Causes
Why does anorexia appear? It is impossible to determine the exact cause of the development of this disease. This condition can be provoked by gradual exposure to the following factors:
- physical or sexual abuse;
- authoritarianism of parents, the child does not feel love, warmth, support from childhood;
- excessive parental care, leading to lack of independence in adulthood;
- aversion to appearance;
- prolonged drug use;
- hereditary eating disorder;
- severe emotional shocks, such as the death of a close relative, divorce;
- change of usual environment in childhood or adolescence;
- forced food intake.
Almost all reasons have a psychological basis. But over time, the physical condition also suffers. The advanced stage of anorexia leads to dangerous, even fatal, consequences.
Stages of anorexia
This psychosomatic disease is divided into the following stages, depending on the manifestation of symptoms:
- Initial stage. The disease gradually develops over 3-4 years. The opinion of others about the patient’s appearance plays a vital role. At the same time, the person is extremely dissatisfied with the way he looks.
- Anorectic stage. It is characterized by a pathological desire to lose weight. At this stage, the patient loses about 30-50% of his total body weight.
- Cachetic stage. It manifests itself with the following signs: absence of menstrual periods in girls, hormonal imbalance, low blood pressure and body temperature.
It is important to know! Anorexia can develop over many years! But the sooner you provide qualified assistance to the patient, the less consequences there will be in the form of serious health problems.
Morbidity statistics
According to statistics, in 25% of patients anorexia becomes chronic. At the same time, 5% of anorexics die from exhaustion or commit suicide. This is one of the most common diseases among teenagers.
How to deal with this disease?
Anorexia is a rather complex psychological disease, the treatment of which takes a long time. But healing is possible. Especially if you start it on time, before irreversible processes begin in the body that lead to death. Treatment combines work with a psychologist and artificial nutrition of the body.
Drugs are prescribed that support the normal functioning of the body. If the patient has brought himself to a state where the body no longer accepts regular food, then he is prescribed glucose drips.
Patients must undergo a course of psychotherapy. Antidepressants are also prescribed to speed up recovery. But this is only in the first stages, then the person himself must pull himself out of the state of depression, a psychologist helps him with this.
Also, women with this problem are prescribed the hormone estrogen. When the body is depleted, this hormone ceases to be produced, and it is extremely necessary for normal women's health.
We can say that the success of treatment depends on how late the patient was brought to the doctors, as well as on the desire of the patient himself to be treated.
How to get anorexia nervosa
You can get anorexia quite quickly. There are a number of negative factors that contribute to its appearance. Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Poor nutrition
In order to get sick if you are fat, the first rule that leads to anorexia is ignoring a balanced diet. The girl voluntarily refuses the bulk of food. But to really lose weight, you need to have meat, bread and even butter in your diet. This will help saturate the body with the vitamins and minerals necessary for normal functioning. For normal weight loss, you need to create a competent diet for 1 day or a week. With severe food restrictions, a woman quickly becomes overtired and loses her ability to work.
Poor nutrition, which leads to anorexia, helps a girl lose weight as quickly as possible. But your health will leave much to be desired. Also, a total lack of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and carbohydrates leads to a deterioration in appearance. Skin, hair and nails look unhealthy.
Complete refusal to eat
How many days can it take to develop anorexia if you completely stop eating? In fact, this disease does not depend on food intake. Anorexia nervosa is a mental disorder. Therefore, you can get sick in 1 day.
When a debilitating diet does not give the desired result, potential anorexics completely refuse to eat, arguing that a person can live without food for 3 weeks.
Indeed, the life expectancy of a person without any food is 21 days. But pathological destructive processes are observed much earlier. When they first begin, the anorexic will not even want to admit it to himself. By the time he seeks help, it may already be too late.
Where does anorexia begin?
Almost every person has been on a diet at least once in their life. There is nothing wrong with this, because the result of dietary nutrition should be cleansing the body of toxins and normalizing weight, which is necessary for full health. However, some people, most of them young women, go too far in their desire to lose weight! The initial goal of losing weight is not the health of the body, but a slim figure. That is why young beauties choose the most stringent mono-diets for themselves, which allow them to lose weight many times faster.
Video about how to become anorexic
Live healthy: everything about anorexia:
This top is for those who think - two fingers in your mouth for weight loss - no big deal. I thought there weren’t many idiots like me, but it turns out there aren’t. There are communities and forums for such people. I was already 33 when I decided, foolishly, that in order to lose weight (at 160, I weighed 60 kg) the best way was to put two fingers in my mouth after every meal. And what? It's just that. And so it began. the body resisted, I raped it. At first, from time to time only in the evenings, this happened for almost six months, then after every meal, but I practically did not lose weight. Then I began to crave sweets madly. I could wake up at night with a wild desire to eat candy. She ate and went to the toilet. Then - more. From any food in any quantity you had to run to the toilet. Then my liver got sick. My hair deteriorated and my teeth began to deteriorate greatly. A year passed and the weight dropped to 52 kg. And then I realized that everything had to stop. But the process could not be stopped. Nothing was absorbed, a cup of water rushed to the toilet, an apple, a piece of cheese. I began to eat less, then even less, then somehow automatically switched to only fruits and vegetables, then only to fruits. Another six months passed. The weight fell and fell, and soon she weighed 43 kg. There was no stool at all for a week. The already small chest had disappeared, bones were sticking out, and the legs were like sticks. Yes, for the entire year and a half my husband growled at me like a tiger, but I insisted that it was nothing to worry about, that it would go away on its own. He couldn't move me. Then she began to faint, her nose began to bleed constantly, her pancreas ached, constant heartburn, headaches, and her monthly cycle was disrupted. But the weight kept falling and falling, and I still couldn’t eat anything. It was already 39 kg, then 37. I couldn’t get up in the morning, couldn’t work, couldn’t do anything at all. Then they started inviting doctors to my home. They offered me a hospital, and I have a three-year-old daughter. I can not. And I decided that I would pull myself out. I gathered all my will into a fist and wrote out the diet myself. For three months I ate ten to fifteen times a day, two to three teaspoons of baby puree and baby cereal. Juice, tea, half a sip. Vitamins, glucose, enzymes, bifidobacteria. This is a significant additional burden for our budget. Then a little potato or vegetable puree, then a little boiled meat, chicken. In general, I pulled myself together, but what did it cost me? I have aged seven years. I now look older than I am 36, as the skin on my face is sagging, I need braces, and my hair has deteriorated. Weight now 48 kg. I need to gain another two or three kilos. It was good shock therapy. No, don't start
Tip No. 4 Severe punishment for failures
I had to eat a piece of cake from a friend, but you can’t, so when you come home, almost crying, you change into sportswear and start working out. To the point of exhaustion. There are 600 calories in the cake, which means you only need to run 8 kilometers or do aerobics for four hours so as not to gain weight the next morning! Well, a strict diet, of course; the next three days - only water, as punishment for failure.
Consequences : After such a workout, you will not be able to exercise normally for another three days, because the body needs to be accustomed to physical activity gradually. The same applies to nutrition. Sharp jumps from diet to gluttony, and even in combination with prolonged training, can cause metabolic disorders. And then the kilograms will steadily begin to fall off and you will lose weight not because you are on a diet, but because you are sick. Continuing to train, you will soon feel pain in your bones and muscles and simply will not have the strength to exercise. The body, which will not have enough calories for simple life activities, will not allow you to torment it with physical activity. You will get tired even from cleaning the room.
Psychological roots of anorexia?
Probably the biggest misconception is that anorexia will give a girl an ideal figure. This is absurd. With this psychological illness, a woman is simply no longer able to perceive herself objectively. No matter how much weight she loses, she will still feel like she is overweight. The photos of anorexics are simply terrifying. It’s amazing what you can bring your body to in a nourishing and peaceful time. This once again proves the psychological roots of this disease. Psychotherapy is simply necessary here.
Most often, people who have many complexes and phobias fall ill with this disease. The catalyst for the disease is a strong emotional shock. For example, a girl herself considered herself overweight, but they told her this to her face, and she heard it from a person who was authoritative for her.
One of the reasons for the disease can be considered the lack of frank relationships with parents. The girl needs to feel that her family considers her beautiful, then she will transfer this feeling to the whole world. And even if they tell her something different, she simply won’t take it personally.
Therefore, the most important form of prevention of this disease is a trusting relationship with parents. If a girl shares her experiences with her parents, then they have the opportunity to dispel her fears and complexes.
What kind of disease is this? Anorexia is a mental illness that is characterized by a constant lack of appetite with a physical need for food. Girls who want to lose weight bring themselves to this state. How to get anorexia? Let us consider this issue in more detail, which will help protect ourselves from the occurrence of this disease.
Possible complications
If the disease is neglected, it can be fatal.
Before the patient dies, the following changes will occur in the body:
- inflammatory processes will begin in the gastrointestinal tract;
- the stomach and pancreas will begin to descend;
- having problems going to the toilet;
- will be bothered by constant pain in the stomach;
- after eating even a tiny amount of food, nausea or vomiting will occur;
- the menstrual cycle in girls will stop completely;
- dystrophy of the muscles of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissues of organs will begin;
- body temperature will be lowered, a constant feeling of cold will begin to increase;
- the skin will become dry and lose elasticity;
- hair will begin to fall out greatly, teeth will crumble, nails will break;
- anemia will develop;
- strength will begin to leave the body and the patient will not be able to get out of bed;
- stomach pain will intensify;
- death will come.
Experts say that anorexia is not a lifelong diagnosis. The disease can be treated, the main thing is to notice the symptoms in time and prevent the girls you know from becoming anorexic. After recovery, it is necessary to monitor ex-patients and instill in them a culture of proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
Article design: Oleg Lozinsky
