What is it?
Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness. It is an eating disorder characterised by a distorted body image and excessive fear of gaining weight. This may lead to physical symptoms.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of anorexia nervosa may include:
- Extreme fear of gaining weight, typically causing patients to follow extreme diets.
- Distorted body image.
- Extreme need to control weight and eating habits.
- A (extremely) low body weight.
- Physical symptoms due to a very low body weight, such as feeling cold constantly, fainting, fatigue and abdominal pain.
What to expect?
In addition to treatment by your doctor or psychologist you can try the following things:
- Maintaining a normal rhythm by going to sleep at normal times and getting out of bed early in the morning.
- Try to keep doing your normal daily activities.