Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.
Primary Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa
- Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height
- Intense fear of weight gain or being "fat" even though underweight
- Disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight
- Loss of menstrual periods (amenorrhea) in girls and women post-puberty
Warning Signs of Anorexia Nervosa
- Dramatic weight loss
- Preoccupation with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting
- Refusal to eat certain foods, progressing to restrictions against whole categories of food (e.g. no carbohydrates)
- Frequent comments about feeling "fat" or overweight despite weight loss
- Anxiety about gaining weight or being "fat"
- Denial of hunger
- Development of food rituals (e.g. eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing, rearranging food on a plate)
- Excuses to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food
- Excessive, rigid exercise regimen--despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury--the need to "burn off" calories taken in
- Withdrawal from usual friends and activities
- Behaviors and attitudes indicating that weight loss, dieting, and control of food are becoming primary concerns
Health Consequences of Anorexia Nervosa
- Abnormally slow heart rate and low blood pressure, which mean that the heart muscle is changing. The risk for heart failure rises as heart rate and blood pressure decrease.
- Reduction of bone density (osteoporosis), which results in dry, brittle bones
- Muscle loss and weakness
- Severe dehydration, which can result in kidney failure
- Fainting, fatigue, and overall weakness
- Dry hair and skin, hair loss
- Growth of a downy layer of hair (lanugo) all over the body, including the face, in an effort to keep the body warm
About Anorexia Nervosa
- Approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are girls and women (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
- Between 0.5-1% of American women suffer from anorexia nervosa.
- Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric diagnoses in young women (Hsu, 1996).
- Between 5-20% of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa will die. The probabilities of death increases within that range depending on the length of the condition (Zerbe, 1995).
- Anorexia nervosa has one of the highest death rates of any mental health condition.
- Anorexia nervosa typically appears in early to mid-adolescence.
Description adapted from the National Eating Disorders Association.
