The Nature of Anorexia

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To understand the potential risks of eating disorder blogs, one must first understand what it is like to have anorexia, an often-misunderstood syndrome. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anorexia has the highest mortality rate, among illnesses leading to death, for females between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, due to complications including malnutrition, dehydration, and serious heart, kidney, and liver damage (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa). Females can develop amenorrhea, a prolonged absence of menstruation due to the body being underweight, and may lose the ability to have children (“Facts”). Treatment for the physical problems is not as simple as demanding that patients eat more or trying to force-feed them; after all, the anorexic psychology is what compels them to starve themselves or compulsively exercise and to view food and their bodies as “the enemy.” The rebellious stunts pulled in inpatient treatment centers, such as patients spitting food into their sleeves to hide it, are one indicator that the mentality surrounding the anorexic experience is far more complicated and overpowering than the necessity of proper nutrition.

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Indeed, people with anorexia endure a multitude of psychological struggles. In mirrors, they see distorted versions of themselves, and even if they learn to recognize their thinness, they do not fully grasp the severity of its life-threatening complications. In their delusional body image, they may believe that the more bones that protrude from their bodies, the more beautiful or perfect or “right” they are (“Facts”). Because they are almost constantly subjected to “ED’s” extremely negative voice (which aims to rob them of their self-worth and rewards them for self-punishment through food restriction and over-exercise), people with anorexia can feel like their thoughts are without respite controlled by the eating disorder. For example, ED may tell anorexics not to eat a sandwich because they are gross, undeserving, hated, and going to get fat, while their “healthy” voices may tell them to eat the sandwich because they are hungry and it will be good for them. If they choose to eat the sandwich, ED will still badger them afterwards for being “weak” and unable to “control” themselves, stirring up feelings of guilt and shame (Mantella 13–14). In essence, having anorexia is like being in a silent and deadly mental dialogue with an omnipresent entity that hates you and causes you to obsess over weight to the point that it consumes your life, making you lose touch with friends, family, and activities that were previously enjoyable to you. As a result, people with anorexia experience depression, low self-esteem, impaired social relationships, mood swings, perfectionist or compulsive tendencies, and “all or nothing” attitudes (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa).

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Because anorexic thoughts flood the mind involuntarily, people with anorexia often create arbitrary eating rules like “do not ever eat after 7 p.m.,” “do not eat two starches in the same meal,” or “only eat four hundred calories a day.” By temperament, people with anorexia may be perfectionists, pleasers, or competitors—all aiming to be the best at what they do, even their own eating disorder. Exercising control over their appetites somehow eases their sense of personal emptiness and sadness (Wilkins 2). In these ways, anorexia becomes an identity to the point where those with it may feel like they are a “nobody” without it and will lose the “special” attention they receive if they recover. Anorexia is a social syndrome in another respect as well: when one person with anorexia sees another who may be skinnier than one is or who is eating less per meal, one may be triggered to feel “fat” again and try to discipline oneself with the eating disorder’s demands. One may think, “if she/he can eat that little, why can’t I? I will just cut out a few hundred calories today.” This competitive mindset can exacerbate anorexia.