The Signs and Symptoms of Anorexia and Bulimia

What are the causes of anorexia?

Causes vary from person to person but all anorexics react to internal an d external factors such as stress, anxiety, sadness or the feeling of losing control over one’s life. Most people who suffer from food disorders have low self esteem and long for social integration. Anorexics are convinced that a slim entourage will help them gain a happy life.

What’s the difference between anorexia and bulimia?

The biggest difference is that bulimics eat a large quantity of food after which they throw up, or use diuretics and laxatives to maintain their weight. Unlike anorexics who inform themselves and avoid calorie rich foods, are obsessed with physical exercise. Usually bulimics don’t lose as much weight as anorexics.

Signs and symptoms of anorexia

1. Excessive weight lose in a relatively small time frame
2. Obsession for one’s weight although it’s way under a normal body’s weight
3. Obsession for daily consumed calories
4. Obsession to continually work out
5. Wearing long, big clothes to hide the body’s shaoe.
6. Frequent trips to the bathroom after meals
7. visible food restriction and starvation
8. Administration of some diet medicine, laxatives and enemas
9. Isolation and fear to eat in the presence of other people.
10. Unusual eating habits
11. Hiding foods in strange places
12. Throwing uneaten foods in the toilet
13. Keeping a diary of eaten foods.
14. Visiting sites that promote an unhealthy diet
15. Reading diet books
16. Dizziness and headaches
17. Frequent neck wounds or swollen glands.
18. Sensibility to low temperatures.
19. Constipation
20. Loss of sexual appetite
21. Insomnias or the habits of sleeping very little

What are the medical consequences?

Anorexics expose themselves to a lot of risks. Among which is reduced bone density, mineral loss, low body temperature, arrhythmias, abnormal body development, osteoporoses and nervous bulimia.

How do you treat anorexia?

The treatment is difficult because anorexics don’t admit to something being wrong with them. Anorexics in the incipient period can be cured even without having them admitted in a clinic. But for the treatment to work the need to want a change and they also need the support of their family.

On the other hand people with grave anorexic problems can only be treated in specialized clinics. The treatment involves more than changing dietary habits. Most of the time they need counseling for a long period of time to learn to control the emotions that cause these dietary problems. Some anorexics are helped with morale raising drugs, but they need to be prescribed by a doctor and they need to be accompanied by counseling sessions.

You can find out more abour bulimia and anorexia by reading Eating disorders: bulimia and anorexia and  What causes eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia