People who have anorexia nervosa are obsessed with controlling their eating. The reason for their obsession is the belief that by controlling their bodies they can control their lives. This obsession is usually achieved through starvation.

Anorexia Nervosa most commonly begins during puberty and can be recognized by the following symptoms:

• Losing a lot of weight.
• An inability to maintain a weight that is normal for our age and height.
• An obsessive desire to be thinner.
• Being very afraid of gaining weight or becoming "fat".
• Being unable to see our body as it really is: it always seems larger than it actually is.
• Allowing our weight and shape to overly influence how we feel about ourselves.
• A powerful desire to take control of our lives and feel competent. We believe we can achieve this by controlling our eating and weight.

Anorexia differs from bulimia in the following ways:

• Significant weight loss without any logical reason, like illness.
• Significant reduction in eating accompanied by repeated denials of hunger.
• Dieting when not over our healthy weight range.
• Signs of starvation. This can include the thinning or actual loss of hair, the appearance of a fine, white hair on the body, frequent bloated feelings, yellowing palms or soles of feet and/or a dry, pasty skin.
• Abnormal menstrual periods in women.

Excerpts from National Eating Disorders Information Centre www.nedic.ca