Actually Anorexia in & of itself usually starts from something other than body image issues for many people.....stress, abuse, trauma.....the weight loss starts......then there's a sort of addictive thing about loosing weight & it easy once the weight loss is started to do whatever it takes to make it continue.....then the body image stuff can start.

It's difficult because once you've been there, it seems like the triggers at least for me, start the weight loss all over again.

There are definitely different definitions of being anorexic.....as someone with cancer or an illness who looses so much weight down to skin & bones is also medically considered to be anorexic.....the term anorexic in itself means a certain % below the healthy BMI given height & weight.

It's true, the eating disorders treatment centers only focus on body image issues.....but the problem for me was that there were so many other issues that was just a very tiny part & wasn't what was the cause but small amounts that had never bothered me before were then when all the other things created the anorexic state which actually started when I was taking Prozac.....it created a massive weight loss with my metabolism....& then I kept it going......gained that back & more when I had horrible untreatable continuous migraines....but going through a trauma....dropped all that weight & more...not quite back down to the dangerous place I had been before but it was still dangerous enough that the hospital pdoc wasn't going to allow me to leave to go to my mother's funeral....I managed to sneek out AMA without the pdoc getting his hold put on me.....but I was really ill at that point.

It's important to have a T that you can discuss this with....to be able to talk about all the aspects & the emotions that are driving it & what were the triggers that started it in the first place.

For me underlying junk was never wanting to be as overweight as my mother.....she wasn't obese but she was larger for being the same height that I was......my view on it was what made me always cautious about my weight....but never did anything because it was easy to maintain with all the exercises I did.

It's worth it to take....because it is better to loose weight the healthy way then end up in the hospital on IV nutrition.....then maintain the low healthy weight.....that's what the T needs to be helping you focus on.