Anorexia Nervosa

Ok, now this should be a fun review to do (sarcasm at its best), but there's several reasons why I've chosen this topic. Firstly because I keep looking at it and thinking I should but never quite plucking up the courage...secondly because I think I can have something useful to say because I've been there...some would say still am there...and thirdly because it's a controversial topic...and I've always liked controversial topics... There are also several reasons for why I've been avoiding this topic...and possibly the most major is the fact that I've got to 'know' and 'like' a fair few members on this site...and the last thing I want to do is scare them ...

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that if left untreated, can result in death. This mental illness affects an alarmingly high percentage of people, and the majority of sufferers are women, but the percentage of male sufferers is increasing. I have suffered from anorexia for about 9 years, and although I am now healthy, it is still sadly a part of my life. I hope that from reading this review, you will learn about the possible causes of the illness, the effects on the body, how to help someone with this eating disorder, and how to prevent this illness from occurring. Personally, I believe that anorexia manifests itself in obsessional people, but perhaps unlike ...

I first became obviously anorexic at the age of 14, towards the beginning of the year. By October I had been hospitalised, in an isolation cell of the psychatric wing of Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. I finally left the hospital four and a half months later, but it took me another five or so years to recover from my eating disorder. Firstly, to clarify one widespreead misconception: Anorexia is not about weight loss. It is about a much deeper, underlying emotional distress, which happens to manifest in obsessive weight loss, just as it could have manifested in, for example, drug addiction, obesity or suicide. Secondly, an anorexic is no more in ...