Anorexia nervosa is a disease that is found in teenager girls and affects the organism and the psychic too. It is not easy to detect an anorexic person and we can not categorize as anorexic all the thin girls. An anorexic person is one that is underweight for its age and height. This person looks skinny and has strange eating habits. For example anorexic persons cook impressive meals but do not participate at eating or they only pick up the foods they consider to be good and leave in the plate those foods that are bad in their opinion (especially those foods that contain fats and sugar).
These persons are terrified about the idea of gaining weight and will apply all the known methods to get rid of any extra kilos that do not match with their ideal of weight. They can use laxatives or they can throw up after eating. Due to excessive vomiting the enamel on the teeth will breakdown. Some go to the gym an exercise excessively. If one tells them they are slim they refuse to believe that and they always complain about how fat they are. Their psychic is affected by anorexia and all they can see is fat on their body. They do not want to talk about their problem and most of all they even deny that they have an eating problem.
The hair and nails will also get affected by this drastic diet and will become fragile, thin and dry. The monthly menstruation will not come any more and the breasts will shrink. The heart will be affected and will beat slower, less than 60 beats per minute; the blood pressure will become low, and the peripheral circulation of the blood will be affected giving purplish skin color. The palms and hands will have a yellowish color due to anemia.
If someone in the family tries to make the affected person eat more that person will develop some ways of avoiding eating. The anorexic person can cut into tiny pieces the meal and will rearrange it on the plate to look like she has been eating from it, and might even hide or throw away the food.
Sometimes these persons isolate from others because they can not invent excuses for their behavior any more. They might become interested in suicide and might ask questions about death. Pay attention to any of these because this is a warning sign of a possible suicide. Another sign is abusing alcohol or using drugs; in adults: loosing the job or getting a divorce is also a possible sign of future suicidal acts.
By: Groshan Fabiola