Anorexia nervosa: the thinning disease.

People are dying to be thin and sometimes literally die trying to be thin .Anorexia is an eating disorder in which the patient is obsessed with self starvation and refuses to maintain a normal body weight .The National Eating Disorder Association estimates that 5 -20% anorexics will not survive the complications associated with anorexia and quite a few of those will commit suicide..

So what causes anorexia?

Most of those with anorexia are women. Doctors aren’t sure what causes it. Reasons vary from genetics, peer pressure or culture .But the major reason is the media and fashion industry, which promotes the message, that thin is beautiful and thin is in. Some of these models can maintain a thin but healthy body weight, but the problem arises when a normal teenager tries to obsessively copy the same body weight..

How to cope with anorexia

Treatment of anorexia is difficult as anorexics refuse to believe that they have a problem .But with the proper support and care, they can be treated.

Keep in mind that the biggest challenge in treating anorexia is that the patient has to want to change. Some people actively advocate anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a disease. There are a large number of pro-anorexia websites which perpetuate the same fiction.The Eating Disorders Association (EDA) believes at least 400 pro-Anna (anorexia) sites and chat rooms currently exist on the Web.