The actual causes of orthorexia is not known, although the causes of orthorexia is likely multifactorial.
People with orthorexia or orthorexia Nervosa have neurocognitive deficits that are similar to the ones in people with AN and OCD, which also includes impairments in their set shifting, "flexible problem solving", working memory and external attention.
People that have orthorexia often feel overwhelming anxiety about consuming of anything that is perceived as being unhealthy, so a person with orthorexia's fixation quality of food can also severely impact their physical and also mental well-being.
Those most at risk for orthorexia are people with anxiety, people with obsessive compulsive disorder, people with perfections, people that are easily influenced by social media and immediate family members that have or had eating disorders.
The warning signs of orthorexia include.
Having strong anxiety about your food choices, particularly around your diet not meeting your personal high standards of 'purity'.
Social isolation as someone withdraws from activities and people who do not align with your strict dietary regime.
And feelings of guilt following slip ups.
Orthorexia is an obsession with eating healthy food.
The word orthorexia comes from the Greek words of ortho, which means correct and orexis which means appetite.
Someone with orthorexia is fixated with the quality, rather than the quantity of their food to an excessive degree.
Orthorexia nervosa is an emerging and controversial eating disorder which is characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with healthy eating and an extreme fixation on food purity.