When we refer to an ‘eating disorder’ it isn’t always about someone having an uncontrollable compulsion to gorge on food, moving on the path to obesity, is it? No, eating disorder isn’t always about overeating… it is also about ‘under-eating’, that is an obsessive and conscious act of starving oneself.
The term for this is anorexia nervosa, as opposed to bulimia nervosa which is another psychological disorder and involves binge eating!
One who is anorexic is one who deliberately refuses to eat normal quantities of food in an effort to be thin. She starts by going without substantial amounts of food and soon this develops into a habit gradually turning into a compulsion and finally, a medical problem. Anorexia nervosa is said to be a condition that is notoriously difficult to treat, simply because the condition holds both physiological and psychological implications. And requires combined help from doctors, psychiatrists, counselors and nutritionists.
You would be surprised to read that anorexia nervosa is found to be the third most common illness found in female adolescents aged between 14 to 20 years! From this figure it is quite obvious that young girls are most susceptible to this condition although even young men and older women are found to be suffering from this condition. Peer pressure, fashion consciousness, the urge to match up to ideals and misguided sense of health perceptions are the general reasons why a person turns anorexic. Again, strangely enough, there are people who starve themselves in order to exert control over their bodies and their lives!
This condition not only leads to general physical weakness and subsequent illnesses but causes depression and anxiety which is tougher to deal with. Treating an anorexic would involve prolonged sessions with counselors and psychiatrists so that the sufferer is guided into getting to the bottom of the real reason for her turning anorexic.
In the next write-up, we shall discuss bulimia nervosa.