By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Anorexia is a killer.

We know Anorexia Nervosa, Anorexia for short, is out there. This eating disorder can be a fatal disease. Most of us can name a famous celebrity or two who suffered and died as a result of Anorexia. But when someone we know, someone in our family develops Anorexia we are likely to look the other way until it is too late.

Anorexia Nervosa, along with Bulimia and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, mostly binge eating without an effort to lose the weight, these are the three currently recognized eating disorders. There are many misconceptions about Anorexia.

Anorexia is not dieting gone too far. Anorexia’s most recognizable feature is a refusal to maintain normal body weight. It is a distortion in the way the person sees themselves. The person with Anorexia sits in front of me. It is hard for me to look at them. The bones are visible and they look like a skeleton walking. They hid this from people for a long time with baggy clothes, strange secretive eating habits, or other devices.

Anorexia is not a loss of appetite. Even in the presence of extreme hunger, someone with Anorexia will refuse to eat.

I ask the person with Anorexia what she thinks of her weight. She says she needs to lose some weight, she is getting fat. I ask how much weight, she tells me five maybe ten pounds.  If I were to show her the mirror, let her see the bones sticking out, would that change her mind? Not likely. People with Anorexia even when confronted with a look at the bones that stick out will still insist they are too fat; they need to lose more weight. The problem is not in the diet but in the mind. The image in the mirror looks fat to them.

It is not about a lack of interest in food. Many with Anorexia watch cooking shows, own recipe books, and even hoard food. In the early stages, they may develop odd picky eating preferences and habits. Some appear to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder when it involves food, weight, and dieting. They may refuse to eat in public and insist on taking their food to their rooms. They may have a strong perfectionist inclination.

They know the ingredients in the foods and can tell you more about the nutritional values than most dietitians, only they refuse to eat until they damage some organs. Sometimes the dieting and the other behaviors continue until death.

You don’t see a lot of Anorexia in poor families. It is more likely among the middle class and the rich. All the resources in the richest country on earth and still they starve – on purpose.

The thing that matters most to the anorexic is not the food – it is the control. They may have no control in any other area of their life but you can’t make them eat. Force feed them and they will vomit. The ways a person with Anorexia may reduce their weight are varied and imaginative. They may restrict, purge, use laxatives, or exercise to the extreme.

Anorexia doesn’t just cost weight. It affects a person’s overall psychical health, their psychology, and their social life.

Anorexia is most often not a stand-alone disorder. It like the other eating disorders, Bulimia and Binge Eating, frequently co-occur with anxiety and depression.

Besides the low weight, how can you tell if it is Anorexia and not just a dedicated dieter?

Someone with Anorexia will weigh less than 85% of what is considered normal for their height and age. They become extremely fearful of gaining any weight even when they know that they are thinner than their peers.

In women, they will have missed three or more menstrual cycles.

Someone with Anorexia sees their extremely low weight as a great achievement rather than a life-threatening illness.

Anorexia is not a phase teenagers go through even though many first develop the symptoms in their teen years. It is a life-threatening illness. Without treatment, it is highly unlikely to go away and is very likely to get worse until eventually it impairs health and may result in death.

Dieting is not the only way someone with Anorexia might control their weight. Some people binge eat and then purge, they may develop a ritual around their efforts to vomit and undo the binge eating. Those with Anorexia who binge and purge are more likely to develop other impulse control problems; they may abuse drugs and alcohol and engage in excessive, risky sex. Those who binge and purge are more likely to attempt suicide.

Anorexia Nervosa affects about one in two hundred people. Lots more cases come close but don’t get diagnosed because they don’t get below 85 % of normal weight measures. Most clients with Anorexia are female and this disorder most often starts in the early to middle teenage years, but not always.

Most any clinician can recognize and diagnose Anorexia but very few are willing to treat this condition. Even psychiatric hospitals are likely to refuse clients with Anorexia because of the high risk of permanent medical problems or death. There are effective techniques for treating Anorexia but they are specialized and often treatment occurs at treatment facilities that specialize in eating disorders.

Anorexia is a dangerous sometimes fatal condition. If you or someone you know has signs of this disorder please seek professional help before it is too late.

Other posts about eating disorders and the new DSM-V proposals will be found at:

Binge Eating Disorder – the other side of Anorexia and Bulimia 

Middle class and starving to death in America – An Eating Disorder called Anorexia

Love-Hate Relationship with food – Bulimia Nervosa

Eating Disorders and Substance abuse  

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

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