The term ‘anorexia nervosa (AN)’ is, in itself, misleading and generally considered a misnomer.
1) ‘Anorexia’ implies that the individual has lost all interest in food, never hungry and has no appetite. Yet, this is rarely the case. The opposite is more accurate of the AN experience.
The person is not only very interested in food and frequently very hungry, but as weight continues to decrease, and the person reaches low-weight stages AN, their preoccupation and obsession with food becomes overwhelming.
Nevertheless, the person experiencing AN will do everything in their power to deny and ignore these feelings and sensations and not permit themselves to eat. This is a particularly important characteristic AN, along with individual’s attempt to strictly control food and eating, with great time & effort.
The question of ‘what is AN?’ is difficult one to answer given particularly complex and multidimensional nature of the illness.
A large spectrum of physical, psychological, social, em…
1) ‘Anorexia’ implies that the individual has lost all interest in food, never hungry and has no appetite. Yet, this is rarely the case. The opposite is more accurate of the AN experience.
The person is not only very interested in food and frequently very hungry, but as weight continues to decrease, and the person reaches low-weight stages AN, their preoccupation and obsession with food becomes overwhelming.
Nevertheless, the person experiencing AN will do everything in their power to deny and ignore these feelings and sensations and not permit themselves to eat. This is a particularly important characteristic AN, along with individual’s attempt to strictly control food and eating, with great time & effort.
The question of ‘what is AN?’ is difficult one to answer given particularly complex and multidimensional nature of the illness.
A large spectrum of physical, psychological, social, em…