Reasons Why Girls Become Anorexic

While anyone can suffer from anorexia nervosa, it most commonly affects teenage girls. Girls suffering from anorexia spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about their weight. It can be confusing for the people around them because girls with anorexia nervosa always seem to be on a "diet" despite being underweight or very thin. Anorexia is more than a problem with food and weight—it's how some girls deal with emotional problems.

A Desire for Perfection

Girls with anorexia are often high-achieving students and excel in other areas of their lives. One trait most anorexics seem to share is a need to be "perfect." They can't forgive themselves for being less than the best, even when their vision of perfection is skewered.

External Stress

An unhappy home life, illness in the family, abuse or stringent school expectations can each add to the stress a girl feels from external sources. These are all things she feels she cannot control. The one thing an anorexic believes she can control is her weight, regardless of how her dieting affects her health.

Internal Stress

Adolescence can be a tough time for even the most confident child. A sensitive girl may look at the world around her and feel as though she doesn't belong. She may believe that people don't like her or that she's not trying hard enough to be all she can be. Like external stress, a girl with anorexia tries to combat her internal stresses by controlling her diet.

Desire for Acceptance

Although most Americans are overweight, we live in a society that judges those with weight issues harshly. Teenagers are especially cognizant of their changing bodies and have a keen desire to fit in. Maybe the ideal in a girl's school is to wear a size 0. An anorexic girl with the desire to fit in will do whatever she has to in order to meet that standard. The combination of low self-esteem and need to fit in can be a dangerous combination in a girl with anorexia.

Self-Anger

For whatever reason, some anorexics are simply angry with themselves over an imagined shortcoming. Depriving herself of food is one way an anorexic can punish herself for not being perfect. There is a direct correlation between anorexia and clinical depression, according to the Office of Health Education at University of Pennsylvania.

References

• University of Pennsylvania: Anorexia
• American Academy of Family Physicians: Anorexia Nervosa