Anorexia Nervosa

BRIEF SUMMARY

Anorexia nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Key Points

Symptoms

• Inadequate food intake leading to a weight that is clearly too low.
• Intense fear of weight gain, obsession with weight and persistent behavior to prevent weight gain.
• Self-esteem overly related to body image.
• Inability to appreciate the severity of the situation.
• Binge-Eating/Purging Type involves binge eating and/or purging behaviors during the last three months.
• Restricting Type does not involve binge eating or purging.

Eating disorders experts have found that prompt intensive treatment significantly improves the chances of recovery.  Therefore, it is important to be aware of some of the warning signs of 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, etc.).
• 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).
• Consistent 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.
• In general, behaviors and attitudes indicating that weight loss, dieting, and control of food are becoming primary concerns.

RESOURCES

• National Eating Disorders Association https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/anorexia-nervosa

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