Facts About Anorexia and Bulimia - Dying to Look Good

Are you a Sopranos Fan?  If you are then you know who Jamie-Lynn DiScala is.  She is the spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association.  Jamie-Lynn is the perfect leader here because she has been there and done that.  She suffered with an eating disorder through her teenage years with anorexia.

Consider this.  What about Lara Flynn Boyle?  Oh you remember her.  On the red carpet in 2003 she shocked everyone with her look at the Golden Globes.  She was so pathetic looking she refused to admit that she had a problem.  But do not think this is a rich or famous problem; it happens in our neighborhoods as well.  And in our schools.  Just look around.

Anorexia is defined by Wikipedia as this:
Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes an eating disorder characterized by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Individuals with anorexia often control body weight by voluntary starvation, purging, vomiting, excessive exercise, or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs. It primarily affects adolescent females, however approximately 10% of people with the diagnosis are male. Anorexia nervosa is a complex condition, involving psychological, neurobiological, and sociological components.

Remember, the food is not the problem but rather the tool.  Suffering from Anorexia, food becomes the tool of control that a person uses against themselves.  Continuing down this path will result in losing your sense of perspective.

Clearly, this is how a sufferer can look in the mirror and see places on their body that they consider hideously fat.  Remember the mirrors that distort your image?  That is how a suffer of an eating disorder sees themselves.

So you have to ask; "Why don't these beautiful people get help?"  Why is it that 20% suffering from Anorexia die every year?

Here are some of the signs:
- Fatigue – often feeling cold
- Pushing food around or throwing it away
- Withdrawing from friends
- Avoiding events that involve food
- Setting up extreme food rules
- Obsessing about calorie counting and food contents
- Hair loss, sallow skin
- Dizziness or disorientation
- Normal menstruation ceases
- Depressed or anxious
- Perfectionist attitude about even minor things

Bulimia is another disorder defined in this way (from Wikipedia):
Bulimia nervosa, commonly known as bulimia, is an eating disorder in which the subject engages in recurrent binge eating followed by feelings of guilt, depression, and self-condemnation. The sufferer will then engage in compensatory behaviors to make up for the excessive eating, which are referred to as "purging". Purging can take the form of vomiting, fasting, the use of laxatives, enemas, diuretics or other medications, or over exercising.

Sadly, this is a secret problem.  The effects are public but the act of purging the food is a shameful act so that is why it is so hard to detect.

A person can appear to be eating like everyone else but secretly goes to the bathroom and does the deed.  Strangely, there are other ways to force the food out rather than vomiting such as laxatives and even diuretics.

With this disorder a first sign can come from a dentist due to the excessive vomiting the teeth are affected first.  But even that can be hidden by a cunning person.

If you are suffering from an eating disorder like Bulimia or Anorexia then please get help.  As with most problems the hardest part is breaking through the denial issue.  Once you can achieve that then you can overcome the problem.  But please get help!  You or a loved one cannot do this alone.

Document: xEDOI1-3