Eating Disorder: Anorexia Nervosa
Taylor and Rebecca
What is Anorexia?
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder which makes people lose more weight than what is considered healthy for their height or age.
Most people with Anorexia Nervosa are actually afraid to gain weight
Anorexia is usually linked with other mental disorders
- Depression
Symptoms
“Dieting” although you are already healthy
Obsessed with the amount of calories and fat you are putting in your body (always worried)
Pretending to eat
Telling people you are eating but you really aren't
Openly not eating
Dramatically losing weight
Throwing up after eating or using laxatives
- Feeling overweight even though you aren't
Causes
Their isn't one set way that people develop Anorexia
Genetics can be a cause to developing Anorexia.
Mostly from your mother's genes.
Social life and surroundings
- Sociological
Facts
About 8 million people in the US have Anorexia.
80%-90% of the 8 million are women.
7 million of the 8 million are ages from 15-35
1-200 girls will between the age 12-18 will develop anorexia.
3rd most common long term illness among teenagers.
It does not matter what age you are you can still develop anorexia
Common age range 13-30
- The reason this is the common range of age is because people are usually trying to develop a self image at this time
In the body
Anorexia affects the whole body from the inside out
This illness will first attack your bones
Not taking in any nutrients or calcium you will feel weak because your bones are becoming weak
Most of the time when people develop anorexia they are usually still growing so it is dangerous to mess with the growth of your bones
Next it will attack your heart
While your body is losing muscle mass and fat your heart is also losing muscle. When your heart loses muscle it gets smaller and much weaker.
Diagnosis
There are a couple ways that you could get diagnosed with anorexia
When a person stops eating food in general that is a sign that something such as anorexia may be affecting them
Rapid weight loss. When someone is losing weight extremely fast that is a sign that anorexia might be present
Even if they are eating they might be doing other things to stop themselves from gaining weight
Throwing up
- Laxative
Treatment
As of right now there isn’t any medication you can take to help you get rid of anorexia but you can try other things such as
Therapy
You can go and talk to someone about what you are going through and see it that helps
Seeking help from professionals
- Like in the video we watched you could also go somewhere like that if it gets bad enough
Prevention
Some ways to possibly help prevent developing anorexia are
Have a healthy approach on food and exercise
Don't look at them as bad things
- Teach children at a young age to take care of their bodies