A lot of people come visiting for information on rapid weight loss through "voluntarily becoming anorectics". I don't provide this information and I won't; the visitors come as a result of me mentioning pro-ana and pro-bulimia pages a long time ago. However, the other day someone coming from a search engine asked a question I didn't know the answer to:
How did Anorexia get its name?Having a bit of a look online, it looks like the more correct question actually would be: "How did Anorexia Nevrosa get its name?", because Anorexia is simply the medical name for loss of apetite.
Wikipedia also tells us:
In particular Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by voluntary starvation and exercise stress.Wow.
Anorexia is also symptomatic of a number of diseases including cat scratch fever, atypical pneumonia, syphilis, appendicitis, and the end stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Anorexia is a symptom of drug addiction to Methamphetamine for example, and side effect of many medical drugs.
Anorexia is also an indicator of radiation poisoning.
This document contains a bit of information on the name and history:
http://psychiatrytoday.netfirms.com/english/ano_nervosa1.html
The origins:
C. Lasegue: De l’anorexie hysterique. Archives Generales de Medicine. 1873;2:367.
William Gull: Anorexia nervosa (apepsia hysterica, anorexia hysterica). Tras.Clin.Soc.Lond.1874;7:22.
It is fascinating that western civilization has become so obsessed with these images of beauty (that are complete illusion, because beauty is relative) that people actually destroy themselves to embrace it. It is not a new occurence, but I would think that civilization could have gone beyond that in the 21 century.
Posted by: health-wealth on November 6, 2005 07:10 PM|
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Anders Jacobsen [extrospection.com photography] |