An anorexia diagnosis is not always easy to achieve, often because people struggling with eating disorders are secretive and embarrassed about their behaviors. They may also minimize any effects of their behavior. A diagnosis can be made by a physician, but is usually made by a mental health professional, who must often interview friends and family.
The most commonly used criteria for anorexia diagnosis are from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statiscal Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).
To be diagnosed a person must display:
- Refusal to maintain body weight at their minimal normal weight for age and height or failure to gain weight during a certain amount of time.
- Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming obese.
- Disturbance in the way in which their body’s weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of their low body weight.
- In post-menarcheal, pre-menopausal females (women who have had their first menstrual period but have not yet gone through menopause), amenorrhea (the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles).
- Or other eating related disorders, such as bulimia.
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