The Signs of Anorexia in Teens

Anorexia is serious, and sometimes deadly, eating disorder. It is said that 0.5 to 1% of women in the United States suffer from anorexia. Because the disease often starts in the teen years, and can be fatal up to 20% of the time if not treated, it's important for parents to know the signs of anorexia in teens.

Anorexia is an eating disorder that causes the person to severely restrict what he or she eats or drinks. The anorexic is often underweight, but continues to feel overweight or “fat.” There is often a great fear of gaining any weight, despite the fact that the person is underweight.

This is a list of the many and varied signs of anorexia in teens:

• Refusing to maintain a normal and healthy body weight.
• Extreme fear of becoming fat or gaining weight.
• Continuous dieting.
• Excessive and compulsive exercising.
• Being obsessed with diets, calories, nutritional information, fat grams, etc.
• Being very restrictive of what he or she will eat (no carbohydrates, no fat, etc.)
• Avoiding food and eating or denying hunger.
• Developing rituals regarding food (eating food in a certain order, excessive chewing, etc.)

Symptoms of the disease include the physical consequences of not eating enough calories or nutrients. These symptoms include:

• Amenorrhea. If the anorexic is female, she may never get her first period or her periods stop or become less frequent
• Muscle weakness and loss of muscle
• Brittle bones (osteoporosis)
• Dry skin
• Hair loss
• A fine layer of hair grows over the body
• Weakness and tiredness
• Fainting
• Irritability, depression, withdrawal from friends and family
• Low blood pressure or low pulse

Anorexics are often hard-driving perfectionists. Despite the fact that they usually get good grades and excel in after-school activities, they often have low self-esteem and a need to control the people and things around them. These personality traits might be obvious or they might be subtle, but they can point towards a tendency to anorexia.

If you think your teen is anorexic, get help immediately. Contact your pediatrician or family physician for help with managing this potentially devastating disease.

Because of the complicated nature of the disease, enlisting the help of those who have experience with eating disorders is key to help get your teen on the road to recovery.