What Is Anorexia & How To Identify It

Anorexia effects between 1 to 3 percent of the female population

. 90-95% of the known cases are female but there are still 5% of males that suffer from anorexia. The age range is usually early to middle adolescence. It typically happens when someone diets to the point of reach below 85% of their ideal weight. They may also express extreme fear of gaining weight, become preoccupied with food, develop noticeable and abnormal eating habits and stop menstruating if female. If male then they may experience a decrease in sex drive and interest of sex altogether.

Anorexia is an eating disorder where someone stops eating and changes their eating habits to the point that they do not maintain their body weight. There is a certain weight that males and females should be at for their age and height and someone with anorexia falls drastically below this norm. Subjects often are already noticeably underweight but still have an extreme fear of gaining weight and becoming fat. It is often in early to mid adolescence because at this time puberty sets in and body fat jumps from around 12% up to around 20 to 25 percent. Adolescence often see this weight gain as natural weight gain and something they need to stop but it is a natural biological process that happens during development for females.

While 90 to 95 percent of anorexics are women, only 25 percent of the women that do develop it, have a history of being overweight. This leads us to the fact that 75 percent of the women that are anorexic are not likely to keep the weight on or gain weight after puberty but go against this natural process during puberty.

Physical changes are the first and most noticeable of someone that is anorexic but they will also display mood changes such as being irritable all the time, being depressed often, and wanting to be isolated and away from everyone else. Since there have been so many cases of anorexia, eating disorder experts have been able to develop a personality profile of someone that may be anorexic. They tend to avoid conflict, seek approval, and be perfectionist. They are often anxious in social settings, display obsessive compulsive tendencies and are at average to above average intelligence levels. Their family environment is also important and their parents usually display certain traits and personalities. An anorexic person often has an over protective mother that is critical and domineering. The father is often a passive person , who sticks to himself and does not display very much emotion towards the family. This is just a profile of similarities between people with anorexia that may help identify someone that is anorexic but it does not mean that the home environment has to be this way or that the subject will have all or any of these personality traits.

Some other ways to know if you are anorexic or someone around you is can be found if the answer is yes to some of the following behaviors. You don't eat in front of other people, skip meals or only take tiny portions when you do eat. You always make excuses when it comes to eating such as you are not hungry, you just ate or you are not feeling well. You have trouble concentrating and you become aggressive when others express concern for you about your eating habits. Hopefully these behaviors will help you identify if you are anorexic or if you know someone that acts this way you can do something to help them.

by: Westly Lager

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