Causes and Treatments for Anorexia

Anorexia Nervosa, a mental illness in which a person has a severe and constant fear of gaining weight and a vague observation of their actual weight and body shape. People with this illness believe themselves to be fat even when their weight is so low that their health is in danger. A person with anorexia nervosa often refuses to eat anything and usually becomes extremely thin after a period of time.

As a mental illness, this disease deals with the emotions of the patient. Therefore, people with anorexia often need a lot of psychological support. And since curing Anorexia requires an intensive long-term treatment program, it is always best to request treatment from a team of physicians that are experienced in this area. The team should consist of a doctor that would treat the medical problems that were brought up by starvation, a psychiatrist and a dietitian. And it is always very important to know that anorexia does not only affect the one individual with anorexia, but this is a difficult time in which the whole family must go through together.

Two images of an anorexic female patient published...

A summary of the strategy Zucker et al. (2007) use...

English: This image is a reproduction of two photo...

So it is very important for the family to give as much support to the patient as possible, as this source of support is very often the difference between achieving success or failure through the treatment.

Anorexia nervosa is treated primarily through psychotherapy. However, as in many cases, since the medical complications that have been brought up by this mental disorder are frequently so serious that trying to stabilize the patient's physical condition is very often the first step of the whole treatment process. Some patients are taken to the hospital for this treatment. Weight gain, most often the hardest part to achieve successfully throughout the whole process, is the primary goal for restoring a patient's physical...