Anorexia nervosa is a serious, sometimes life- threatening, conditions that tends to be chronic. This disorder, which has been occurring at a rapidly increasing rate over the last ten years, is characterized by extreme starvation that leads to a disastrous weight loss. Along with other factors, anorexia is influenced by genetics, unhappiness with family, and excessive physical activity. .
WHAT IS ANOREXIA NERVOSA?.
Well, anorexia means lack of appetite for food; and nervosa means having to do with nerves. Anorexia victims tend to be young, healthy, attractive girls from fairly successful families. Once healthy young women, they begin to starve themselves, some to the point of death. Anorexia Nervosa is an illness, with a variety of characteristics, which mainly affects adolescent girls although it can affect either boys or girls younger or older than this. More than 2.5 million North Americans suffer from Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by low body weight, great fear of gaining weight, and a mistaken observation of their body weight or shape with the most common features being weight loss and a change in behaviour. The loss of weight is slow and most often starts with a perfectly normal weight reducing diet. Anorexics are single minded in their purpose to loose weight and confrontation, discussion, bullying or bribery will probably fail to cause more than a very brief change of eating behaviour. Family relationships are in risk of being strained by this illness even if they have had good relations before the illness hit. The families of anorexics are often high achieving with high expectations of their children. The anorexic seems terribly willing to accept these values set up by their parents, setting standards for themselves that seem unreasonably too high. It seems to be that all fun, and enjoyment of being ordinary, and accepting other values usually seem to be missing from their world.