Eating Disorders

Anorexia -- also known as anorexia nervosa-- is the most well-known eating disorder. The problem with that accurate statement is that while the condition itself is well-known, the facts about it are not. Ever since people began hearing about anorexia, the myths and misconceptions have spread; and these misconceptions have gone a long way toward standing in the way of getting proper help for this problem.

The most popular misconception about anorexia is that it is all about a person's wish to be thin. The fact is that the desire for excessive thinness is very rarely the point at all. While wishing to be thin is a factor in some cases, it is rarely the person's main focus, and it is often not a part of the problem at all.

The majority of people who suffer from anorexia are teenaged girls and women, although it is a condition which anyone is capable of developing, regardless of age, gender, or background. The majority of people who develop this problem do so with one common factor: those who feel, often accurately, that they have little or no control over anything in their everyday lives manifest this with the belief that the one thing they can control is the amount of food they put into their bodies.

This is how anorexia usually begins. With little ability to control her everyday environment and situations in her life, the girl begins to place restrictions on her intake of food. In doing this, she feels some sense of control. Unfortunately it is usually not long before it backfires, and she no longer has control over her food intake either.

The girl who is developing anorexia generally has little sense of self or of autonomy. She begins by giving herself unrealistic expectations, all based on trying to achieve some degree of control over who she is, her place in life, without the realization that the one thing she believes she has control over will soon take over and control her. As the condition progresses, the girl feels as if she is “vanishing,” not only in her weight loss but as a person. The potential health repercussions can be deadly; but so can the person's psychological state. Untreated, anorexia can kill; and it has a number of ways of doing so. While getting proper nutrition into an anorexic is essential, providing adequate psychological support is equally so. 

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