COULD IT BE AN ANOREXIA ?

As I looked at my friend on the sick bed, I remember how it all started. She started asking to be on a diet, wishing she was a vegetarian and spent the bulk of the day gawking at the girl on the magazine cover and complaining about her own nonexistent fat waist.

Here she lay, looking like a breathing skeleton with her flaky skin draped around her bones. I recall how she began getting moody, depressed and angry most times due to excessive starvation and extreme exercises, all the while insisting she’s okay and fine. The nurse says she’s lost cognitive skills, her heart rate has fallen fatally and she’s having problems with her stomach, kidney etc.

She didn’t even eat the only sandwich I brought earlier. The doctor said it’s not about the food, she’s sick with a mental illness.

Anorexia nervosa, often called Anorexia, is a type of eating disorder. People with anorexia eat so little that they have unhealthy weight loss and become dangerously thin. They may think they are overweight or fat even when they are underweight or thin. Anorexia affects more girls and women than boys and men. Anorexia is a serious health problem that can increase the risk of early death. But people with anorexia can get better with treatment.

Eating disorders are mental health problems that cause extreme and dangerous eating behaviors. These extreme eating behaviors cause other serious health problems and sometimes death. Some eating disorders also involve extreme exercise.

Women with anorexia severely limit the amount of food they eat to prevent weight gain. People with anorexia usually have an intense fear of gaining weight and may think they are fat even when they are thin. Women with anorexia may also exercise too much so that they do not gain weight. Over time, eating so little food leads to serious health problems and sometimes death.

Anorexia is also more common among girls and younger women than older women. On average, girls develop anorexia at 16 or 17.Teen girls between 13 and 19 and young women in their early 20s are most at risk. But eating disorders are happening more often in older women.

SYMPTOMS OF ANOREXIA

Some other symptoms of anorexia include:

·         Sadness

·         Moodiness

·         Confused or slow thinking

·         Poor memory or judgment

·         Thin, brittle hair and nails

·         Feeling cold all the time because of a drop in internal body temperature

·         Feeling faint, dizzy, or weak

·         Feeling tired or sluggish

·         Irregular periods or never getting a period

·         Dry, blotchy, or yellow skin

Psychological symptoms include:

• Not eating or eating very little
• Refusing to eat in front of others
• Not wanting to go out with friends
• Making herself throw up
• Taking laxatives or diet pills
• Exercising a lot

People with anorexia may also have other health problems, including depression, anxiety, or substance abuse.

CAUSES OF ANOREXIA

ANOREXIA, as all eating disorders, is a complex disease. There is not a single, simple cause, although new research revealed that it is an inherited condition but this disease isn’t proven to happen to all carriers of the gene.

·   Most agreed upon cause is ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: the society’s obsession with thinness, unnecessary applause and appreciation for svelte, skinny women, puberty, perfection issues, addiction, self-esteem issues amongst others.

With anorexia, your body doesn’t get the energy that it needs from food, so it slows down and stops working normally. Over time, anorexia can affect your body in the following ways:

• Heart problems, including low blood pressure, a slower heart rate, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, and sudden death from heart problems.
• Anemia (when your red blood cells do not carry enough oxygen to your body) and other blood problems.
• Thinning of the bones (osteopenia or osteoporosis).
• Kidney stones or kidney failure.
• Lack of periods, which can cause problems getting pregnant.
• During pregnancy, a higher risk for miscarriage, cesarean delivery, or having a baby with low birth weight.

Anorexia is a serious illness that can also lead to death.

TREATMENT FOR ANOREXIA

As deadly as anorexia is, it can be fully treated and can be recovered from. Treatment plans may include one or more of the following:

• Nutrition therapy. Doctors, nurses, and counselors will help you eat healthy to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
• Psychotherapy. Sometimes called “talk therapy”
• Support groups can be helpful for some people with anorexia when added to other treatment. In support groups, girls or women and sometimes their families meet and share their stories.
• Medicine. Studies suggest that medicines like antidepressants can help some girls and women with anorexia by improving the depression and anxiety symptoms that often go along with anorexia.

Most girls and women do get better with treatment and are able to eat and exercise in healthy ways again. Some may get better after the first treatment. Others get well but may relapse and need treatment again.

Ladies, this lethal eating disorder can be very much prevented and helped. How? By being comfortable and confident in one’s body. Find ways to make yourself very happy and satisfied with your body shape or size. Appreciate your entire body structure, from your curves to the stretch marks. Help yourself ensure you’re not intimidated by the “girl on the magazine cover”.

By the way, my friend has begun to take the first steps, at least but she’s angry at the doctors and her parents because she thinks they’re forcing her to eat and take therapy sessions but I hope someday she’ll realize that we all saved her.

Mary Jane