Anorexia is also known as Anorexia Nervosa. It is a serious mental illness. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. Although anorexia is classed as a mental illness, it seriously affect your long term physical health.
There are many types of eating disorders and anorexia is one of them. If you have anorexia you may limit the amount of food you eat and over exercise. Some people with this condition may also make themselves sick or misuse laxatives.
Sufferers may also have binge cycles where they over-eat and then make themselves sick.
Anorexia can also be associated with depression, low self-esteem, alcohol misuse and self-harm.
Treatment for this condition is often via talking therapies such as:
In more serious cases you may need to have in-patient or day-patient treatment. The physical conditions caused by anorexia need to be kept under control before any irreversible damage is done.
Self-help and support groups are widely available. These help you to discuss what you are going through with others in a similar situation.
There are many behavioural signs associated with this medical condition and for more information we would recommend that you refer to:
https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/types/anorexia/signs
On the Beat Eating Disorders website there is a wealth of information including real life stories. Reading about other peoples experience can help you to relate to this serious mental illness.
There is no single reason why someone develops an eating disorder as the influences may be genetic, psychological, environmental, social or biological. However, the latest research shows that eating disorders are much more biologically based than was previously thought.