There are several reasons why people feel that they need to starve themselves but the most common reason is to make sure that they loose weight. Anyone who has suffered from anorexia and have recovered in rehabilitation can tell you that being an anorexic is about more than just the desire to lose weight, eventually the urge to lose becomes something closer than an obsession and can take over your whole thought process. In many cases, not eating becomes an addiction and closer to a mental connection.
Anyone who has started out on a diet knows the feeling of wanting to lose no matter what. If the urge to lose was not so strong then the diet industry would not be so prosperous. However, there are many people that take dieting to the extreme. Unfortunately, the appearance driven world that we live in seems to support the female frame becoming smaller and smaller.
Many anorexics say that their need to control their eating habits is much more mental than physical. Without the mental connection, the urge to eat and the gnawing sense of hunger could not be overcome. Just like the addiction to alcohol where people feel that they can function during the day without a series of drinks, anorexics feel that they can function throughout the day with a very limited amount of food. Anorexics say that obsession starts with just trying to diet and then it becomes contest within themselves to see how little they can eat. When people begin to notice that they are losing weight they being to become more obessed with not eating. Afterall, many people associate weight loss with a feeling of pride in themselves.
For a very long time people did not think that anorexia was an addiction and could be treated not only physically but mentally, now we know that anorexia is more mental that previously thought.
