Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder, but it must be said that it is also a psychological disorder. The person having anorexia is preoccupied to lose weight, and in time, this persons starts to believe that the weight loss is a sign of control over the body. Then, the one affected by anorexia continues with an endless cycle of restrictive eating, and this can lead finally to self- starvation. This cycle becomes an obsession.



It was seen that women are the most affected by this illness, especially adolescent girls. Anorexia is more common in middle and upper socioeconomic groups, and the Caucasians are the most often affected people.

At this moment, science can't explain which is the exact cause of anorexia, but there are a few factors that seem to be responsible. Because the modern society associated the concept of ?beauty? with ?thin?, many women are under the pressure to be thin and attractive, and for that, they begin dieting and starving. Also, seems that a low self ?esteem is another cause that can lead to anorexia.

Some researchers say that there is a genetic component that may play a role in determining a person's susceptibility to anorexia, and others suggest that this illness can result from a particular dysfunction often seen in families of anorexia patients. In this type of dysfunction, family members become so interdependent, that they cannot achieve their own personality, so children, especially girls take a restrictive diet to prevent growing up, in their thinking that restricts the maturational process, and they will be forever in the parent-child relationship.

There also exists the suspicion that anorexia is caused by a dysfunction in the part of the brain which regulates certain metabolic processes.

People that have anorexia deny this problem, they want to hide the symptoms, that's why it is complicated to diagnose this disease. In many times, the family members see that there is a great weight loss, and ask for medical help, but the one who has anorexia may be unreliable in terms of providing accurate information, that's why in many cases the doctor needs to obtain information from the others members of the family in order to evaluate the degree of weight loss and extent of the disorder.

There are four basic criteria for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and we can mention the denial to maintain a body weight according to the age and height, permanent fear of gaining weight and becoming fat, a distorted self- perception, and in women who begun their menstrual cycle, at least three consecutive periods are missed or menstrual periods occur only after a hormone is administered.

There are two types of anorexia: the binge eating/purging type and the restricting type.

The person having the first type engages in binge eating or purging behavior, which means it includes self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

The one who has the second type severely restricts food intake.

It is very important for us to understand that there are different persons having different bodies, and we mustn't get obsessed by the so called ?perfect bodies? imposed by the modern society.