Anorexia the disease

[Aractus]

So being that I'm currently talking about leading a healthy lifestyle, I thought I'd look into anorexia and try to understand it a bit better. I mean I don't know any anorexic people - I did know a couple of bulimic girls a number of years ago, but not anorexics. However, with that said, the notion of self-harm is not a foreign concept to me, and I've seen put themselves through all sorts of self-harm.

Resources.

This blog: is very informative. I haven't read too much of it yet, but it details a personal journey away from anorexia.

This video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEg30Qs9rrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l1qfmnOmOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QIhCtUgKfY

It was posted by Brian Kane, one of the guests on the show, on his youtube channel and you can see his other videos as he still struggles with anorexia. I think you'll agree he's a very funny guy!

What I've learned so far about anorexic people - usually they eat at the end of the day, privately/in secret. They will go through their whole day feeling hungry to feel a sense of accomplishment over the battle against hunger. They are usually very afraid of putting on any weight because a. it means they're no longer in control of their body and b. they're afraid of becoming fat - and even though it may be a long way off they're afraid that putting on any weight is a step in that direction.

Here's another Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXCgq7VRI9Y

These twins died in a fire in their apartment on 28/August/2012. But from the video above, I think it'd be obvious to anyone that they were extremely poisonous to each other - that is to say that they got negative-reinforcement from each other, constantly and daily. Interestingly enough they claim that they have never menstruated, meaning not only were they anorexic before puberty - but they actually were severely underweight at that time too! Not all anorexics are underweight, it depends on just how severe their illness is. An anorexic person could still consume enough food in their day to keep their body weight high.

Another interesting fact, and you won't find this on the first link because, well, it didn't happen to that girl, is that sometimes recovering anorexics literally cannot eat because of their illness. Eating can trigger involuntary vomiting. Suffers can cause so much damage to their internal organs that they are unable to properly digest meals. Here's someone this has happened to:

[azheathen]

Some other stuff you might wanna look into:
http://www.somethingfishy.com support site
Wasted, written by Marya Hornbacher - memoir of a gal with an eating disorder

[Faith No More]

I'm glad the title clarified that we are talking about anorexia the disease, because people might have thought this was about anorexia the dessert topping.

[Sejanus]

I'm glad the title clarified that we are talking about anorexia the disease, because people might have thought this was about anorexia the dessert topping.

Lol.

[Aractus]

I'm glad the title clarified that we are talking about anorexia the disease, because people might have thought this was about anorexia the dessert topping.

Well a lot of people don't really understand why it's a disease. For instance, I do not consider alcoholism a disease - I consider that an addiction (like any other drug addiction) - but there's no question in my mind that Anorexia Nervosa is a very, very serious mental illness that often results in death.

[Ryantology]

My mom battled anorexia and bulimia for many years, in large part the result of my grandmother destroying her sense of self-worth as a female through her formative years by making it known to her often that she felt that my mother was inferior to her male siblings.

It's not really fundamentally different from alcoholism (which my mom also battled just as hard). She was just as addicted to making herself ghastly skinny as she was to beer.

Addictive tendencies are a form of mental illness.

[downbeatplumb]

She was just as addicted to making herself ghastly skinny as she was to beer.

Beer does not help to make you skinny. As I know to my cost.

[Aractus]

Yep, alcohol has a lot of calories.

@Ryantology - sorry to hear about your mum. There is a difference though, that difference being that substance abuse is not universally regarded as a disease among health professionals, whereas Anorexia Nervosa is.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Thoroughly insensitive clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp8SkppJ4hw

Boru