Behaviors

Anorexia causes people to do some strange things, especially with food and exercise. They become obsessive over becoming skinny, small, and slender, and will do everything possible to achieve their goal.

Food Behaviors:

• skipping meals
• eating only tiny portions
• picking at food, moving it around
• chewing food and spitting it out before swallowing
• always having excuses to not eat, i.e. not hungry, already ate
• only eats “healthy food”
• uses diet soda and gum to curb hunger
• cuts calories and fat drastically
• becomes a vegetarian, but misses important nutrients
• alcohol and street drugs may be used to deaden appetite
• chooses fat free, low fat foods
• enjoys cooking and grocery shopping for others, buts eats very little of it, if any

Exercise Behaviors:

• exercises excessively and compulsively
• keeps going even when tired and weak
• refuses to change rigorous exercise routine

Along with acting differently about food and exercise, their behaviors about their appearance and body image change, too. What seems weird to other people is perfectly normal to them, and the only way they can become a better person.

Appearance and Body Image Behaviors:

• loses weight, or tries to
• fears weight gain and becoming “fat”
• wears baggy, layered clothes to hide fat, hide the problem, and stay warm
• obsesses over clothing size and body fat
• looks in the mirror and sees a fat blob, instead of the skinny figure they have in reality
• always criticizing their own looks, detests their body
• can’t feel good about oneself unless they are thing, although they are never thin enough to please themselves

Causes
Personality
Media Effects
Treatment
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