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Q: What is Anorexia Nervosa?
A: A person with anorexia nervosa, often called anorexia, has an intense fear of gaining weight. Someone
with anorexia thinks about food a lot and limits the food she or he eats, even though she or he is too thin. Anorexia is more
than just a problem with food. It's a way of using food or starving oneself to feel more in control of life and to ease tension,
anger, and anxiety. Most people with anorexia are female. An anorexic:
- has a low body weight for her or his height
- resists keeping a normal body weight
- has an intense fear of gaining weight
- thinks she or he is fat even when very thin
- misses three (menstrual) periods in a row―for girls/women who have started having their periods
Q: Who Becomes Anorexic?
A: While anorexia mostly affects girls and women (90–95 percent), it can also affect boys and men.
It was once thought that women of color were shielded from eating disorders by their cultures, which tend to be more accepting
of different body sizes. Sadly, research shows that as African American, Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian
and Alaska Native women are more exposed to images of thin women, they also become more likely to develop eating disorders.
There are many questions one might have about things we don't all understand. Unfortunately eating disorders are something
very many of us not only understand, but deal with in our lives. At younger and younger ages young girls/boys are discovering
that in order to look like the majority of celebs, extreme measures must be taken. Which brings me to the disturbing question
of "how is it that these are the people we are allowing to continue to be famous"? This is what we enjoy seeing? Pain and
death to be "beautiful"? And to make it worse we then look at it and think "this is fuckin sad", as we say how disguisting
that "fat" star is. What a fucking world! Society is something I have decided to no longer even acknowledge. Why is the word
"Anorexia" so well known in magazines on every news stand? How does my 11 year old sister know the meaning of this word? Lets
keep feeding it.....we make the difference.....we made it this way. When the fuck is someone going to make it better?
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