Celebrity health: Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci's revelation that she battled with anorexia highlights the body image pressures felt by women
Monday May 05 2008
Christina Ricci, the child starlet turned quirky sex-pot, has been speaking about her teenage struggle with eating disorders. Promoting her new movie, the sci-fi romp Speed Racer, Ricci has opened up about her battle to overcome anorexia. "I was a teenager going through adolescence and at one point, I had an anorexia phase and then I kind of ballooned," she said.
The actress is not the first to suffer from self-esteem issues. That's because anorexia is ultimately less about food than about self image. An anorexic will often equate self-worth with how thin they are.
Hollywood has no shortage of brittle egos and anorexia is far from uncommon there. Among the wider population the prevalence of the condition, known as 'anorexia nervosa', is hard to determine.
It's estimated that only about 1pc of the population have anorexia. Others studies suggest that up to 10 pc of adolescent girls have anorexia. Boys and men also can develop anorexia, but they do so far less often than women.
Anorexia falls into two categories. In the first, sufferers lose weight mainly through restricting the amount of food they eat. They also try to lose weight by exercising excessively.
In the second, they attempt to control their weight by purging -- that is, getting rid of food or calories by vomiting after eating or by misusing laxatives, diuretics or enemas. Some may binge, or eat excessive amounts of food, and then purge. Others may purge after eating only a small amount, such as a single square of chocolate.
Could anorexia be hereditary? Fresh research indicates that this may be the case. There are some hints that serotonin -- one of the brain chemicals involved in depression -- may also play a role.
The condition is often chronic and difficult to overcome, but with treatment, anorexics often gain a healthier sense of their self.
For Ricci, the fight to overcome anorexia was difficult but successful. Nowadays, she says, she simply doesn't care what people say, or think, about her appearance.
"Vanity is unnecessary. I'm the vainest person but I have found a way to let that go so I can have fun. You have to make a decision that you're not going to be crippled by insecurities. I feel my body now is the adult Christina and it's what I should have come to a long time ago, if I hadn't been screwing around with my body so much."
