Yack,

My weight loss usually comes from other issues other than body image. The first time I had massive weight loss was from the Anti-depressants I was on......lost my appitite completely. I fit the definition of Anorexia in the DSM-IV book except for a few symptoms. I was forced to go to an eating disorders treatment center for a month....it didn't help....& was treated for malnutrition on & off in the medical hospital for almost a year after that until I was finally at a point where I wasn't physically sick any more.

The last time was at the end of last year & beginning of this year. I had been losing weight because I had been physically sick at the beginning.....they a trauma hit with my Mothers care when she was dying of cancer. I was so stressed, scared, & exhausted that nausea kept me from eating & drinking.....just couldn't keep anything down. I was hospitalized in a medical hospital & my GP did every test in the book to try to figure out what was the cause. Nothing showed up physically except for the cortisol level being off. Everyone was Dx'ing me with anorexia......because I again had most of the symptoms in the DSM-IV. But again, there was no body image issues involved. When I was told to find an eating disorders treatment center that would work this time....I talked to them & was told that I was probably having some other cause than the defined anorexia with the body image reasoning.

I did quite a bit of research on anorexia over the internet because I just didn't know where to turn. The general definition of "anorexia" is massive weight loss that causes anemia & malnutrition. The cause can be anything.....cancer, anxiety (including PTSD, etc), depression, reaction to meds, any illness that causes lack of appitite & massive weight loss, etc.

The psychological "Anorexia Nervosa" is exactly as defined in the DSM-IV which requires a body image issue where one feels that they are fat even though they are way underweight. The complete definition is found in the DSM-IV.......with the major difference being the body image issue.

Either way of weight loss is unhealthy with similar results physically however treatment is different. Once treated for the depression it should help with the lack of appitite & weight loss.....where people with the psychological problem of body issue have to come to terms with their thinking about themselves.

Hope this helps a little,
Debbie