Starving for control: understanding anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. People with anorexia nervosa have low self-esteem and often a tremendous need to control their surroundings and emotions.
To properly diagnose and treat anorexia nervosa, we need to look past the obvious.
People associate anorexia nervosa with a preoccupation with food and excessive exercise. However, it is often triggered by a variety of deeper conflicts, such as stress, anxiety, unhappiness and feeling like life is out of control. Anorexia nervosa is a negative and destructive way to cope with these emotions.
New research indicates a percentage of people with anorexia nervosa have a genetic predisposition to the disease. And those people, in turn, may be more likely to develop anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa: sensitivities and fears.
Some anorexia nervosa sufferers may be abnormally sensitive about being perceived as fat, or have a tremendous fear of becoming fat. They may be afraid of losing control over the amount of food they eat, and want to control their emotions, and the reactions to their emotions.
Using obsessive behavior as a method of control.
Low self-esteem and the need to be accepted will drive people with anorexia nervosa to diet obsessively to control not only their weight, but their feelings and actions. Some also feel that they do not deserve pleasure out of life, and will deprive themselves of situations offering pleasure (including eating).
Anorexia nervosa symptoms:
- 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
Anorexia nervosa warning signs:
- 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
- Denial of hunger
- Development of food rituals (e.g. eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing, rearranging food on a plate)
- Consistent excuses to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food
- Excessive, rigid exercise regimen--despite weather, fatigue, illness or injury
- Withdrawal from usual friends and activities
