Anorexia's deceiving lies

Harmful effects of anorexia

Before I talk about recovery, I will talk about the harmful effects of anorexia, just to open up your mind before you consider restricting food, relapsing and not choosing to recover.

What is anorexia nervosa? Anorexia is a life threatening eating disorder, which is caused by starvation and weight loss. Eating disorders are not a "phase " or a "choice", it is something that gradually develops. Anorexia is most common in young girls or women, but it can also effect males. If you are not treated immediately and suffer from this illness for considerably a long time, it is possible to die from anorexia, as it is a mental disorder which has the highest death rate.
Remember, there is no particular weight or size to be suffering from an anorexia, anorexia is a mental disorder.

Symptoms of anorexia

There are many symptoms of anorexia such as;
1) Restriction or refusal to eat certain foods
2) Weight loss
3) Fear of gaining weight and fear of food
4) Excessive exercising, even if tired or ill
5) Comments and thoughts of feeling "fat"
6) Obsessing over weight, food, exercise, dieting, calories, etc.
7) Pushing family and friends away and not engaging in social activities because your scared to eat in public.
Etc.
If you or anyone you now experience these such symptoms, seek help quickly, before these symptoms can turn into something much more dangerous.

Harmful effects of anorexia

Now let's talk about the harmful effects of anorexia.
1) Mood swings
2) Depression
3) Extreme and dangerous weight loss
4) Fatigue, fainting, and overall weakness
5) Loss of menstruation cycle ( This fact may seem as bad to many, as I'm sure many don't like having their periods, but this is extremely dangerous as it means your body is no longer able to reproduce or function normally, if continued with this illness for a much longer time, you can permanently lose your menstruation forever- this is known as a disease called amenorrhea)
6) Dizziness
7) Hair Loss, bone loss, muscle loss and dry skin
8) Constipation
9) Dehydration and kidney failure
10) Slow heart rate, low blood pressure and heart failure.
11) Growth of a layer of hair called lanugo all over the body and face in order to keep your body warm
12) Mentally unstable and cannot think properly.
13) Catabolising (the body itself starts to eat up its organs, also a reason of not being able to think properly or do work, as your brain itself is being eaten up slowly.
14) Possible death
Etc
There are a lot of harmful effects of anorexia as you can see above, there are probably even more! Before you consider dieting, restricting or relapsing, look at the list above, do you really want to go through all that?

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

The Minnesota starvation experiment was an experiment carried out it in the year 1944 during the Second World War. For this experiment 36 of many volunteered men were starved for six months in order to help experts figure out how to treat starved victims during the Second World War.

All the 36 men were well and healthy before the experiment took place. The first few months into the experiment, the men were fed a normal and sufficient amount of food and calories, later on there was a dramatic decrease of the food given to the men. The men were giving only two meals a day. Some men became so obsessed with food later on, that they even started to read cook books. Personally that is something I too experienced. I used to read various cook books and make food for my family, but never for my self.
(In fact reading cook books are common in many who struggle with anorexia)

The calorie intake was further decreased, and the men were to run or walk 36 kilometres each week. The men faced many symptoms of starvation, which are the same as the symptomise of anorexia I have stated above. The men became depressed, tired, obsessed over food, became scared of food and gaining weight, and so on. Some of the men became so mentally unstable that one of them even chopped he's finger off for no known reason. One man even had a dream of cannibalism where he ate flesh of an old man! When I read this, I remembered how I used to imagine eating food just to keep me satisfied (as I mentioned previously) , of course I never dreamt of cannibalism, but that itself shows how mentally sick the brain can get when we starving ourselves, to the point we imagine or dream we are having some sort of food.

After six months, the men were fed with a sufficient amount of calories needed for them to recover back to normal. Some of the men did gain weight quickly and gained more weight than started, however their weight did stabilise after some time, while they continued to eat (this will be explained in the next chapter).
Some of the men fully recovered and even became chefs! Some others recovered, but showed a few disordered behaviour, while some other men went completely crazy and ended up in mental hospitals. That it self shows that people can recover in different ways, either quickly or slowly, while those who don't choose recover will come to point they are not at all mentally stable and can even die if not treated and continue to suffer with this illness.

I hope those few paragraphs have really opened your eyes as to how dangerous anorexia really is. If you are suffering from anorexia or any other eating disorder please get professional help and choose to recover, it really is worth it. I myself didn't want to recover, but looking back, recovery is one of the best decisions I've made. Recovery has saved me and it can save you too!