My official diagnosis is “Anorexia, purging type”, sometimes called bulimirexia. The physiological cause for anorexia is serotonin levels in the brain being too high. This creates a continuous, perpetual sense of high anxiety. By restricting food intake, a sense of control and calming takes over, as (in starvation) the level of serotonin produced drops. Another way to “self-treat” the over-production of serotonin is purging, which temporarily relieves the tension, shame, and stress that c

Family situations often come into play in eating disorders too. One of the major issues a lot of victims have is their mothers. Actually, its come up with every person I’ve had groups with. Its been found that a high percentage of ED sufferers have parents with diagnosed or undiagnosed anxiety and/or compulsive behaviors.

As was mentioned before, eating disorders kill 30% of their victims. Dangers associated with EDs include malnutrition, dehydration, swelling of the extremities (edema), down hair growth called lanugo, electrolyte imbalances, muscle atrophy, impaired neuromuscular function, paralysis (caused by low levels of potassium), reflux, and tearing of the esophagus to name just a few. These are the complications that can cause severe sickness and possible death. The “less severe” ones still have a huge impact on the anorexic’s life, and the fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and all around depressed feeling can have a huge effect on social and academic activities. When I get home from school, all I want to do is sleep, same thing on weekends. I do try and force myself to go out, and its not that I don’t want to or that I don’t have fun, its just such a drain on my energy level that I need to sleep for hours to recover. Combined with the long term problems associated with anorexia, I think I’ve got plenty of motivation to try and get better.

I was inpatient for just a week, followed by two weeks of partial, meaning I came to the clinic at 7:30 every morning, until three in the afternoon, when I was released to go back home. I have to admit, since my home life is less then ideal, partial was difficult to adjust to. But I got the same therapy, and, a few weeks later, I was released back to school for a day, clinic the next, school, then clinic.

As far as the distorted self-perception goes, I’m sure you’ve heard the story, and yes its true. It seems very redundant to say it again in this paper, because it’s practically the ONLY true thing any “normal” person know and can identify with that we struggle with. I am fat. It’s so true and so painful and scary, and so real that it can cause this life-threatening disease that takes the life of over 30% of its victims, and destroys many, many more. Most of us have one area we focus on (although we can see it all!), mine , for example, is my belly. I see it as fat. I don’t care who tells me it’s not. I don’t care if my hip bones and spine do sti

Some topics in this essay:
ADD/ADHD OCD, , Dr Perchek, Hospital It’d, Remeron Zoloft, eating disorders, Eating Disorders, Friends Hospital, purge restriction, food intake, 30% victims, don’t care, friends hospital, transferred partial, eating disorder,