Anorexia nervosa is a mental disease that, over time, can cause serious physical damage to the body. Anorexia is more commonly diagnosed for adolescent girls who are dissatisfied with their outside appearance and have family problems. The condition manifests with 3 main signs: not eating (anorexia), loss of menstrual periods (amenorrhea) and psycho-emotional difficulties. Anorexia makes the body weak and vulnerable to infections. Severe cases are treated with nutritive supplementary therapy. Antidepressants and psycho-therapy are also necessary.


According to your data (height, age and sex) and my calculations... you should weight about 59kg and you are about 58kg. This means that for now, your condition is not severe. Please know that you are not alone and that other people feel the same way that you do. Also know that eating disorders are serious physical and mental issues, often complex in nature. If you continue to avoid food, the condition will worsen. It is difficult to be honest about your health, especially when feelings of guilt or shame accompany a medical condition. But take hope! Anorexia is treatable and is a medical condition. If you don't feel comfortable trusting your primary physician, try to seek the counsel of a trusted person. The point is that you need treatment and admitting that there is a problem present is the first step toward recovery. Expert help can be sought from a mental health professional (like a psychologist or a psychiatrist, or a treatment center specializing in eating disorders). But you must be ready to take the first step, which is "telling on yourself." Only then can others help. Additionally, you can use the community on ehealthforum as support and seek opinions from women or girls who have recovered from anorexia.

I don't understand why doctors let patients starve themselves until they are extremely sick? I have been anorexic for many years. But, I go through periods of recovery. Then, I seem to relapse & I will suddenly lose a ton of weight until I stop losing weight - no matter how much I starve myself. My point is - I have been in the middle of serious starvation & still weighed 165 pounds before! After a few months, I always lose back down to a tiny size/weight. But, when I recover, I re-gain weight. Then, it starts all over again! During all of these periods of time, I am still anorexic. In reality, it does not matter how much someone weighs. If someone starves herself for more than a couple of days - she needs immediate help. The longer one is allowed to continue this negative behavior of self starvation - the worse off the mental, physical, & overall medical health will become. I now have many serious problems related to a lifetime of anorexia. Thank God I finally had a Doctor who knew what was going on, & he diagnosed me & treated the illness back in 2000. but, he retired, and I have starved myself now for 21 months, and my new doctor is just now getting concerned after I have lost 70 pounds? It angers me to hear people who go untreated like I have done until they are in terrible condition or until it's too late! 1 day is too long to starve! Eat to live! Food is a necessary medication to survive!

How dop you feel the media portrays anorexia?

Dear Betsybk,

I picked out a few of your sentences.............

"I don't understand why doctors let patients starve themselves until they are extremely sick?"

"until I stop losing weight - no matter how much I starve myself."

" If someone starves herself for more than a couple of days - she needs immediate help. The longer one is allowed to continue this" " "I now have many serious problems related to a lifetime of anorexia"

"my new doctor is just now getting concerned after I have lost 70 pounds? It angers me to hear people who go untreated like I have done "

Heres my confusion about what you wrote..............
1)
You write that it is bad for you to starve yourself;.. but then you still starve yourself.... so, what are you angry at the DOCTOR for-
....?? not stopping you/not noticing??....
2)
Do you have parents/caretakers? Do you want them to notice?

3) Why don't you tell the doctor?
YOU have the power to get help. Ask him/her to help you.

4) Be careful...starvation can cause heart attacks, damage your digestive system permanently, and give you cancer. If you need attention, ask the doctor to help. But right now, your anger is hurting you.....not the people you are mad at.

Good evening doctor, I am a 30 years old male man.10 years ago I faced a problem that make me unpleasant, depressed with unstable mood.I have sever anorexia that make me thin man (my weight about 45 kg and my height about 1.75 m). I did all the investigations concerning anoher diseases but all investigations were normal. My body is very thin and I undergo embrassment from my friends, wife and other relatives. I toke appetite stimulant (periactin) and tonics but without benifit and I don know what I do?. My mood is unstable and I fell with fear from any person who has higher degree than me (in scientific degree or proffessional degree) also I fell with fear from car driving and crowded road. I think I have anorexia nervosa and phobia but I dont know what is the solution. Some physicians advice me to take IV therapy (like vamine amino acids and Intralipids)and others advice me to take anabolic hormons but I dont agree with them. Please tell me the appropriate management and can I take anabolic hormons and IV therapy? please help me.
with my best regards

I Worried im getting anorexic i dont like to eat alot any of the time and when i think of eating i always think of putting weight on and that scares me.
im 66 inches and 70 pounds.
iv made myself sick Quite alot in the past few months
and cant eat any food without being sick.
do i need help ?

Don't ever say that you are not brave because the bravest thing you could ever do in this situation is to resist the voice of your eating disorder and try to get help and advise on this forum. That's exactly what you've done. I know that your eating disorder is telling you that you are fat and ugly and that to make your life better and easier and more controlled/to punish yourself the right thing to do is to starve or to make yourself sick. even if you can't actually hear a voice saying this to you it is the eating disorder that is making you feel this way. It is taking you over and making you blind to your actually very healthy and very attractive body and weight. Did you know that studies have actually proven that your weight is THE most attractive weight accoridng to the opposite sex. And I am not joking. There is no doubt you are very attractive, your eating disorder is just trying to make you believe that you are fat and ugly and deserve to starve but it LIES. Please you must understand that. Nobody NOBODY deserves to starve themselves or to make themselves sick. Nobody. Please please please go and see your doctor and tell them that you think you have an eating disorder because I know it might not feel to you that it is a big deal or that it is dangerous but it truely truely is. Don't worry about your doctor telling your family or whoever it is you think they will tell, because they need to know. I know how it can seem that telling your family and friends that you have an eating disorder feels that it will make everythign worse and upset them deeply that is how I felt. But in actual fact it made it so much better and it made it so much easier to recover when they actually understood what I was doing and feeling. It made me so much happier. And you deserve to be happy.Please please talk to your doctor or a nurse or a counsellor or tell your school or teacher or school nurse that you think you have an eating disorder. Anything. Please don't suffer an eating disorder in silence because it will suck all of the health and the happiness and the beauty and the energy and the life out of you and your family and even if you think thats what you want that is the eating disorder telling you that. Don't listen to it. Fight it. And please don't think that you are not worth saving because you are. xxxxxxx Love Lucy

I hope you make a recovery soon 200 calories.. is crazy..!