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Author:
Robert Sanders

What Is Anorexia?

Anorexia is the decreased sense of appetite. It is frequently referred to with one of its subtypes, which is anorexia nervosa. There are many possible causes for a decreased appetite, some of which may be harmless while others pose significant risk for the person.

Common disorders that cause anorexia include dementia, severe depression, anorexia nervosa, dementia and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Some medications, antidepressants for example, can have anorexia as a side effect.

First of all it is necessary to know why you eat so little and have chosen to starve. Think about how you feel nowadays and how you would feel if you ate more. You will then notice that starvation gives you a feeling of security concerning yourself and you are afraid that eating more would take this away and you would become anxious and worried.

Compulsive eating and vomiting is used in the same way by some people. In psychology this is called using starvation as a defence mechanism i.e. you defend yourself against your internal worries by starvation. Starvation fills a similar function for you as alcohol does for the alcoholic and drugs for the drug addict. These are substances which reduce anxiety and create a false feeling of contentment.

By using starvation to repress unpleasant feelings you hinder yourself from acting on your internal needs and constructively understanding and learning to manage your problems. Psychotherapy helps us to be open for our internal thoughts and sensitive to all feelings in our inner world. Psychotherapy has a greater chance of success if you stop suppressing your feelings by starvation.

Starvation and underweight can also cause you to function badly in other areas such as work an family life.

If you terminate the starvation you will be compelled to deal with your feelings in a constructive way. You will discover that it is possible to understand and manage feeings and that there are better methods of management than suppression by starvation.

Article by Robert Sanders of http://www.anorexia-information-zone.com (The Information Resource For Anorexia)

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Eating Disorders... How We Rescued Our Child from Anorexia, Effecting a Complete Recovery in Just Six Months In March 2003 our then 13 year old daughter, Helen, was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, at which point she was on the verge of being emaciated. Her BMI was approximately 15. My initial reluctance to accept this diagnosis was dispelled towards the end of the month when Helen became severely dehydrated and suffered a complete nervous breakdown as the anorexia finally took total control of both her mind and body. It may sound melodramatic, but it was as if she had become possessed. Helen’s reaction, when encouraged to drink a glass water in order to ease the stomach cramps caused by the dehydration, was uncharacteristically aggressive and resulted in an hysterical screaming fit which unnerved both myself and Fiona, my ex-wife. Helen flew into a rage and began to scream: “IT'S WEIGHT, IT'S WEIGHT, IT'S WEIGHT!” At this point, we realised that we had no control over Helen whatsoever. However, by June 2003, only three months later, Fiona and myself had broken the illness and Helen was able to return to school. By September 2003 Helen had attained her perfect weight and the illness had been completely eradicated from her psyche. By January 2004, Helen was signed off by the adolescent mental health unit, her psychiatrist commenting that it was “one of the quickest recoveries” from mental illness that he had ever seen. In order to break the anorexia, my ex-wife and myself devised a radical treatment programme which was contrary to the advice of the medical specialists and which, for a number of weeks, put us in direct confrontation with them. Throughout this period, I rigorously maintained the validity of our approach and predicted that the anorexia would be “done and dusted” by Christmas. Helen’s psychiatrist was extremely sceptical and was clearly concerned by what he...