Amna again glanced towards the girl sitting across from her at the train station. Her nose buried in a book; it took her a while to realize that it was actually Tehmina her old friend from college days. Just about four months since their graduation, Tehmina was practically unrecognizable her face looked yellow, shriveled and gaunt; even the lips seemed to have retreated, and her pallid skin was unevenly shadowed and deeply lined. With a gasp, Amna felt as if she was looking at the features of a dead girl.
A few seconds later, Amna collected herself — Tehmina was sitting there, swinging her leg, reading a book, obviously very much alive. But then, why did she look so ghastly?
What Amna didn’t realize, was that Tehmina was showing stark symptoms of anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that preys upon one to five % of all female teens and adolescents. Tehmina was wrapped up in extra loose clothing to disguise her extreme loss of weight, and she was greedily perusing the images in a cookbook. Anorexia might not be rare, but few people recognize it as a problem, and it is encouraged by the ignorance of peers and family members.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder with underlying emotional causes. Those suffering from anorexia are haunted day and night by the urgency of losing as much weight as they can. They severely restrict their intake of calories and in many cases, also engage in extreme and arduous exercises. To an anorexic, each pound lost is a victory, and there are no worldly limits to the situation of the obsession expect death.
Anorexia is a psychological disorder and germinates from emotional stress or the onset of despair and lack of self-esteem. While a variety of conditions may be responsible for the development of anorexia, all patients feel the same need for control which they only find in the manipulation of their own diet and bodyweight, hence they continually abuse it. 90% of anorexics are female, and almost all are teens and adolescents. Moreover, anorexia is chronic, and those who are affected once are prone to show symptoms repeatedly.
Anorexics are averse to eating, count their calories, and sometimes even exercise madly, all in a rush to keep losing weight. They ignore signs of bad health and waning looks, and take pride in their weight loss. However, to divert attention from their extreme thinness, anorexic patients will often wear baggy clothes to make themselves look fatter than they are. People, who have anorexia often develop a sideways obsession with food and love to plan meals, look at picture of food or cook something for their family. Along with this, symptoms of slow starvation are soon visible. The skin becomes dry and pallid, circulation is low, and body temperature drops. With prolonged anorexia, the nervous system fails, followed by eye coördination. The patient has severe hair fall and feels cold. The body starts surviving on body fat and the patient loses his/her defense against the cold.
It is difficult to cure anorexia, because anorexics don’t want to be cured. However, need to that ht treatment starts off without delay, and first aims at eliminating the medical complications, and gradually normalizing bodyweight and eating habits. After that, the issues of self-esteem need to be addressed and a correct perception of a healthy body image needs to be established. The patient almost always needs professional help. The health complications that stem from anorexia are many and grave, and it s therefore vital that it is immediately dealt with. Psychotherapy can be employed to tackle the psychological or emotional problems responsible for the onset of this disorder.
There are many social problems underlying this disorder, chiefly projection of a thin girl as beautiful girl by the media, and the undue acceptance of this concept by society. An increasing number of 13 and 14 year olds look up to poster girls as role models for looks. Ask any school going teen girl and she will tell you that good sense of fashion is practically a free ticket to popularity. On the other fat girls are often subject to unintentionally cutting and discriminating jokes, and are acutely aware of their own excess mass when they want to fit into something chic and desirable. Loathing for one’s own shell can be so dehumanizing that once pushed off the edge, its little wonder they will go to any length to keep losing weight.
While anorexia can be fatal, similar body weight complexes are equally damaging to physical and mental health, not to mention the future prospects of the afflicted persons. Girls who keep but a vestige of their original appetite in order to remain skinny not only deprive themselves of the nutrition their mind and body desperately need, but also suffer the consequences of this malnutrition as are apparent in their declines in academic or professional performance. Look around you; there may be such people in your very social sphere, outwardly jovial but secretly weeping over their clumsy weight. Next time you start calling someone fatty think about that.
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