• Extreme weight loss
• Thin appearance
• Abnormal blood counts
• Fatigue
• Dizziness or fainting
• Brittle nails
• Hair that thins, breaks or falls out
• Soft, downy hair covering the body
• Absence of menstruation
• Constipation
• Dry skin
• Intolerance of cold
• Irregular heart rhythms
• Low blood pressure
• Dehydration
• Osteoporosis
• Refusal to eat
• Denial of hunger
• Excessive exercise
• Flat mood, or lack of emotion
• Difficulty concentrating
• Preoccupation with food
• Skipping meals
• Making excuses for not eating
• Eating only a few certain "safe" foods, usually those low in fat and calories
• Adopting rigid meal or eating rituals, such as cutting food into tiny pieces or spitting food out after chewing
• Weighing food
• Cooking elaborate meals for others but refusing to eat
• Repeated weighing of themselves
• Frequent checking in the mirror for perceived flaws
• Wearing baggy or layered clothing
• Complaining about being fat

This Disorder is horrible and has more than just death as a consequence. Anorexia causes:

• Weight loss
• Starvation
• Death - about 10% of cases end this way.
• Infections
• Kidney failure
• Cardiac arrest
• Electrolyte imbalance
• Suicide
• Osteoporosis - in the short-term or later in life.
• Muscle wasting
• Delayed puberty
• Constipation
• Hyponatraemia
• Hypokalaemia
• Weight loss
• Erectile dysfunction
• Female infertility
• Osteoporosis
• Purpura
• Hypothermia
• QT lengthening
• Pathological fracture
• Hypercarotinemia
• Sex hormone binding globulin raised (serum)
• Lanugo hair
• Amenorrhoea
• Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism
• Hypercholesterolaemia

Anorexia has a variety of sources that include: genetic, biological, societal, and developmental.

Societal is probably the most recognized. Please take a look around, watch commercials or America's next top model and you'll see what i mean. Even Barbies is too skinny. But this is something that you wouldn't know, society never talks about it. I have always thought that no matter even if your eating disorder was determined to be a genetic one that it isn't truly. I think society plays a part in it, we wouldn't be striving for it if this image of beauty wasn't everywhere.

Skinny is in.

I know not everyone will get an eating disorder but i want to help anyone who has. I remember at 12 beginning to obsess over my weight. At 13 begin strict dieting regiment, eating no more that 27grams of fat a day and nothing past 7 pm. I remember at 14 becoming more extreme and restricting myself to one meal a day. I then began an insane exercising regiment that included doing 1800 crunches a night. At 15 all i remember doing was getting fatter, so one day in the shower i shoved my finger down my throat and threw up. I loved it. It was a way to get skinny. I did it all the time. At 16 and At 17 i continued with this trend and then finally at 18 i got help. People don't realize how many people are out there like me. This is not just a disorder. Eating disorders are an epidemic. Some estimate that eating disorders affect 2% of the population. that may not sound like a lot but 2% of 330 million Americans is 6.6 million people.

If you have anorexia i was refereed to Over Eaters Anonymous. There are Groups and people out there to help. Tell someone. Seek treatment. Don't end up like all those who were so determined to be pretty they died. It's not worth it.

I am lucky though. People cared enough about me to step in and save me from myself. It's still a struggle to go through each day not purge, it is a struggle to eat when I'm not hungry (i can literally go days before I'm hungry), it is a struggle every day to look in the mirror. I know i am not a perfect weight or perfect body shape but perfection for me is death. I did something to change my life and i hope this will help someone else realize that their life is more important than being skinnier. Don't keep telling yourself, just 5 more pounds or just a little skinnier. You need help. You need to stop. Don't wait one more moment.

I know this does not exactly explain a lot about this disorder. It is more about me, I really just wanted to talk about this and let others know that they are not alone. Ana and Mia no longer have me in their grasp.(Ana and Mia are kind of nicknames for BuliMIA and ANArexia, based on how the words sound) I will admit each day i wake up afraid because there are so many people who this they are in control but they are not. I really hope that i am truly in control and this is not a delusion.