Anorexia Nervosa: What is it?

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness that describes an eating disorder which involves symptoms of extreme low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight.

Individuals with anorexia are known to control body weight commonly through the means of voluntary starvation, purging, excessive exercise or other weight control measures such as diet pills or diuretic drugs.

The condition normally affects adolescent females with 10% of people being male. Anorexia nervosa, involving neurobiological, psychological, and sociological components is a complex condition that can lead to death in severe cases.

The term anorexia is of Greek origin: a (α, prefix of negation), n (ν, link between two vowels) and orexis (ορεξις, appetite), thus meaning a lack of desire to eat.

Well, here is the information about the disorder, but the real issue is how many people notice that they are suffering and how many people take some form of action against it?

Keep me posted...

Why is weight an issue for women?

I was making my way to my University when I bumped into Kalpana, a student at Westminster University, on the bus. I noticed that she had bought a magazine (I don't think it would be appropriate to name) so we opened it up and flicked through its glossy, 'thin-womened' (I dare to say) pages...

Interestingly, we were both commenting on the size of these women/girls shown in the magazine. We thought that they were thin as a stick.

Many women and young teenage girls think that food is a monster. This results in eating disorders such as Anorexia nervosa.

What can we do as reasonable adults to end and if not end, then change such insecurity for the minds of these young women?

Please feel free to comment...