Anorexia Can Give You a Feeling of Satisfaction

Written by: Gunborg Palme, certified psychologist and certified psychotherapist, teacher and tutor in psychotherapy.
First version: 27 Nov 2006. Latest revision: 25 Jul 2007.

Question(s):

Is anorexia similar to drug addiction?

Answer:

People who fast can get high from starvation. Many anorectics describe how starvation reduces psychic anguish and how the anxiety returns when they begin to eat again. It seems as if anorexia stimulates those substances in the brain which affect the pleasure and reward centre, and thereby enables them to control and avoid psychic anguish in the same way as alcoholics and drug addicts do.