Understanding Anorexia
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Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where patients engage in extreme self-starving to avoid weight gain, often becoming dangerously thin and risking their lives. It involves both unrealistic body image and usually begins in adolescence. Signs include obsessive concern with weight, over-exercising when ill, strict food limits, and purging. Without treatment, anorexia can become lifelong and damage major organs, but early intervention is often successful. The Center for Counseling and Health Resources in Seattle treats eating disorders, depression, and anxiety with whole-person therapy.
Understanding Anorexia
- 2. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which patients engage in extreme self-starving behavior to avoid gaining weight, often becoming dangerously emaciated and sometimes endangering their lives. To understand anorexia, it is necessary to grasp that the condition involves both the mind and the body. Patients demonstrate an unrealistic body image in which, no matter how thin they may appear to others, they see themselves as overweight. The condition usually begins during adolescence. While the disorder most often affects females, about a quarter of those with eating disorders are male, and their specific needs are often unmet in treatment programs that focus on women.
- 3. Signs of anorexia include an obsessive concern with weight, over-exercising even when ill, setting stringent limits on the amount of food consumed, and using vomiting, diuretics, or laxatives as ways of avoiding weight gain. While early intervention can be highly successful, if left untreated the condition can become a serious lifelong problem. Anorexia can result in thinning or brittleness of the bones, or damage to major organs such as the heart and kidneys. If you believe a loved one may be anorexic, seek professional medical help and behavioral health services immediately.
- 4. The Center for Counseling and Health Resources, Inc., serves the community of Seattle, Washington, and beyond, as a mental health center focused on whole- person therapy. Under the direction of Dr. Gregg Jantz, the Center—“A Place of Hope”—especially concentrates on eating disorders, depression, and anxiety.