The book Eating Disorders Information for Teens defines anorexia nervosa as an “eating disorder centered on an obsessive fear of weight gain. Anorexia involves self-starvation and excessive weight loss. Although anorexia is a mental disorder, the physical consequences are serious and sometimes life threatening” (Lawton 2005: 69).
The cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown; however, many things can be part of the cause such as biological factors, for example genetics. Culture, personal feelings, some people feel helpless and hate the way they look, stressful events and life changes, such as starting a new school and families, some families find appearance to be really important which causes them to become anorexic to portray a beautiful image in the family. People who are at risk of an eating disorder are afraid of body fat and gaining weight.
According to this, they endeavor really hard to be thin by dieting, exercising too much and fasting. Most people also struggle to lose their weight by taking laxative, diuretics, or enemas. People suffering from this illness tend to feel they are overweight, when really they are extremely skinny.
They “develop bitter hair and nails, dry skin, and a low pulse rate, they also can not stand the cold…the most serious problem includes death from starvation, the heart stopping, or suicide” (Lawton 2005: 7). Anorexia can basically lead to death if people over due it. Life and especially health should be more important than the image people try to embody. In the journal article, Wait Not, Want Not: Factors Contributing to the Development of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa “studies have found that individuals suffering from anorexia often exhibit symptoms of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder” (Murray 2003: 2).
Anorexia cause these types of stress because it makes people think so much about their body and how they can get rid of all the body fat they think they have. They put themselves under pressure, which causes them to over think everything about themselves. By over thinking everything, this causes people to be unhappy and uncomfortable about what they look like, which leads to stress.
Also, the newspaper article Science Could Erase Stigma of Anorexia, it is said that “in people with anorexia nervosa, obsessive fear of being fat lead to abnormal and dangerously low body weight. Self-starvation, extreme weight loss and related medical complication can lead to death” (Washington Post 2008: 1).
People do not care about their lives, all they worry about is being skinny and about losing all the fat they think they have to satisfy themselves. By doing this, people are slowly killing themselves, they do not realize this because they are too busy trying to lose twenty pounds or more.