drugs are discontinued. A very promising result form studies show that depressed people when treated along with CBT are weened off from anti depressants without many problems. The success is attributed to better rationalization techniques along with the use of drugs as a “booster” but not the main part of the treatment. In the end, the person undergoing treatment will learn how to rationalize and use logic to rise above the problems thus no longer needing anti depressants.

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Society dictates the ideal of beauty which often pushes women, and even men, to fall into the dangerous trap known as eating disorders. A culture of muscularity has spurred eating problems among men who face a lingering stigma about suffering a “woman’s disorder“.

Anorexia nervosa has been investigated within the female population. It is primarily because of the apparent prevalence of eating disorders in women. However, on a closer inspection, gender distributions of eating disorders show about 10 percent of people with anorexia are men.

Evidence suggests that the gender bias of clinicians diagnose bulimia or anorexia in men as less likely despite identical behavior. Men are more likely to be diagnosed as suffering depression with associated appetite changes than getting a primary diagnosis an eating disorder.

Job requirement

Demands of some occupations calls for a low body weights that can result to anorexia or bulimia. Among these occupations are hose racing, modeling, dancing, distance running, and driving.

Cultural and social issues related to anorexia

The hidden root problem of eating disorders in men is cultural. Women, by nature, tend to openly discuss emotions and psychological problems more than men. Anorexia is generally perceived to be a woman’s problem. The common features in women’s magazines include discussion of weight issues, weight control, linking thinness with beauty. Young women can therefore adopt the same behavior without being seen as too socially unacceptable.

Lack of visibility of anorexia in male

There is little recognition of anorexia in the male population. It shows implications that men do not discuss eating disorders. Men tend to withhold information with other men especially if the subject is female issue. The definition of men has to do with body mass, muscle bulge and definition, and not weight loss. The male world is socially defined as powerful and masculine results in men reluctant to admit their eating disorders and not seek help.

An extensive US study of adolescents reported in 1995 show significant number of young males who experience problem weight control behavior.

• 2% to 3% of males diet all the time or more than ten times a year

• 5% to 14% of males intentionally vomit after eating

• 12% to 21% had a history of binge eating

The reluctance of men who suffers from anorexia can develop into dire health consequences and possible death. If you are experiencing problems with weight control you are not alone. Get help by contacting your family doctor, a psychologist, mental health center or a doctor specializing in eating disorders.

Browse through our list of treatment centers.

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Did you know that 10 out of 100 young women suffer from eating disorders? A negative body image is relatively common for adolescents especially before and after puberty hits. As an outcome, two psychiatric eating disorders have been diagnosed namely anorexia nervosa and bulimia. It is prevalent among teenager girls and young women that place a higher susceptibility for those who have a family history of such eating disorder. There are cases that boys also suffer from these two eating disorders but less often.

People have a common misconception of how anorexia can be used interchangeably with bulimia. Just how these two psychiatric eating disorders are different from one another?

1. A teenager with anorexia nervosa is typically a high achiever and a perfectionist in school. Despite of these traits, she suffers from low self esteem, irrationally believing she is fat no matter how thin she becomes. The teenager with anorexia nervosa thinks she can only gain control over her life when she refuses to eat “normal” food that her body demands. In a relentless pursuit to be thin (if not thin enough), the girl starves herself sometimes to the point of fatality. It often reaches to the point of creating serious damage to the body reaching to a small number of cases leading to death.

2. Bulimia, on the other hand, have symptoms different from anorexia nervosa. The person who is bulimic binges on exceedingly large quantities of high caloric food and/or purges her body of the dreaded calories by means of self induced vomiting and often use laxatives. It results to dramatic weight fluctuations from binges alternating with severe diets. People who are bulimic often mask the sound of vomiting by running water while spending long periods of time in the comfort room. The act of purging of bulimia presents a very serious threat to the physical health of the person involved including dehydration, hormonal imbalance, the depletion of essential minerals, and damage to vital organs.

While both disorders focus on an obsession on thinness, people with anorexia exhibit noticeable, often severe weight loss while bulimics usually maintain a healthy weight.

Look for a treatment center near you by clicking here.

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Anorexia is a serious and progressive eating disorder. The longer a person is suffering from anorexia, the more serious the consequences become and the greater the chances of long term damage to the body. Any recovery program intended for people with anorexia can reap lasting results when the causes of anorexia have been determined.

Anorexia nervosa and major risk factors

Some research suggests people prone to perfectionism, depression or anxiety may be prone to suffer anorexia but there is no known single cause of disease. Ninety percent of people who suffer from anorexia are females. Adolescent girls are the most likely group to be affected yet the disorder remains to affect other age groups as well. Women who participate in profession emphasizing body size or shapes such as modeling, gymnastics, or ballet may also be more likely to be anorexic.
• Body dissatisfaction
• Dieting
• Low self-esteem
• Perfectionism
• Childhood sexual abuse
• Family history of eating disorders

Anorexia and causes

What sends off a person en route toward self starvation? It is easy to point to a culture that sets a standard of beauty portrayed by stick thin women as the physical ideal. Our culture’s idealization of slenderness plays a powerful role in the development of anorexia but it is also crucial to look into other contributing factors such as genetics, individual personality traits, and family environment.

Biological causes of anorexia

Research suggests that a genetic predisposition to anorexia may run in families. When a girl has a sibling with anorexia, she is 10 to 20 times more likely than the general population to develop anorexia herself. Brain chemistry also appears to play a significant role. People with anorexia tend to have high levels of cortisol, the brain hormone most related to stress, and decreased levels of serotonin and norepinephrine, which are associated with feelings of well-being.

Psychological causes of anorexia

Be especially concerned with people who are perfectionists and overachievers. They’re the “good” daughters and sons who do what they’re told, excel in everything they do, and focus on pleasing others. Chances are they are prone to develop anorexia. But while anorexics may appear to have it all together on the surface, inside they feel helpless, inadequate, and worthless. They view themselves through a harshly critical lens with a thinking of being a total failure when they’re not perfect.

Family and social pressures

The pressure to be thin does not only come from culture alone. Family pressure and social pressure can also contribute to anorexia. This includes participation in an activity that demands slenderness including ballet, gymnastics, or modeling. It also involves having parents who are overly controlling, put a lot of emphasis on looks, diet themselves, or criticize their children’s bodies and appearance. Stressful life events can also trigger anorexia such as the onset of puberty, a breakup, or going away to school.

If you or someone you know is suffering with anorexia, immediate counseling with a medical professional such as your doctor should be undertaken before the disorder gets any worse. Regardless of the cause of anorexia, you should seek immediate counseling given that will power is not enough to recover from anorexia.

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The most consistently serious medical problems of any psychological disorder are brought about by anorexia nervosa. Anorexia involves a struggle with food intake which is obviously necessary for the body to function. Thus, inadequate food intake causes the human body to be frail and to suffer in many ways.

Anorexia and its effects to the digestive system

It is not surprising to find out if the digestive system is affected by anorexia. After all, anorexia as an eating disorder involves little food entering the body. It creates problems with the digestive system since the body forgets how to digest food and eliminate wastes. A disruption of bodily processes on digestion and elimination can lead to constipation and abdominal distress.

Anorexia and its effects in the cardiovascular system

The heart is a muscle that requires constant replenishment. When the body is subjected to starvation then the body will respond by using the body’s muscles including the heart as supply for energy. It means that the heart itself changes and becomes less able to do its job. It is common for people with anorexia that the heart beats at an abnormally slow rate. The blood pressure, in turn, can become dangerously low. As heart rate slows and blood pressure drops then the risk of heart failure is very likely. Shock and irregular heartbeats can also be manifestations of anorexia.

Restriction of food intake is associated to restricting the intake of ferrous sulfate or iron. Thus, the body develops iron deficiency or anemia. The presence of anemia makes it difficult for blood to deliver oxygen to different parts of the body. This deficiency leads to fatigue and shortness of breath as well as prone to infections and heart palpitations.

Orthostatic hypotension is a possible symptom of anorexia because of a poorly functioning cardiovascular system. It is a sudden drop in blood pressure upon standing and sitting up including dizziness, passing out, blurred vision, headaches, and a pounding heart.

Anorexia and its effects to bones and muscles

There is a clear link between anorexia and osteoporosis or a severe loss of bone density. It is a consequence of inadequate calcium and vitamin D. Bones become dry and brittle when they lose mass thus making broken bones more likely. People with anorexia often have amenorrhea or the absence of menstrual cycle. Amenorrhea also increases the risk of significant loss of bone density which makes a 16-year-old student having bones as fragile as those of her 79-year-old grandmother.

When the heart as a muscle undergoes atrophy then there is a significant loss of physical strength. An inadequate intake of calories, vitamins, and minerals can also lead to impairment of the nervous system and its ability to relay commands to the muscles. Overall, atrophy of muscles means a loss of general body control.

Anorexia and its effects on the reproductive system

A female body requires a certain amount of energy to maintain a menstrual cycle. Without enough nutrition, a woman’s menstrual cycle stop or known as amenorrhea. It makes a woman unable to get pregnant. If ever a woman with anorexia is pregnant before she lost her cycle then it is less likely for her to reach a successful full term pregnancy on continued malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. Consequences of anorexia that become more common are miscarriage, stillbirth, and chronic illness of death in children who are born.

Anorexia and its effects to the damage to the kidneys

The kidney is harmed when dehydration and a lack of vitamins to remove toxins from the body and maintain water balance. Kidneys are also placed at risk when there is low blood pressure. It is possible for kidneys to suffer permanent damage or to shut down completely under these conditions.

Anorexia and dangerous electrolyte problems

Nerve impulses require electrolytes for transmission between the brain and the rest of the body. When a person becomes dehydrated and malnourished then electrolyte gets out of balance especially lack of potassium. This deficiency leads to problems with everything from teeth to oxygen delivery to problems with the function of internal organs. The heart mainly depends on impulses from the brain for regulation. When there is electrolyte imbalance, it leads to cardiac arrhythmia which is one of the leading causes of death in eating disorders.

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