Anorexia Nervosa Treatment

Anorexia Nervosa is basically a psychological and highly life-threatening eating problem. People suffer from this kind of eating disorder usually have extremely low body weight with reference to their height as well as body type. Body Mass Index popularly referred to as BMI is a tool which is used by treatment providers to determine the correctness of body weight of a person who is battling with any kind of eating problem. Apart from this, observations with reference to eating patterns, personality traits and exercise also provide indications whether a person is anorexic or not. Those battling with anorexia, fear gaining even small amount of weight. They have a distorted body image and usually see themselves as much heavier than they actually are. Also, women and men who are suffering from anorexia demonstrate an extreme fixation with the thin body figure. They have extreme eating patterns such as self-starvation, purging, etc. People who have anorexia nervosa should go for relevant anorexia nervosa treatment. There are essentially two main kinds of anorexia:

• One is Binge/Purge Type. In this the person who has the eating disorder usually purges the food out after eating. This minimizes his/her fear of gaining any weight. This offsets his guilt of consuming any highly restricted or high calorific content food. The compensatory purge behavior shown by individuals with Purge Type anorexia is done by exercising extremely, vomiting or excessive use of laxatives.
• Restrictive Anorexia – In this the person who is suffering from anorexia is more often than not perceived as extremely self-disciplined. He/she is restricted the quantity of food consumed. A lot of check is kept on calories taken in. High fat or high sugar foods are totally avoided. Such people consume far fewer calories than what are required to maintain healthy weight. This kind of self-starvation is usually extreme.

The symptoms of both types of anorexia are actually same and the treatment is also more or less similar. For most of the eating disorders, genetics as well as environmental factors play a key role. Anorexia is hugely an outcome of genetic predisposition, specific personality traits, and different environmental factors. Biological factors encompass irregular hormonal function of the body. At times, because of peer pressure, childhood trauma, family circumstances, professional career etc people become afflicted with anorexia. In India there is a huge preference for thin people and this puts a lot of pressure in mind of teenagers. An individual who is suffering from problem of anorexia nervosa demonstrates several signs and symptoms. Classic anorexia symptoms are constant restrictive eating or abnormal dieting, rapid weight reduction, indulgence in ritualistic eating patterns such as eating alone or hiding the food, amenorrhea, irrational fixation with food recipes, or forms of cooking, depression, lethargy, thinning of hair, avoidance of friends and social functions, excessive sensation of cold especially in extremities etc. If a person shows these symptoms it is prudent to consult an expert for treatment lest the condition will go worse.