I held the milkshake to Kim’s mouth, trying to force her to eat it. It was the object of her deepest fear and loathing.
"You're trying to make me fat," she said in a high-pitched, distorted voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. She rocked, clutching her stomach, chanting over and over: "I'm a fat pig. I'm so fat."
That summer, Kim was 14. She was 4-foot-11 and weighed 71 pounds. I could see the angles and curves of each bone under her skin. Her hair, once shiny, was lank and falling out in clumps. Her breath carried the odor of ketosis, the sour smell of the starving body digesting itself. – Sarah, whose daughter survived anorexia nervosa.
The term anorexia is Greek which means “lack of appetite.” Anorexia is an eating disorder determined by low body weight and body image distortion. It is an obsessive fear of gaining weight. People with this disorder often control their body weight by starving and purging themselves. Anorexia also includes excessive exercise, or taking diet aids or any kind of drug to lose weight. Anorexia primarily affects young females, however 10% of men also struggle with this disorder.
Anorexia involves mainly psychological components. There is an intense preoccupation with food, body size and fear of being fat. There are many dangerous and potentially life threatening side effects to this disorder, including heart problems, organ damage, and even long-term bone damage.
Anorexia nervosa rarely resolves itself on its own and often requires significant amount of medical and psychological treatment. People with anorexia nervosa have better outcomes if they are treated early in the process, as this is a disorder which becomes progressively worse and more difficult to treat.
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