What is Anorexia?

What is anorexia? You’ve probably heard a lot about it all throughout your life, maybe starting in public school health class. They go over how anorexic patients have a distorted reality and think they’re fatter than they really are, or how they will use excessive exercise, laxatives, and extreme dieting to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight. However, there is more to anorexia than just this.

One big difference is in the term anorexia itself, versus anorexia nervosa. Most people think that they are one and the same, but this is just not true. Both terms indicate that a sufferer has lost his or her appetite, which has typically resulted in undernourishment and extreme weight loss. However, anorexia pertains specifically to the inability to detect hunger in one’s body, while anorexia nervosa is the psychological disorder that actually distorts an individual’s view on appetite, proper eating habits, and what constitutes food deprivation.

When it comes to physical anorexia, it usually is brought on by another disease or condition. As an example, a diabetic might be on drugs that would suppress his appetite, or would miss the signal to go eat because of general weakness, stress, or an altered physical state. While these are pretty general examples, the idea is that for one reason or another, the person just isn’t feeling hungry, and there’s little or no psychological reasoning behind the lack of appetite. For them, helping them survive typically involves intravenous feeding and nutritional supplementation.

For psychological anorexia, though, the development of anorexia is much more about how a person views himself or herself. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disorder in which a person typically wishes to be thinner so that he or she can be more physically attractive to others. Other reasons someone might resort to anorexia nervosa are to feel like he or she has some control in some aspect of his or her life, or as a response to abuse. Alternatively, the intense desire to avoid gaining weight might drive someone to extremes that result in anorexia nervosa.

Don’t be fooled: the rise in anorexia nervosa is directly related to the importance of looks and weight in the media. Not only are people brainwashed into thinking that they have to look thin to be attractive, but people are also barraged with reports and studies showing how people are more likely to have all sorts of health problems from being fat. Unfortunately, it’s not at all advantageous to trade potential long-term health problems for short-term, life-threatening health problems that come from starving yourself.

The superficial culture has convinced everyone that being thin is all that matters in life. Few people can accept that their body is not meant to be thin and appreciate it the way it is, because society simply cannot abide by that kind of logic. It originated in the fashion industry, was perpetrated in the media, and is now being policed by competitive young people who want to look the best, even at their expense of their own health.