Anorexia is a life-threatening disorder that is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Behavioral characteristics:

• Excessive dieting, fasting, restricted diet.
• Food rituals.
• Preoccupation with body building, weight lifting or muscle toning.
• Compulsive exercise.
• Difficulty eating with others; lying about eating.
• Frequently weighing self.
• Preoccupation with food.
• Focus on certain body parts, such as buttocks, thighs, stomach, etc.
• Disgust with body size or shape.
• Distortion of body size: feels fat even though others tell him he is already very thin.

Emotional and mental characteristics:

• Intense fear of becoming fat or gaining weight.
• Depression.
• Social isolation; difficulty expressing feelings.
• Strong need to be in control.
• Rigid, inflexible thinking, "all or nothing."
• Decreased interest in sex or fears around sex.
• Possible conflict over gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Low sense of self-worth; uses weight as a measure of worth.
• Perfectionism: strives to be the neatest, thinnest, smartest, etc.
• Difficulty thinking clearly or concentrating.
• Irritability, denial, belief that others are overreacting to low weight or caloric restriction.
• Insomnia.

Physical characteristics:

• Low body weight (15% or more below what is expected for age, height and activity level).
• Lack of energy, fatigue.
• Muscular weakness.
• Decreased balance, unsteady gait.
• Lowered body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate.
• Tingling in hands and feet.
• Thinning hair or hair loss.
• Lanugo (downy growth of body hair).
• Heart arrhythmia.
• Lowered testosterone levels.

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Provided by the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA)