Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa

What is Anorexia?

• Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person(usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15% or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve.

Who is Affected by Anorexia?

• Typically, young females are the most common victims of anorexia but males can also have the disorder.

How Many People are Affected?

• In America, approximately 8 million people suffer from an eating disorder.

• 1 in 200 women suffer from anorexia.• 9 out of 10 people with anorexia are women.

Celebrities With Anorexia

• Karen Carpenter• Terry Schiavo• Christy Henrich• Leila Pahlavi• Anne Sexton• Mary-Kate Olsen • Justine Bateman• Amanda Beard• Victoria Beckham• Elisa Donavan

What are the Symptoms of Anorexia?

• A person becomes more than 15% underweight.

• A person may be very irritable. • Sleep loss• Lack of focus and attentiveness• Extreme fatigue

How is Anorexia Treated?

• For severe weight loss, intravenous feeding and tube feeding through the mouth may be necessary.

• Scheduled eating, decreased physical activity, and increased social activity are also ways to regain weight.

Can Anorexia Disrupt One’s Social Life?

• In most cases yes. Anorexia can lead to social withdrawal, and in severe cases, depression.

What Causes Anorexia?

• Anorexia can be caused by a mixture of genetic history, social influences, occupational stress such as ballet or modeling, and personality traits.

Living with Anorexia

• As a male struggling with anorexia, getting through the day is extremely difficult. When I tell people I have anorexia, they don’t believe me because I am a man and people think it is solely a woman’s disorder.

Sexuality

• Because of my anorexia, people speculate that I am a homosexual. Having the disorder doesn’t mean I am gay (which I’m not). I just don’t like the way I look so I exercise excessively and limit my caloric intake to a minimum.

Daily Routine

• I wake up around 5:30 AM so I can run (5 miles) before work. Once at work, I’ll grab a power bar or some other small snack. I typically have a small lunch including lots of vegetables and fruit. Once I get home, I will get on the elliptical trainer for another 3 miles. For dinner I will eat my largest meal of the day. I never exceed 1500 calories per day.

Physical Attributes

• I am 6’3” and weigh 122 pounds. My mother has told me that I look very frail yet I see an overweight figure in the mirror.

Social Life

• I don’t have many friends because of my constant irritability. Also, because of my appearance, I don’t feel comfortable with social encounters. Because of my lack of friends, I sometimes feel depressed.

Love Life

• I am now 23 and have struggled with anorexia since I was 20. I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was 19. Every time I start talking with a girl, I lose my confidence and feel uncomfortable. This typically makes the girl uneasy and that concludes our meeting.

Work Life

• I work a typical 9-5 job, but my days at the office may be numbered. Because of my anorexia, I am extremely tired and inattentive causing my production to be minimized. My boss told me I had one more chance to prove I can be productive or else I am going to be fired.

Medical Effects

• At my last check up, my doctor stated that I have a possibility of organ failure due to malnutrition. He said he wants me to start eating 3000 calories per day, but that would throw off my diet.

Treatment

• I have decided to undergo treatment to try and rid myself of the disorder. My doctor has me on a diet that will cause me to gain 2-4 pounds per week. He also advised me to stop working out for a few weeks until I can maintain a healthy weight.

Improvements

• It is now 16 months later and I have successfully overcome my anorexia. My weight is up to 167 pounds and I actually have a girlfriend. Now that I’m eating much better, I am more focused at work and was promoted as a result. I feel much more confident and comfortable in my own skin.

Notice

• All the pictures of men featured in this power point are not of myself but rather are generic images used to describe myself and certain situations.