Anorexia is defined as follows:
Self provoked starvation and excessive weight loss, accompanied by an intense fear of being fat; a tireless quest to lose weight.
Anorexia is associated with feelings and behaviors that have to do with the fear of being fat.
A person with anorexia has a distorted image of his or her body and has a fear of food in terms of its ability to create fat and an intense fear of maintaining a normal body weight.
It is important to understand that people with anorexia have not lost their appetite. In fact, they can be very hungry. A person with anorexia will probably be thinking about food all the time, and perhaps even want to be near food (many times an anorexic person will be around the kitchen and be cooking).
But even if they suffer from hunger, fear is often greater. This behavior is also an example of the strength of will power they practice based on the need to be in control.
It is often difficult for anorexics (and others) to understand that their behavior is not really about food.
Someone in this condition has a great fear that their life is out of control and so he or she begins to monitor food and their weight to restore a sense of control over their lives.
Therefore, anorexia is an attempt to restore some control over one aspect of the person’s life. Although the food is of paramount importance, it is a symptom, and anorexia is really about feelings and emotions.
This last part has to be understood. Obviously the feeding and physical health side has to be treated. But the emotional and psychological aspects must also be treated, therefore common sense, logic and experience tell us that a multidisciplinary treatment has to be put into place.
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