Anorexia Nervosa

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Explanation of Concepts: Anorexia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa is many times confused with the disease of bulimia. Many people are confused as to what the difference is between the two diseases. Let us settle this now so there is no further confusion. People with anorexia starve themselves, avoid high-calorie foods and exercise constantly. People with bulimia eat huge amounts of food, but they throw up soon after eating, or take laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to keep them from gaining weight. People with bulimia don't usually lose as much weight as people with anorexia. It is said that bulimia is the least fatal of the two diseases because bulimics are at least putting some kind of food into their body where is the victim of anorexia refuses to eat anything at all.

Anorexia nervosa is a disorder characterized by deliberate weight loss, induced and/or sustained by the patient. Just as some of us develop cancer and other fatal diseases, some people develop the disease of anorexia nervosa.

Those who develop this fatal disorder intentionally starve themselves or severely restrict their food intake. Some people feel that this isn't actually a disease, but in fact, it is just as much as a disease as cancer.

Unlike many of the other diseases, anorexia nervosa is psychological. Most people perceive anorexia as an obsession that people have with being thin. The disease usually begins in young people around the time of puberty. "They lose a lot of weight, at least 15 percent below a young man/woman's normal body weight."(Rowan 1) They are terrified of gaining weight. Victims believe they are fat even when they are very thin. Food and weight eventually become an everyday obsession. The compulsiveness shows up in strange eating rituals or the refusal to eat in front of others. The ironic...