Everything you need to know about Anorexia Nervosa

06/21/2024

Stephanie Agathagelou, Nutritionist, Dietetics student / Spiros Siailos, Dietetics student


What is Anorexia Nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa is a psychopathological condition that usually affects teenage girls and its main characteristics are the individuals’ obsessions with their bodies and their desire to reduce their body weight even if it is already below normal. 

It is a very serious current eating disorder, which if remains untreated, it might prove fatal for the patient, due to the fact that it can deteriorate his/her physical and mental health.

Anorexia Nervosa is a disease that involves the IRRATIONAL FEAR of gaining weight and it is manifested by a compulsive refusal to accept food.

The person who suffers from Anorexia Nervosa follows a strict diet, skips meals, exercises exhaustingly, results to self-vomiting and uses laxatives and diuretics for the sole purpose of losing weight.

Factors / causes that contribute in the appearance of anorexia
Anorexic people are frequently filled with anxiety, stress, pressure and tension. They have low self esteem, are insecure and feel that they can’t control various aspects of their lives. As a result, they consider a strict diet and consequently weight loss to be a sector that they can control and this becomes the dominant goal in their lives. It is perceived as the solution to various problems they are facing in their lives. 

There are indications that people who develop anorexia have very strict parents who don’t let their children be independent, are exercising too much pressure on them and have high expectations, even if their children are unable to fulfill them.  These parents don’t allow their children to express themselves freely and by doing so the teenagers feel that they don’t have control of their own lives, thus they try to control what they can, which is  their own body through a grueling diet.

Anorexia Nervosa can appear when sudden changes occur in a persons’ life which require numerous and new expectations. As a result, the person feels that he/she can’t cope and control his/her behaviour and environment. These changes are not necessarily negative, like the death of a relative; on the contrary, they can be positive in such a way that the person is not able to adjust.

Types of Anorexia
Two types of anorexia nervosa exist, the deprivation type and the over-consumption type. Both of which are considered a health threat and lead to very serious psychosomatic conditions.

Deprivation anorexia is the most common type and according to research it concerns a higher percentage of women, who follow strict diets, skips meals, use various food supplements in order to lose weight and exercise intensively. In addition, the individual has a continuous preoccupation with food and checks the amount of calories in various products so that he/she can identify the ones with fewer calories without necessarily consuming them. These people believe that their bodies have excess fat despite the fact that their weight is lower than the normal standards.

Over-consumption anorexia is characterized by binge episodes. In other words, a person consumes large portions of food in a relatively short period of time. This action leads to guilty feelings and the individual results to the abuse of laxatives and diuretics and self-vomiting, in order to maintain his/her existing body weight.  People with over-consuming anorexia usually suffer from depression, guilt, are extrovert and anxious.

Complications of Anorexia
Anorexia Nervosa causes physical and mental consequences in a persons’ health. The main physical consequences are related to malnutrition, where the body falls into ‘’hibernation’’ and the symptoms include hypothermia, bradycardia, hypotension, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmias, atrophy of the brain resulting in difficulty with concentration, attention and memory, irritability, depression, myopathy, constipation, amenorrhea, inhibition of growth in teens and early occurrence of osteoporosis. The mental effects are mainly depression, anxiety disorders and personality disorders. The most severe consequence of anorexia nervosa is death which can be cause by either cardiac complications from malnutrition or even suicide.

Taking the above into consideration, anorexia nervosa is ranked between the most dangerous mental disorders. From the surviving patients almost half of them will recover completely, around 30% will relapse, while 20% will live with anorexia chronically.

Anorexia, like other eating disorders is treatable only if it’s diagnosed on time. Treatment requires the cooperation of a group of people which is consisted of a psychologist, a dietician and the collaboration and consent of the patient himself/herself.  

References