Anorexia Nervosa

 Not a Harry Potter Spell !

Sorry to disappoint you guys there, but Anorexia Nervosa is classified as an eating disorder which causes people to form a negative self-image of themselves by continuously being fixated on their weight and intake. This condition can lead to severe weight loss, proving to be fatal at times.
In this condition, the patients or victims eventually form a link between being low in weight and being attractive. It is not true to say that only women tend to fall prey for this condition. Even though the majority might comprise of this gender but there is a large amount of male and other genders being affected by this disorder too. Countries in East Asia like Korea have high beauty standards where it is taught that the ideal weight of a male should range somewhere between 50 to 65. Whereas the females are obese if they cross the benchmark of 50kg.

Somewhere, down the line this disorder is passed down to the victim by their own close relative / parent in order to meet the expectations, rather at times false or unrealistic expectations of the society. Bullying can be one of the reasons too for the victims to obsess over their weights in order to save themselves from all the embarrassment. Poor self confidence cultivating from a young age or having a belief where they are not good enough, or never will be leads them on this path of self-harm.  It is very important to understand that a healthy body should always be determined by healthy BMI (Body Mass Index). It is also important to take the weight of bones into account before jumping onto conclusions by self-declaring yourself as “overweight”.In order to keep the weights in check, victims opt for various tactics.

The early symptoms to diagnose anorexia are : the inconsistency to maintain a normal healthy body weight,  constipation due to lack of fiber intake,  low blood pressure, the inability to have the required amount of sleep or insomnia, hair fall or botched skin due to the inability of meeting up with the body’s requirements of supplements and in case of females missed menstrual cycle is another addition which leads to an imbalance of hormones in the body, causing a chain of different problems.

Avoiding food all together is not the only behavior that has been observed. Exhausting oneself by engaging into physical activities such as workouts or exercises, running, swimming in a very extreme manner. The ones that have been mentioned are just a few, the list goes on. Since the bodily goals are sometimes unrealistic and are not easily achieved or take time to achieve which in turn leads the victim into isolation to focus on the goals. Which later has a high chance of being followed by depression.

This idea of being ‘perfect’ really can make us the best versions of ourselves. But, yes there exists a but . But it is important to be aware of not crossing the thin line of working towards the journey of being a better version of self or a journey towards self-harm physically and mentally.