ANOREXIA

Healthy Dieting	Anorexia
Healthy dieting is an attempt to control weight.	Anorexia is an attempt to control your life and emotions.
Your self-esteem is based on more than just weight and body image.	Your self-esteem is based entirely on how much you weigh and how thin you are.
You view weight loss as a way to improve your health and appearance.	You view weight loss as a way to achieve happiness.
Your goal is to lose weight in a healthy way.	Becoming thin is all that matters; health is not a concern.

Signs and symptoms of anorexia

Living with anorexia means you’re constantly hiding your habits. This makes it hard at first for friends and family to spot the warning signs. When confronted, you might try to explain away your disordered eating and wave away concerns. But as anorexia progresses, people close to you won’t be able to deny their instincts that something is wrong—and neither should you.

As anorexia develops, you become increasingly preoccupied with the number on the scale, how you look in the mirror, and what you can and can’t eat.

Anorexic food behavior signs and symptoms

Dieting despite being thin – Following a severely restricted diet. Eating only certain low-calorie foods. Banning “bad” foods such as carbohydrates and fats.

Obsession with calories, fat grams, and nutrition – Reading food labels, measuring and weighing portions, keeping a food diary, reading diet books.

Pretending to eat or lying about eating – Hiding, playing with, or throwing away food to avoid eating. Making excuses to get out of meals (“I had a huge lunch” or “My stomach isn’t feeling good”).

Preoccupation with food – Constantly thinking about food. Cooking for others, collecting recipes, reading food magazines, or making meal plans while eating very little.

Strange or secretive food rituals – Refusing to eat around others or in public places. Eating in rigid, ritualistic ways (e.g. cutting food “just so," chewing food and spitting it out, using a specific plate).

Anorexic appearance and body image signs and symptoms

Dramatic weight loss – Rapid, drastic weight loss with no medical cause.

Feeling fat, despite being underweight – You may feel overweight in general or just “too fat” in certain places, such as the stomach, hips, or thighs.

Fixation on body image – Obsessed with weight, body shape, or clothing size. Frequent weigh-ins and concern over tiny fluctuations in weight.

Harshly critical of appearance – Spending a lot of time in front of the mirror checking for flaws. There’s always something to criticize. You’re never thin enough.

Denial that you’re too thin – You may deny that your low body weight is a problem, while trying to conceal it (drinking a lot of water before being weighed, wearing baggy or oversized clothes).

Major risk factors for anorexia nervosa

• Body dissatisfaction
• Strict dieting
• Low self-esteem
• Difficulty expressing feelings
• Perfectionism
• Troubled family relationships
• History of physical or sexual abuse
• Family history of eating disorders

Some of the physical effects of anorexia include: