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Anorexia is one of the eating disorders. It leads to drastic weight loss and sometimes even death. At the root of the disease is a deep emotional crisis, as both anorexia and bulimia are caused by mental problems. Treatment of anorexia is difficult and long-lasting, and therapy requires both the body and psyche of the sick person. How to quickly find out when something disturbing is happening, how to get to therapy? How to strengthen our teenagers and what kind of parenting mistakes to avoid, so as not to expose them to anorexia?

Anorexia , i.e.anorexia nervosa(Greekan - "lack", orexis - "appetite" ) is an eating disorder involving intentional weight loss induced and sustained by a sick person. Body image is largely distorted. Fear takes the form of a persistent idea that the patient has a low weight limit.

Research has shown that 40% of anorexic women experience periods of being voracious. However, there are people who do not suffer from anorexia, and who overeat frequently (at least twice a week), for more than three months. These people suffer from a disease calledbulimia(from bulimis - literally "bull hunger"), then referred to as bulimia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa is therefore an eating disorder characterized by a loss of control over the amount of food consumed and binge eating.

The most common bulimic behaviors include:

  • inducing vomiting,
  • fasting,
  • use of laxatives,
  • doing an enema,
  • excessive exercise.

Check here to learn more about bulimia.

An anorexic woman is often accompanied by a mood of euphoria associated with the satisfaction of controlling her own body's needs. It is a matter of honor for her to be able to resist tempting smells and appetizing food. If she can hold back, she feels morally superior to those who have succumbed to temptation. However, it is all lined with fear. If she gave up her diet, she would lose control of everything, so she constantly does not eat.

Anorexia - how to recognize it?

The visible symptom of anorexia is emaciation (often masked with bulky clothes). However, it goes to himwill happen, the patient eliminates more and more other products from her menu. He is overly interested in food: he reads cookbooks, counts calories, plans meals, talks a lot about food, often cooks for his family, without eating these dishes later. He usually eats alone. Forced to eat, she will find ways to throw it away. At the family's remarks that he eats too little, he reacts with fury. She becomes more and more irritable, and moves away from others. She is often overly mobile and trains intensively in hiding. Along with the decrease in body weight, her menstruation ceases.

How to recognize the onset of anorexia in a teenager?Anorexia is characterized by a rapidly progressive deterioration of the organism, which often leaves irreversible changes. Untreated, it leads to death in about 10% of cases. Sometimes teenagers can successfully hide from these disorders. What should worry parents?

Bianca-Beata Kotoro , a psychologist and psychotherapist from the P-PTiS Institute "Beata Vita", lists the following behaviors that usually occur several times and are a clear change compared to the previous ones :

  • teenager starts to lose weight significantly;
  • eats a lot and doesn't gain weight;
  • complains that it is too fat, although it looks "like a comma";
  • does not admit to feeling hungry, although he suddenly eats very little;
  • you can hear the sounds of vomiting from the bathroom again;
  • suddenly spends a lot of time alone and prefers to eat alone;
  • obsessed with exercise;
  • the teen's period has stopped;
  • getting more and more depressed;
  • parent finds hidden laxatives or weight loss medications.

It should be remembered that each case of anorexia, bulimia or internal compulsion to eat is different.

According to an expertBianca-Beata Kotoro, psychologist and psychotherapist

What are the psychological causes of anorexia?

Eating disorders are inextricably linked with internal conflicts. Eating becomes a form of struggle with numerous psychological problems that plague adolescents and on the threshold of adulthood.

These disorders are based on:

  • emotional problems,
  • developmental need to define one's own identity,
  • negative self-image,
  • the paradox of feeling love and hate for your family at the same time,
  • sexual development,
  • and sometimes even abnormal psychosexual development in preschool age.

Growing up in the mass cult of thinness is also an important contributing factor, through daily observation inthe media of ideal and very slim figures of models, actors, singers.

Frequent viewing advertisements for dietary supplements and supplements, where the slogan is: "slim is better" does not help either. This can push you towards harmful eating habits or trigger the habit of alternating binge eating and purging, especially when accompanied by psychological factors.

You can read about the genetic causes of anorexia here!

The effects of anorexia

It causes dramatic deficiencies of nutrients necessary for life and, consequently, progressive dysfunction of all organs and systems. As a result of losing weight, a young person loses almost all of the insulating layer of adipose tissue and becomes hypersensitive to low and high temperatures. He has a slow heart rate and blood pressure, slower intestinal peristalsis, constipation.

Starvation leads to anemia (deficiency of red blood cells) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which is a result of a loss of glycogen and fat stores in the body.

Anorexia also causes inhibition of growth and sexual development (e.g. breasts do not develop) and brain atrophy (e.g. computed tomography reveals them). Kidney problems occur as a result of dehydration and difficulty concentrating urine. Potassium deficiency may, in turn, cause serious disturbances in the rhythm of the heartbeat.

Amenorrhea can be very serious - if it lasts more than six months, estrogen deficiency lowers bone density, leading to osteoporosis. It is also the cause of excessive hair growth and is associated with the risk of ovarian cysts and infertility. Malnutrition causes a significant decrease in immunity, which causes anorexic women to die from minor infections.

Who gets anorexia?

It is estimated that 1-2 percent suffer from anorexia. young people between 12 and 14 as well as 17 and 25 years of age. The mortality rate in these patients (as a result of he alth complications or suicides) is approx. 20%.

Eating disorders mainly affect girls and young women (approx. 90-95% of cases). Lower incidence in boys is explained by lower stress related to puberty and lower susceptibility to environmental pressure.

Anorexia Treatment

It takes 4-6 years from diagnosis to treatment of anorexia. The disease is not eradicated in all cases. The success of the therapy depends primarily on the work and will of the patient himself. Treatment is more difficult when anorexia has developed over a long period of time.

PurposeThe main goal of therapy is to restore he althy eating habits that will allow you to maintain a he althy body weight and take control of the constant thoughts related to weight loss by the patient. One of the most important aspects of therapy is learning self-acceptance and strengthening your self-esteem.

In a situation where the he alth condition caused by anorexia is not life-threatening, treatment may be outpatient (individual and family psychotherapy, pharmacological treatment of anorexia complications, dietary determination of he althy eating patterns and he althy weight gain).

When exhaustion is so severe that it leads to life-threatening dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and is associated with the development of many complications, treatment in a hospital is necessary. The indications for hospitalization in the case of anorexia nervosa are: weight loss by more than 25%, complications such as arrhythmias, infections with low body weight, mental disorders, even with the risk of suicide.

Unfortunately, there are no cures for anorexia.Pharmacotherapy is primarily used to treat disorders coexisting with anorexia. This applies to antidepressants, anxiolytics, hypnotics and neuroleptics.

The success of treatment depends largely on the patient's willingness, although she herself rarely reports for treatment. Rather, she is dragged down by force by parents who fear for her life. It is important to start therapy early, because then there is a chance for a complete recovery. Younger girls are also easier to heal, because you can influence their personality. The prognosis is much worse when anorexia occurs after the age of 18.

The most important thing is to feed the patient intensively, often it is done artificially. Improving the nutritional status is a prerequisite for successful treatment.

The whole family of the patient should participate in the therapy, because all the household members are involved in the disease. Treatment of anorexia takes a long time. Menstruation often returns several years after reaching the target weight. Psychological dependence is also very strong. Unfortunately, there are breakdowns in the recovery process and you have to start your work anew.

Where to go for help
  • Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw,
  • Central Clinical Hospital of the Medical University of Lodz,
  • Psychological and pedagogical counseling centers all over the country.
According to an expertprof. dr hab. n. med. Marek Pertkiewicz, head of the Department of General Surgery and Clinical Nutrition, Medical University of Warsaw

A person suffering from anorexia requires the help of a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. But often due to life-threatening complications,cachexia or other diseases, the course of which is very severe in malnourished people, it is necessary to be treated in a hospital, sometimes even in an intensive care unit. Starting nutrition after the fasting period, increasing the supply of food in malnourished people, even intravenous administration of glucose, may cause the so-called refeeding team (in Poland we sometimes call it "food shock").

Acute deficiency of intracellular electrolytes and vitamins may cause severe metabolic disorders and the patient's death even within a few hours. Therefore, careful metabolic monitoring and correction of these deficiencies is essential. In cases of extreme cachexia, some patients cannot eat more, even if they want to, because their gastrointestinal tract does not tolerate higher doses of food. Then it is better to gradually increase their nutrition by intravenous route, taking into account the body's reaction, and slowly expand the oral diet.

Facts and myths about anorexia

There are many misconceptions about anorexia. They are often used by sick people to deny that they have a serious problem. Here are the most popular myths about this eating disorder:

ONLY WOMEN HAVE SICKNESSIndeed, anorexia affects mainly women, but men can also suffer from it. It is estimated that about 6% of patients suffering from anorexia are men. These data may be understated, however, because the patients themselves avoid the stigma of the disease considered to be a female ailment, and also because they are accused of homosexuality.

THIS IS A TEENAGE DISEASEIt is estimated that the majority of cases of anorexia occur between the ages of 11 and 19. Adolescents are at greatest risk of contracting the disease - largely because of the emotional changes that occur during adolescence. However, older and younger people also get sick. Increasingly, eating disorders appear in children under the age of 10.

ANOREXIA ONLY AFFECTS CHILDREN FROM RICH HOMESSeveral decades ago it was believed that anorexia affects people from we althy families. Today it is already known that the property status does not matter.

SOMEONE WHO EATS 3 MEALS A DAY, NO ANOREXIAPeople with anorexia can masterfully pretend that they are eating normal meals. And they should be wholesome (calorific value and ingredients). You should also be aware that there are other ways to reduce your caloric intake - from overusing laxatives to strenuous exercise, to vomiting after every meal.

NORMALLY ENOUGH TO EAT TO COME OUT OF ANOREXIAEquallyit is false to say that anorexia grows out of it. One of the consequences of anorexia is the disruption of the mechanisms related to the sensation and control of hunger. For this reason, anorexia cannot be cured by simply eating.

ANOREXIA MEANS SELF-CONTROL AND STRENGTH OF CHARACTERAnorexia is not self-control. People who are ill think that by controlling their weight, they are in control of their lives. In fact, the eating disorder takes control of the person's life.

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Psychiatry