1. Anorexia Nervosa & Pro- Anorexia Anorexia is a powerful and terrifying disease that a lot ofteenagers have to fight themselves. This disease consists of constant restricting of calories/food, exercising non-stopand living in constant fear of gaining weight or being judged. But is there more to it than just those three main factors?

2. What is Anorexia?Anorexia is a mental-disorder characterized by an endless desireto lose weight by refusing to eat. Anorexia often has certain behaviors that associate with noteating and may or may not consist of ways to purge food fromthe victims body.But usually anorexia will consist of trying to lose weight by noteating or exercising too much.

3. Anorexia Signs & SymptomsDieting despite being thin Following a severely restricteddiet. Eating only certain low-calorie foods. Banning bad foodssuch as carbohydrates and fats.Obsession with calories, fat grams, and nutrition Readingfood labels, measuring and weighing portions, keeping a fooddiary, reading diet books.Pretending to eat or lying about eating Hiding, playing with,or throwing away food to avoid eating. Making excuses to getout of meals (I had a huge lunch or My stomach isnt feelinggood.).Preoccupation with food Constantly thinking about food.Cooking for others, collecting recipes, reading food magazines,or making meal plans while eating very little.Strange or secretive food rituals Refusing to eat aroundothers or in public places. Eating in rigid, ritualistic ways (e.g.cutting food just so, chewing food and spitting it out, using aspecific plate).

4. Physical Anorexia SymptomsDramatic weight loss Rapid, drastic weight losswith no medical cause.Feeling fat, despite being underweight You mayfeel overweight in general or just too fat incertain places such as the stomach, hips, or thighs.Fixation on body image Obsessed with weight,body shape, or clothing size. Frequent weigh-insand concern over tiny fluctuations in weight.Harshly critical of appearance Spending a lot oftime in front of the mirror checking for flaws.Theres always something to criticize. Youre neverthin enough.Denial that youre too thin You may deny thatyour low body weight is a problem, while trying toconceal it (drinking a lot of water before beingweighed, wearing baggy or oversized clothes).

5. Purging Anorexia Symptoms Using diet pills, laxatives, or diuretics Abusing water pills, herbal appetite suppressants, prescription stimulants, ipecac syrup, and other drugs for weight loss. Throwing up after eating Frequently disappearing after meals or going to the bathroom. May run the water to disguise sounds of vomiting or reappear smelling like mouthwash or mints. Compulsive exercising Following a punishing exercise regimen aimed at burning calories. Exercising through injuries, illness, and bad weather. Working out extra hard after bingeing or eating something bad.

6. What do people without Anorexia, see Anorexia to be? People without Anorexia seem to shine the spotlight on what we see on TV, on one channel we have a Victorias Secret advertisement, flaunting tall and thin women and on another we have fashion shows focusing on thin models.We see these thin people often as being anorexic andwe use a disease as a way to describe a certain weightor bone shape. But the real disease is so much morethan this, so why do we claim that these people on TVare anorexic or bulimic?

7. On the left is a photo of amodern day model, peopleoften class people like her asanorexic because they followa strict (but healthy) diet andexercise plan.But on the right are twodifferent females with theanorexia disease, these peoplewalk with everybody else butdont get a spotlight becausesociety has classed models andcelebrities as anorexicwhether people with actualmental disorders.

8. Mental Distortions of Pro-Anorexia Pro-Anorexia is a big thing on the Internet right now. A group/cult of anorexia crusaders are encouraging girls and boys to not eat, to work out non-stop and to label food and weight gain as something evil. They often address ana as their god or goddess of weight loss, almost worshiping her for inspiration to lose weight. Many of these crusaders believe that once they restrict food intake, purge and work out non-stop they will have a body with beautiful/healthy curves and full breasts and they will be beautiful. But their views on what anorexia is are incredibly twisted and distorted to make them think they will have the outcome of a Victorias Secret Angel.

9. A lot of these anorexic crusaders have no idea what theyre setting themselves up for in terms of losing weight at an unhealthy rate. It should be common knowledge that with 0% body fat you wont have beautiful curves or cute thighs. Instead youll have nothing but bone.A lot of these girls use thinspo posts on their blogsto help them and others hit their goal weight thesethinspo posts will usually contain some form ofultimatum, i.e. Would you rather have three meals ora thigh gap?Using inspiration like this is incredibly triggering forsome young females and may send them into full-outanorexia.

10. The Truth The truth with pro-anorexia is that the outcome will not look like a model. In fact, the outcome could result in very life-threatening problems concerning the weight and body mass index of the victim with anorexia. Nobody wants anorexia and nobody wants to fear their own weight, so why encourage it?There are many health problems associated withanorexia-nervosa.

11. Health ProblemsThere are four serious long-term health problems that may be associated with anorexia.These health problems include, Heart problems Osteoporosis Mental health issues Death.

12. Heart Problems and AnorexiaAnorexia health problems related to the heart can include,A slowing of the heart rateLower blood pressure Slow heart rate: your heart Low blood pressure: BloodIrregular heart rhythms beats very slowly. In severe pressure is generated by theHeart failure forms of slow heart rate, the heart pumping blood into the heart beats so slowly that itIrregular heart rhythms arteries. Having low blood doesnt pump enough blood toand heart failure: Your pressure can lead to heart meet the bodys needs. This canheart doesnt have a disease, stroke, kidney cause symptoms and can be life-proper amount of beats problems, bad eyesight and threatening.per minute, so blood hardening of the arteries.doesnt get to the rest ofyour body fast enough.Heart failure is when yourheart stops completely.

13. Osteoporosis and AnorexiaOsteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.This leads to increased bone fragility and risk of fracture (broken bones), particularly of thehip, spine, wrist and shoulder. Osteoporosis is often known as "the silent thief" because boneloss occurs without symptoms. Osteoporosis is common in anorexia nervosa. It places these patients at increased lifetime risk for fractures. Bone loss may never recover completely even once weight is restored. The strongest predictors of osteoporosis include low body weight and amenorrhea. Loss of bone density can occur rapidly and very early in the course of anorexia nervosa. The etiology of bone loss in the patient with anorexia nervosa is multifactorial.

14. Anorexia and Mental-ProblemsDepression, or unipolar depression, is a problemcharacterized by an extremely sad mood that lasts fora long period of time and a lack of interest or pleasurein doing things that usually makes a person happy. Does depression tie into Anorexia though? Many teens from the social-media website Tumblr include in their stories of their battles with Anorexia that throughout the entire time they felt majorly depressed and/or suicidal. With such a harsh disease following them around and making them hate their body more and more, not to mention make them feel guilty over what they eat and how they eat, wouldnt they feel some form of depression throughout their battle?

15. Anorexia and Mental-ProblemsPeople with anorexia are often depressed. It can be a whichcame first, the chicken or the egg type of thing. Did theydevelop anorexia because they were depressed, or did theybecome depressed because they are anorexic? They often develop other self-destructive behaviors, such as self-mutilation. They may cut or burn or otherwise harm themselves as a way of coping with painful emotions.

16. "Anorexia was my first love. We met and were instantly attracted to each other. We spent every moment of the day together. Through its eyes, I saw the world differently. It taught me to feel good about myself, how to improve myself, and how to think. Through it all, it never left my side. It was always there when everyone else had left, and as long as I didnt ignore it, it never left me alone"" - Portia De Rossi Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain"

17. Recovery and HelpNobody wants to admit they have a problem, whether it be with school, or homeissues. Its almost embarrassing or degrading to come out and say I need help.its the exact same for people with anorexia, no victim of such a horrifying diseasewants to admit they have that disease, so they often go untreated.Whether this lack of treatment is due to their self or their peers, it needs to stop.When somebody notices that somebodys eating habits have changed drastically,theyve lost a ridiculous amount of weight or theyre becoming detached fromeveryone, its best to get help right away.

18. But what if theyre mad at me? In the best way possible, people will often be worried that their friend will be mad at them if they reveal their condition. But the best thing to remember is that a mad friend is better than a dead friend, and once their recovery is through they most likely will be more grateful than upset at you for exposing whats going on.People with anorexia often feel alone, so they shut out their emotions and make it seem likenobody has to worry about them because theyre going to be fine, but thats not going tohappen. Recovering from a mental disease by yourself would be an equivalent to coping witha drug addiction by doing different drugs. Theres no gain at all, and no one is going to win orcome out healthy.Anorexia isnt something to be taken lightly, and theres always help. The worst thingsomebody can do is assume theyll be fine or judge somebody with a mental disorder andclass them as being weak and helpless. Everybody is different and everybody deals with thingsin their life differently.

19. There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesnt matter anymore. Laurie Halse Anderson, WintergirlsI wanted to kill the me underneath. That fact haunted my days and nights. When you realizeyou hate yourself so much, when you realize that you cannot stand who you are, and this deepspite has been the motivation behind your behavior for many years, your brain cant quite dealwith it. It will try very hard to avoid that realization; it will try, in a last-ditch effort to keep yourremaining parts alive, to remake the rest of you. This is, I believe, different from the suicidalwish of those who are in so much pain that death feels like relief, different from the suicide Iwould later attempt, trying to escape that pain. This is a wish to murder yourself; theconnotation of kill is too mild. This is a belief that you deserve slow torture, violent death. Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

20. Between 10 and 20 percent of people with anorexia die from heart attacks, other complications and suicide; the disease has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Or Kitty could have lost her life in a different way, lost it to the roller coaster of relapse and recovery, inpatient and outpatient, that eats up, on average, five to seven years. Or a lifetime: only half of all anorexics recovery in the end. The other half endure lives of dysfunction and despair. Friends and families give up on them. Doctors dread treating them. Theyre left to stand in the bakery with the voice ringing in their ears, alone in every way that matters. Harriet Brown

21. Theres always help available for anorexia. School counselors, teachers, parents, principals,doctors and siblings are always willing to help. Coping with knowing your friend, classmate,family member, etc. has anorexia is extremely difficult and whatever emotions you may feeltowards the situation, the victim is feeling 1,000,000x more. Getting help will be the bestsolution to this mental problem.Knowing that the end solution to anorexiarecovery is suicide is a brutal thing. Itshard to imagine how somebody feels to bein constant torture, and nobody wouldever wish that upon somebody close oreven an acquaintance. Recovery is the bestoption for these victims, before theirdisease escalates into something moredangerous or deadly.

22. She used to look forward to changing in the locker room when other girls stole shocked glances at her emaciated body last spring. Now they would look at her and think she was fat--just as fat as all the other girls, maybe even fatter. Nothing separated her from the parade of thunder thighs trooping up the stairs from the locker room to the gym. Steven Levenkron, Kessa

23. Being strong isnt being able to starve yourself for three weeks. Being strong is being able to get out of your eating disorder and becoming healthy, even when the voice in your head wont let you. Ignoring this voice, ana or mia or both, IS being the strongest, so dont ever give up

24. It will all turn out fine in the end. If its notfine, its not the end.