Anorexia is a serious mental illness characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by severely restricting food intake and excessive exercise. Those with anorexia often have distorted body image and beliefs about food and weight. Left untreated, anorexia can cause long term physical and mental health problems and even death. While recovery is possible with treatment, anorexia has one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness.

1. Anorexia Nervosa & Pro-
Anorexia
Anorexia is a powerful and terrifying disease that a lot of
teenagers have to fight themselves. This disease consists of
constant restricting of calories/food, exercising non-stop
and living in constant fear of gaining weight or being judged.
But is there more to it than just those three main factors?

2. What is Anorexia?
Anorexia is a mental-disorder characterized by an endless desire
to lose weight by refusing to eat.
Anorexia often has certain behaviors that associate with not
eating and may or may not consist of ways to “purge” food from
the victims body.
But usually anorexia will consist of trying to lose weight by not
eating or exercising too much.

3. Anorexia Signs & Symptoms
“Dieting despite being thin – Following a severely restricted
diet. Eating only certain low-calorie foods. Banning “bad” foods
such as carbohydrates and fats.
Obsession with calories, fat grams, and nutrition – Reading
food labels, measuring and weighing portions, keeping a food
diary, reading diet books.
Pretending to eat or lying about eating – Hiding, playing with,
or throwing away food to avoid eating. Making excuses to get
out of meals (“I had a huge lunch” or “My stomach isn’t feeling
good.”).
Preoccupation with food – Constantly thinking about food.
Cooking for others, collecting recipes, reading food magazines,
or making meal plans while eating very little.
Strange or secretive food rituals – Refusing to eat around
others or in public places. Eating in rigid, ritualistic ways (e.g.
cutting food “just so”, chewing food and spitting it out, using a
specific plate).”

4. Physical Anorexia Symptoms
Dramatic weight loss – Rapid, drastic weight loss
with no medical cause.
Feeling fat, despite being underweight – You may
feel overweight in general or just “too fat” in
certain places such as the stomach, hips, or thighs.
Fixation on body image – Obsessed with weight,
body shape, or clothing size. Frequent weigh-ins
and concern over tiny fluctuations in weight.
Harshly critical of appearance – Spending a lot of
time in front of the mirror checking for flaws.
There’s always something to criticize. You’re never
thin enough.
Denial that you’re too thin – You may deny that
your low body weight is a problem, while trying to
conceal it (drinking a lot of water before being
weighed, wearing baggy or oversized clothes).

5. Purging Anorexia Symptoms
Using diet pills, laxatives, or diuretics –
Abusing water pills, herbal appetite
suppressants, prescription stimulants,
ipecac syrup, and other drugs for weight
loss.
Throwing up after eating – Frequently
disappearing after meals or going to the
bathroom. May run the water to disguise
sounds of vomiting or reappear smelling
like mouthwash or mints.
Compulsive exercising – Following a
punishing exercise regimen aimed at
burning calories. Exercising through
injuries, illness, and bad weather. Working
out extra hard after bingeing or eating
something “bad.”

6. What do people without Anorexia, see
Anorexia to be?
People without Anorexia
seem to shine the
spotlight on what we see
on TV, on one channel we
have a Victoria’s Secret
advertisement, flaunting
tall and thin women and
on another we have
fashion shows focusing on
thin models.
We see these thin people often as being “anorexic” and
we use a disease as a way to describe a certain weight
or bone shape. But the real disease is so much more
than this, so why do we claim that these people on TV
are anorexic or bulimic?

7. On the left is a photo of a
modern day model, people
often class people like her as
“anorexic” because they follow
a strict (but healthy) diet and
exercise plan.
But on the right are two
different females with the
anorexia disease, these people
walk with everybody else but
don’t get a spotlight because
society has classed models and
celebrities as “anorexic”
whether people with actual
mental disorders.

8. Mental Distortions of Pro-Anorexia
Pro-Anorexia is a big thing on the Internet right now. A
group/cult of “anorexia crusaders” are encouraging girls and
boys to not eat, to work out non-stop and to label food and
weight gain as something evil. They often address “ana” as
their god or goddess of weight loss, almost worshiping “her”
for inspiration to lose weight.
Many of these “crusaders” believe that once they restrict food
intake, purge and work out non-stop they will have a body
with beautiful/healthy curves and full breasts and they will be
beautiful. But their views on what anorexia is are incredibly
twisted and distorted to make them think they will have the
outcome of a Victoria’s Secret Angel.

9. A lot of these “anorexic crusaders” have no idea what
they’re setting themselves up for in terms of losing
weight at an unhealthy rate.
It should be common knowledge that with 0% body fat
you won’t have beautiful curves or cute thighs. Instead
you’ll have nothing but bone.
A lot of these girls use “thinspo” posts on their blogs
to help them and others hit their “goal weight” these
“thinspo” posts will usually contain some form of
ultimatum, i.e. “Would you rather have three meals or
a thigh gap?”
Using inspiration like this is incredibly triggering for
some young females and may send them into full-out
anorexia.

10. The Truth
The truth with pro-anorexia is that the outcome
will not look like a model. In fact, the outcome
could result in very life-threatening problems
concerning the weight and body mass index of
the victim with anorexia.
Nobody wants anorexia and nobody wants to
fear their own weight, so why encourage it?
There are many health problems associated with
anorexia-nervosa.

11. Health Problems
There are four serious long-term health problems that may be associated with anorexia.
These health problems include, • Heart problems
• Osteoporosis
• Mental health issues
• Death.

12. Heart Problems and Anorexia
Anorexia health problems related to the heart can include,
•A slowing of the heart rate
•Lower blood pressure Slow heart rate: your heart
Low blood pressure: Blood
•Irregular heart rhythms beats very slowly. In severe
pressure is generated by the
•Heart failure forms of slow heart rate, the
heart pumping blood into the
heart beats so slowly that it
Irregular heart rhythms arteries. Having low blood
doesn't pump enough blood to
and heart failure: Your pressure can lead to heart
meet the body's needs. This can
heart doesn’t have a disease, stroke, kidney
cause symptoms and can be life-
proper amount of beats problems, bad eyesight and
threatening.
per minute, so blood hardening of the arteries.
doesn’t get to the rest of
your body fast enough.
Heart failure is when your
heart stops completely.

13. Osteoporosis and Anorexia
Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.
This leads to increased bone fragility and risk of fracture (broken bones), particularly of the
hip, spine, wrist and shoulder. Osteoporosis is often known as "the silent thief" because bone
loss occurs without symptoms.
Osteoporosis is common in anorexia nervosa. It
places these patients at increased lifetime risk for
fractures. Bone loss may never recover completely
even once weight is restored. The strongest
predictors of osteoporosis include low body weight
and amenorrhea. Loss of bone density can occur
rapidly and very early in the course of anorexia
nervosa. The etiology of bone loss in the patient
with anorexia nervosa is multifactorial.

14. Anorexia and Mental-Problems
“Depression, or unipolar depression, is a problem
characterized by an extremely sad mood that lasts for
a long period of time and a lack of interest or pleasure
in doing things that usually makes a person happy.”
Does depression tie into Anorexia though? Many
teen’s from the social-media website Tumblr include
in their stories of their battles with Anorexia that
throughout the entire time they felt majorly
depressed and/or suicidal.
With such a harsh disease following them
around and making them hate their body more
and more, not to mention make them feel
guilty over what they eat and how they eat,
wouldn’t they feel some form of depression
throughout their battle?

15. Anorexia and Mental-Problems
“People with anorexia are often depressed. It can be a “which
came first, the chicken or the egg” type of thing. Did they
develop anorexia because they were depressed, or did they
become depressed because they are anorexic?”
“They often develop other self-destructive
behaviors, such as self-mutilation. They
may cut or burn or otherwise harm
themselves as a way of coping with painful
emotions.”

16. "Anorexia was my first love. We met and
were instantly attracted to each other. We
spent every moment of the day together.
Through its eyes, I saw the world
differently. It taught me to feel good
about myself, how to improve myself, and
how to think. Through it all, it never left
my side. It was always there when
everyone else had left, and as long as I
didn't ignore it, it never left me alone"
" - Portia De Rossi Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain"

17. Recovery and Help
Nobody wants to admit they have a problem, whether it be with school, or home
issues. It’s almost embarrassing or degrading to come out and say “I need help.”
it’s the exact same for people with anorexia, no victim of such a horrifying disease
wants to admit they have that disease, so they often go untreated.
Whether this lack of treatment is due to their self or their peers, it needs to stop.
When somebody notices that somebody’s eating habits have changed drastically,
they’ve lost a ridiculous amount of weight or they’re becoming detached from
everyone, it’s best to get help right away.

18. “But what if they’re mad at me?”
In the best way possible, people will often be
worried that their friend will be mad at them
if they reveal their condition. But the best
thing to remember is that a mad friend is
better than a dead friend, and once their
recovery is through they most likely will be
more grateful than upset at you for exposing
what’s going on.
People with anorexia often feel alone, so they shut out their emotions and make it seem like
nobody has to worry about them because they’re going to be fine, but that’s not going to
happen. Recovering from a mental disease by yourself would be an equivalent to coping with
a drug addiction by doing different drugs. There’s no gain at all, and no one is going to win or
come out healthy.
Anorexia isn’t something to be taken lightly, and there’s always help. The worst thing
somebody can do is assume they’ll be “fine” or judge somebody with a mental disorder and
class them as being weak and helpless. Everybody is different and everybody deals with things
in their life differently.

19. “There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only
small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that
doesn't matter anymore.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls
“I wanted to kill the me underneath. That fact haunted my days and nights. When you realize
you hate yourself so much, when you realize that you cannot stand who you are, and this deep
spite has been the motivation behind your behavior for many years, your brain can’t quite deal
with it. It will try very hard to avoid that realization; it will try, in a last-ditch effort to keep your
remaining parts alive, to remake the rest of you. This is, I believe, different from the suicidal
wish of those who are in so much pain that death feels like relief, different from the suicide I
would later attempt, trying to escape that pain. This is a wish to murder yourself; the
connotation of kill is too mild. This is a belief that you deserve slow torture, violent death.”
― Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

20. • “Between 10 and 20 percent of people with anorexia
die from heart attacks, other complications and
suicide; the disease has the highest mortality rate of
any mental illness. Or Kitty could have lost her life in a
different way, lost it to the roller coaster of relapse and
recovery, inpatient and outpatient, that eats up, on
average, five to seven years. Or a lifetime: only half of
all anorexics recovery in the end. The other half endure
lives of dysfunction and despair. Friends and families
give up on them. Doctors dread treating them. They’re
left to stand in the bakery with the voice ringing in
their ears, alone in every way that matters.”
― Harriet Brown

21. There’s always help available for anorexia. School counselors, teachers, parents, principals,
doctors and siblings are always willing to help. Coping with knowing your friend, classmate,
family member, etc. has anorexia is extremely difficult and whatever emotions you may feel
towards the situation, the victim is feeling 1,000,000x more. Getting help will be the best
solution to this mental problem.
Knowing that the end solution to anorexia
recovery is suicide is a brutal thing. It’s
hard to imagine how somebody feels to be
in constant torture, and nobody would
ever wish that upon somebody close or
even an acquaintance. Recovery is the best
option for these victims, before their
disease escalates into something more
dangerous or deadly.

22. • “She used to look forward to changing in the
locker room when other girls stole shocked
glances at her emaciated body last spring.
Now they would look at her and think she was
fat--just as fat as all the other girls, maybe
even fatter. Nothing separated her from the
parade of thunder thighs trooping up the
stairs from the locker room to the gym.”
― Steven Levenkron, Kessa

23. • “Being strong isn’t being able to starve
yourself for three weeks. Being strong is being
able to get out of your eating disorder and
becoming healthy, even when the voice in
your head won’t let you. Ignoring this voice,
ana or mia or both, IS being the strongest, so
don’t ever give up”

24. It will all turn out fine in the end. If it’s not
fine, it’s not the end.