Anorexia Nervosa and Female Adolescents

Anorexia nervosa is a relatively uncommon but very serious eating disorder that occurs principally in women in the second and third decades of life. The disease is characterized by an extreme and neurotic aversion to food. Medically, the exact cause of this disorder is not known, but he illness apparently has its beginnings in a complex group of psychological problems such as inner conflicts over sexuality, aggression and dependency (which at times border almost on the psychotic) as well as sociological factors not yet clearly understood. The anorexic person may have difficulty with self-identification and may even, in extreme cases, associate food with unacceptable sexual fantasies or even with the unconscious rejection of sexuality. It is not uncommon for the anorexic to have a mother who is overly concerned with weight reduction and matters pertaining to diet. The anorexic herself may be overly sensitive about adolescent plumpness.

An anorexic person generally displays persistent refusal to eat adequately, even in the face of real hunger, and this leads to profound weight loss and emaciation. Every type of deceit will be utilized in order to lose weight, including l

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ls superior to anyone. Even the small successes of others serve only to underscore her (imagined) inadequacy. Before going further, we should differentiate anorexia nervosa from other behavioral problems including bulimia, a related but different disorder, of more recent identification by physicians and psychologists. Anorexia nervosa should not be confused with what seems to be a common striving among women who, motivated by vanity, seek a slender figure in today's "thin is beautiful" society. Also, anorexia nervosa is different from bulimia, which afflicts many women, especially in the United States. For many years, bulimia was considered to be one type of anorexic behavior. By recognizing bulimia as a separate disorder, the American Psychiatric Association isolated a much larger group than those who could safely be classified as anorexic. Although many of the casual issues surrounding these eating disorders are related, and many anorexics also purge, anorexia is basically characterized by self-starvation. The clinical diagnosis of this disorder includes the loss of 25 percent of body weight. In both cases, the relationship with food is a symptom of other serious problems. However, in general, anorexics reject food,
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