A young woman has this insatiable desire to be thin, so she deliberately starves herself to reach her objective. She may even endanger her life in the process. Situations like this are becoming more and more common in our image-obsessed society, mostly young women concerned about their body image, damaging their bodies to the point of death. It is not solely a young woman’s disease, but the majority of patients suffering from this psychological disorder are female.
This could well be just a matter of being overly concerned about one’s body image or it can be the condition medically known as anorexia nervosa. What is anorexia nervosa, what are its symptoms and what kinds of medical treatments are available? Find out below.
Anorexia nervosa has been defined as an eating disorder, in which a person has become obsessed with body weight due to a fear of gaining weight. It is diagnosed as a serious psychological disorder that requires prompt medical treatment. The common stereotype is that this mental condition mainly affects young white women in their teens and twenties, but in fact, anorexia nervosa can affect anyone of any race, age group or social background.
What are the symptoms of anorexia nervosa?
-Rapid weight loss
-Scarring of the knuckles, commonly called “Russell’s Sign,” named for British Psychiatrist Gerald Russell, in which the anorexia victim constantly puts their fingers in their throats to induce vomiting.
-Lanugo, or the condition in which soft facial hairs grows on the victim’s body
-An obsession with calories and fat content
-Fear of growing overweight
-A preoccupation with food, recipes and cooking
-Dieting, despite the fact that anorexia sufferers are already thin
-Purging, or the habit of constantly trying to remove added calories by using laxatives to induce vomiting
-Loneliness
-Depression
-Swelling of the joints
If the above symptoms are not quickly identified and corrected in time, it can result in death. How can this terrible psychological disorder be diagnosed? The best thing for the anorexia nervosa sufferer to do is to get immediate help from a licensed physician.
It is usually best to go to a board-certified physician to get a qualified, professional opinion and the proper medical care and treatment. A doctor will probably focus on three basic matters to restore the anorexia nervosa victim back to proper health:
1-Restoring the person’s body back to its proper weight
2-Identifying the psychological symptoms of the condition
3-Reducing and eliminating the problems that led to the condition in the first place
Another factor that has greatly contributed to the anorexia nervosa sufferer’s physical improvement has been in raising the level of zinc in the diet. Patient’s may even need to be prescribed medication, such as Olanzapine, which has proven to greatly reduce the more serious symptoms.
In addition to the above treatments, the anorexia nervosa patient will also need cognitive behavioral therapy so that they can return to leading a normal life.
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