Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person's food intake is less than the usual daily consumption. Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa maintain secrecy during self-starvation in order to maintain weight reduction. They have a slim body and are obsessed with food and personal weight because it is linked to the individual's self-esteem. Individuals are terrified of the thought of gaining or losing too much weight. They engage in extreme activity, an irregular diet, and purposefully skip meals in order to reduce weight or maintain a lean figure.  People under this condition weigh their bodies frequently, check calorie content of food taken and avoid social function where food is readily available. They take fluids mostly or eat less and hide their thin bodies in oversized clothes. According to their dysfunctional thinking; they believe they are fat when there are not and strive to lose weight. Hence suffers health problems like hypoglycemia, fatigue and weakness, hypokalemia and issues of thermoregulation after some time and may have distorted body shape. Psychological and emotional problems lead to anorexia nervosa, people with low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction eat less to lose weight and maintain their body shapes.

Depression and trauma from previous physical or sexual assault may lead to lack of appetite as victims try to cope with the trauma. Pressure from the society and media personalities portraying thinness as the perfection of beauty makes individuals’ particularly women to consume less to maintain lean bodies as they are judged by their appearance. Interpersonal issues; breakups, divorce, and loss of loved ones, these issues overpower individuals emotionally causing them to lose appetite as they try to cope with their situation and medicate their emotions, past issues, having been a victim of critics and bullying especially about body weight.

Biological issues like genetic predisposition and imbalance of chemicals in the brain also cause disordered eating as hormones and receptors that receive hunger information in the brain don’t work well. Athletic influences; a sport that is body conscious and the need to maintain fit body while still exercising and not losing body shape puts athlete’s under a lot of pressure forcing them to monitor their eating habits, use laxatives, and diet pills and over-exercise to maintain a fit physique and posture.