Anorexia - mental illness which is becoming more common. It is especially common among adolescents and young adults. In 80% of cases, victims of anorexia are persons 14-18 years old.

Among the main reasons of this disease highlight the following:

Biological factor (hereditary predisposition);

Physiological - pathologies characterized by disturbances in the digestive and endocrine systems, when a person feels pain or other unpleasant symptoms during or after meals, therefore deliberately refusing to eat normally;

Psychological reasons - influence public opinion o internal conflicts, dissatisfaction with one’s appearance;

The social factor is the desire to imitate.

The first signs of anorexia

Quite often to suspect this pathology in the early stages of its development is quite difficult. Sometimes obvious ones appear when it lasts for a long time, when even medicine cannot always save the patient.

Early signs of anorexia include the following:

1. Progressive If a person who has no problems with excess weight tries in every way to lose weight, you can immediately suspect initial stage diseases.
2. Refusal of food. At first, patients begin to take small portions of food, subsequently they can eat only once a day, and later they generally refuse any foods, even those that they previously liked and took often.
3. Inadequate perception of one's appearance. The first signs of anorexia often include a desire to lose weight due to the fact that a person considers himself “fat”, criticizing his figure, although others say otherwise.
4. Development of depression. A patient with anorexia begins to avoid contact with other people and stops visiting public places, becomes withdrawn and believes that it is better to be alone.
5. The first signs of anorexia also include the development of insomnia and feelings of guilt due to food intake. As a result, the patient artificially induces vomiting in order to get rid of the food he has consumed.

If such symptoms appear, you should immediately seek qualified help.

It is worth noting that as a result of constant fasting, the functioning of all organs and systems is disrupted, and problems arise. menstrual function, decreases sexual desire. Patients develop chronic fatigue, arrhythmia, decreasing blood pressure, the condition of hair and skin is observed to deteriorate. Anorexics constantly feel cold, become irritable and aggressive. In addition, they show increased interest in grueling diets, play sports to complete exhaustion and experience an increase in body weight, without realizing their problem, because they cannot adequately assess the state of their health.

If left untreated, severe damage to the cardiovascular system develops and endocrine organs, pathologies of bones and muscles occur, inflammatory processes in organs digestive system. Severe depression can provoke suicide.

Unfortunately, the statistics are disappointing - a significant part of those struggling with excess weight have already died from anorexia, and society continues to promote weight loss only in order to meet the “ideals” of beauty.

Excessive zeal in any matter may turn out to be unnecessary and instead of doing good, bring harm. This is exactly the case with weight loss issues. With complete and almost complete refusal of food, getting rid of excess weight turns into a serious mental illness called anorexia. Why does this disease occur? Let's talk about the features of this disease and possible methods of its correction.

Anorexia disease - causes:

Anorexia, as an ailment, is considered quite common, especially in adolescence and young adulthood, since at this time the issue of obesity and the desire for an ideal figure is especially acute.

The main reason for the development of anorexia is a certain disorder normal functioning psyche, the cause of which lies in the pathological influence of various factors, both interpersonal, cultural and biological.

We can talk about the onset of the disease when a teenager begins to strongly desire to achieve conformity to some image imposed on him from the outside by society or simply invented. Indeed, in fact, even many mature people want to become a little better, somewhere slimmer or more beautiful. However, in certain situations, such desires take on a painful connotation.

The teenager wants to make his body as perfect as possible, leading him to exhaustion in this endeavor. At the same time, the body begins to launch protective forces designed to adjust the metabolic rate. As a result, there is a decrease in insulin levels, as well as peptides and bile acids. All these components are important for normal digestion. Due to such changes, the body is no longer able to accept and process a certain amount of food entering it. And even if the patient decides to eat, this will result in him fainting and severe vomiting.

Anorexia - what are the signs and symptoms?

Relatives and friends should pay attention close attention on the discrepancy between a person’s weight and generally accepted age standards. Warning should also be caused by the fear of gaining weight and gaining a few kilograms. You can also suspect anorexia if you have such a symptom as an incorrect perception of your body. People with anorexia always feel much fatter than they actually are. Girls with this diagnosis also experience a cessation of regular menstruation.

A patient with anorexia experiences a sharp loss of body weight due to complete absence appetite. Sleep becomes intermittent, insomnia and other problems with night rest develop. Lack of nutrients leads to spastic pain in the muscles, as well as heart arrhythmia. Since the body does not receive enough energy, a person feels very weak and constantly freezes.

All patients with anorexia categorically deny that they have any problem. They also experience disruption to their usual eating patterns. This can be expressed in the desire to consume food on the go, constantly reducing portions or dividing them into parts. In addition, the patient may vomit after each meal. A strong increase in some kind of physical activity to the point of exhaustion is also considered to be a symptom of the disease.

Sometimes anorexia is expressed in an excessive interest in cooking, as well as in collecting recipes. The patient can prepare meals for the family, while refusing to eat. There may also be an interest in various diets, and approval of vegetarianism, veganism, and a raw food diet appears.

Types of anorexia

There are several options for dividing the disease into types. We will look at one of them:

In the first case, the patient limits himself to food, follows a strict diet and actively engages in physical activity.
- In the second case, there is a complete refusal to eat, or disposal of what was eaten is carried out using vomiting or laxatives.

Anorexia - treatment:

Therapy can be successful if the patient’s loved ones and relatives take part in it. Only a timely reaction from parents or husbands helps to cope with the disease and prevent a tragedy. First of all, it is important to support the sick person and give him maximum attention. It is necessary to persuade the patient to visit the doctor, because only competent medical care can help gain normal weight and cope with psychological problems.

At home therapy practiced frequently and fractional meals, after each meal, consider engaging in fun and distracting activities to help prevent vomiting. Every effort must be made to interest the patient in food; it is also worth consuming plenty of fluids and vitamin supplements. The doctor may prescribe medications including cyproheptadine, chlorpromazine and amitripilline.

The condition of the patient's skin also noticeably deteriorates: it becomes dry, pale, hair falls out, and the structure of the nails is disrupted. The digestive and endocrine systems also suffer: severe stomach pain, constipation, disorders, hormonal imbalances, and amenorrhea appear. Anorexia has, among other things, serious consequences: depression can lead the patient to suicide.

Treatment of anorexia

Treatment of anorexia (especially nervous) must be comprehensive.

First of all, the somatic condition should be improved, behavioral and cognitive psychotherapy should be performed. Serious measures must be taken to restore body weight.

Psychotherapy is necessary for the patient so that he can leave negative thoughts, learn to adequately perceive his own body, and change behavior. Antidepressants are sometimes used to treat anorexia.

A sick person must be provided with emotional care, supported in every possible way, and encouraged to return to normal body weight.

Restoring nutrition for anorexia should be gradual: from relatively low-calorie foods to more nutritious ones.

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Anorexia, the symptoms and causes of which everyone should know, is a dangerous disease, most often caused by stereotypes modern society about ideal figure, beauty in general. The disease in the vast majority of cases affects young girls, so it should be considered from this perspective. It is necessary to examine in more detail what signs can be used to identify anorexia, and to establish the causes of its occurrence.

1 Causes of anorexia

Anorexia is a disease in which, for some reason, the part of the brain that controls a person’s eating behavior malfunctions, resulting in a restriction of food intake to the point of complete refusal. The negative consequence of this violation eating behavior is an uncontrolled decrease in body weight, leading to protein-energy deficiency and the appearance of various concomitant serious diseases of mental, neurological, somatic, endocrine, oncological nature. Often, particularly severe cases of anorexia end in death. It is very important to recognize fatal dangerous disease on early stage and return a person to a full life.

The causes characteristic of anorexia should be named. All of them can be formed into several large groups:

• medical;
• psychological;
• mental;
• social.

The medical group of causes of anorexia includes some serious illnesses internal organs, including a tumor of the hypothalamus, in which the human body is depleted due to disorders associated with the absorption of food.

For psychological anorexia, the causes have a slightly different direction. This may include:

• problems communicating with others;
• low self-esteem due to rejection of your body;
• dissatisfaction in love;
• perfectionism and many others.

The unformed personality of a teenager with a fragile psyche often falls into the web of illness.

The emergence and development of mental anorexia is facilitated by various disorders psyche: crazy ideas, depression, schizophrenia, etc.

Causes of anorexia social sphere should be sought in society itself. Currently, concepts such as beauty and thinness are equated. The concept of beauty is constantly dependent on body weight. The image of an ideal figure measuring 90x60x90 is widely promoted by television, the Internet, and fashion magazines. Manifestations of anorexia are especially common in girls and young women who strive to lose weight and become as close as possible to their ideal.

2 Stages of the disease

Before considering the symptoms of the disease in detail, you should understand its stages. Scientists identify 3 main stages in the development of anorexia:

• dysmorphophobic;
• dysmorphomaniac;
• cachectic.

The dysmorphophobic stage is the initial stage that a patient with anorexia goes through. She has thoughts about being overweight. It seems to her that others notice this and laugh at her, which makes her depressed. A patient with anorexia begins to lose weight by practicing all kinds of diets. But, unable to withstand the acute feeling of hunger, she often breaks down, emptying the refrigerator at night.

In the dysmorphomanic stage, a patient with anorexia is probably already confident in her obesity and dreams of an ideal figure. Depressive state replaced by activity and readiness to fight extra pounds. The patient, secretly from others, uses various means: diets, fasting, physical activity, medications that suppress appetite. After a sudden breakdown, she can use cleansing enemas and artificial vomiting.

The cachectic stage threatens the patient with anorexia with death. Gradually she develops a persistent aversion to food. The body stops accepting any food. The patient's weight decreases by almost 2 times, but she does not notice it. Negative irreversible transformations begin in the body, and dystrophy of the most important organs develops. Blood pressure and body temperature drop, pulse noticeably slows down. Only an experienced psychiatrist can save the patient from imminent death.

3 Signs of the initial stage

It is very important not to miss the moment when anorexia begins. At this time, the patient’s health was also damaged minor harm. Here, the main role in detecting the disease is given to relatives, friends, acquaintances, because the girl or woman herself does not admit the presence of the disease.

It is worth mentioning the first signs of anorexia, which should alert others. These include:

1. Fear of getting fat. The main topic of conversation for a patient with anorexia is the problem of excess weight and means of getting rid of it: all kinds of diets for weight loss, physical exercise, dietary supplements, etc.
2. Changing the way you eat. Various variations in food consumption can be used: only vegetables and fruits, cut into small pieces, or only liquids, a significant reduction in portions, etc.
3. Availability Conviction overweight in general or in any part of the body. The ability to constantly prove to others the need to lose weight to get an ideal figure.
4. Refusal to eat, the use of various excuses and tricks: stomach pain, fatigue, etc. Despite this, an anorexic patient is able to cook for others herself variety of dishes, long time be in the kitchen.
5. Frequent release from consumed food by inducing vomiting or using an enema.
6. Exhausting activities physical culture and sports, pursuing only one goal - to lose weight.
7. Limiting your social circle. Fear of having to eat at various events and an obsession with discussing the problem of excess weight force an anorexic patient to spend most of her time alone.

Knowing how the disease begins and suspecting loved one the first signs, it is necessary to persuade him to seek help from a professional psychologist.

4 How the pathology progresses

While not everyone can identify the first signs of anorexia, the symptoms of an advanced disease are visible and understandable to everyone. The patient inadequately assesses her condition even when exhaustion becomes life-threatening.

The main signs of anorexia in women are a complete refusal to eat and significant weight loss in a short period of time.

It can be noted general symptoms anorexia:

• feeling of guilt when consuming food in any quantity;
• panic fear of gaining weight;
• sleep disturbance;
• decrease in body temperature and blood pressure.

As the disease progresses, the patient’s general health deteriorates, and the coordinated functioning of the body’s main systems collapses.

You can parse the following additional symptoms anorexia, which has gone quite far:

1. Many serious diseases develop due to the fact that the patient’s body does not receive the necessary nutrients for a long time. nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates, proteins. More often than others, people suffering from anorexia experience serious problems with their kidneys, endocrine system, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, osteoporosis develops, iron deficiency anemia etc.
2. Severe fatigue, weakness, frequent fainting states. This is due to a lack of energy due to a semi-starved state for a long time.
3. The skin becomes pale and acquires a bluish tint. Normal skin microcirculation is disrupted.
4. Major changes are taking place in emotional sphere patient: irritability appears, sudden changes mood, memory is impaired.
5. Hormonal disruption in a woman’s body, leading to the cessation of menstruation.
6. The condition of hair and nails noticeably worsens. Due to a lack of minerals, vitamins and nutrients, they become dull and brittle.
7. Violation of the body's electrolyte balance occurs due to the body's failure to receive magnesium and potassium in full. In particularly severe cases, signs of cardiac arrest can be diagnosed.

If you do not stop the development of the disease in a timely manner and do not start competent treatment, then the patient can pass the point of no return, reaching the cachectic stage of anorexia, which means degeneration of internal organs and leads to death.

Thus, knowing the causes and main symptoms of anorexia, it is important to be attentive to yourself and others, promoting correct eating behavior in order to prevent the occurrence of this dangerous disease.

Nowadays there are very high demands to the appearance of boys and girls. Women, of course, pay particular attention to their appearance. They are very demanding of their appearance, sometimes they want the almost impossible. Standard current beauty I have an ideal, slim, fit, sexy figure. This idea is imposed on us by television programs, videos on the Internet, and photographs in magazines.

Images of thin models impose on many women the idea that thinness and beauty are equivalent concepts. Women who are unhappy with their figure are willing to go to great lengths to achieve the desired result. But some of them get too carried away with this idea and go too far. Therefore, when losing weight, you need to understand that there is such a disease as, which in its symptoms is practically no different from the behavior of an ordinary woman who is simply losing weight.

Very few women are naturally deprived perfect body, such is nature. For this reason, many representatives of the fairer sex are trying to get rid of extra pounds, folds, centimeters. They are ready to use various tools in this fight, which are not always harmless. Teas and diet pills can be used, fasting, debilitating physical activity, all this can have a very disastrous result. In this article we will tell you in detail how to distinguish normal weight loss from anorexia, as well as the reasons for which this disease occurs and what symptoms it manifests.

What is anorexia?

Anorexia is a disease in which normal eating behavior is disrupted, which is expressed in too much attention to one's weight and in the desire to almost completely limit oneself from eating food. Women who suffer from anorexia are afraid to gain overweight so much so that they are ready to push themselves to the point of exhaustion.

Alas, this disease mainly occurs in young girls, and sometimes in teenagers. This is explained by the fact that they are the ones most susceptible to influence environment. Girls with anorexia so deplete their body with various diets, or even refusing food, that their weight drops fifteen to twenty percent below what it should be. In some cases, weight may decrease even more. But even under such circumstances that the girl’s weight is greatly reduced and her general well-being suffers, the girl, looking at herself in the mirror, sees herself still very fat. She continues to make every effort to get rid of the “extra weight” that she needs, on the contrary.

This disease is very, very dangerous for young girls, as their body is not yet fully formed and continues to grow and develop. As a result of trying to lose weight, others see her as unhealthy, beautiful girl, but a certain ghost with bruises under his eyes, pale skin and many associated diseases. When an organism grows and develops intensively, various functional systems the body - endocrine, nervous, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, it needs many nutrients, vitamins, minerals. Teenager, instead of giving it all to the body in required quantities, torments him with hunger, it brings the young, developing organism irreparable harm.

Anorexic symptoms

Most often, girls and women who develop anorexia refuse to admit that they have this disease. It is very important for close friends to detect the signs of anorexia in a timely manner. If this does not happen, then the obsession with getting rid of excess weight will bring very disastrous results - the girl’s health is under threat. big threat, and in some cases her life. The most important and first sign of anorexia in a woman is a significant obvious weight loss, sometimes in a very short period of time. But, unfortunately, this symptom becomes visible only when the exhaustion of the body approaches a dangerously critical point. It may simply seem to many that the girl decided to get rid of excess weight in a very harmless way.

Another manifestation of anorexia is a significant reduction in the portion of food that a woman eats and loss of appetite. These signs should never be ignored. Some girls may refuse to eat at all, while finding many different excuses, which sometimes look very plausible - she’s tired, her stomach hurts, she’s eaten recently. But despite this, a person who suffers from anorexia can happily talk about different diets, about food, about weight loss methods, about calories. In addition, women with anorexia can spend a long time in the kitchen, while preparing a wide variety of dishes. They themselves do not want to use them.

It may seem to many that anorexics are not interested in food at all. But this is not really true - they think about food almost all the time. But as soon as it comes to putting these thoughts into practice, this desire instantly disappears somewhere. General condition the patient worsens as the disease progresses. This manifests itself in different symptoms disruption of many systems in the body.

• The condition of nails and hair is deteriorating. Hair becomes dull, loses its shine, and splits severely. And no hair balms, even the best ones, help improve the condition of your hair. This process due to the fact that the body does not have enough minerals and vitamins that are needed to maintain hair in excellent condition. The same applies to nails, they become brittle and thin, sometimes peeling.
• Very high fatigue. The patient appears severe weakness, she gets tired easily. The girl is just waking up and is already starting to feel tired. This happens not because of strong physical activity, but because the body does not receive the necessary energy, and it begins to take it from its internal resources, which are limited. If the cases of the disease are severe, the girl may become very drowsy, she may begin to faint regularly.
• Disappearance of menstruation or. The mechanism by which this symptom occurs is not entirely clear; it is most likely influenced by the lack of nutrients that the body needs. For this reason, hormonal levels fail. Amenorrhea is a serious disorder, which indicates that the girl needs urgent medical attention.
• State changes skin . In patients with anorexia, the face becomes pale color, blue circles appear under the eyes. The reason for this is iron deficiency anemia, which is mandatory for this disorder. Anorexia very often causes kidney problems. The skin of the sick girl's legs and arms acquires a characteristic bluish tint. It occurs due to poor microcirculation of the skin. For this reason, a woman is often cold; her body can often become covered with a layer of short and fine hair. The body thus tries to maintain heat and protect itself from hyperemia.
• Are developing various diseases . The body lacks essential minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and nutrients. This is a kind of stress for the body, and it is very difficult to predict exactly how it will react to this. Many women experience problems with the gastrointestinal tract, develop osteoporosis, and disrupt the functioning of the endocrine and nervous systems.

Causes of anorexia

Many people are interested in the reasons for this disease. An important fact is that there are several types of anorexia: mental, nervous and primary. Primary anorexia in women occurs due to various physiological and organic pathologies. It could be neurological disorders, malignant tumors, hormonal dysfunction and other diseases. Mental anorexia occurs due to various psychiatric pathologies. These could be delusions, depression, schizophrenia, catatonic stupor. But when most people use the term “anorexia,” they still mean anorexia nervosa. There are many reasons why anorexia nervosa occurs. These include family characteristics, problems communicating with others, and personal difficulties. Basically, the wide range of problems that cause anorexia include:

• Dysfunctional family. Such a family has an unhealthy mental climate. All family members become irritated with each other or hide their emotions greatly. One family member or several of its members most often have various types of addiction - drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling addiction, and so on. Everyone thinks exclusively for themselves and does not take into account each other's needs. A child in such a family is left to his own devices, or is under the authoritarian control of his parents. In such conditions, most often one of the family members, usually a teenage girl, suffers from anorexia.
• Too low self-esteem and impaired perception of one's own body. All girls with anorexia consider themselves fat and ugly. Even if a girl has very little weight, and her bones stick out, it still seems to her that she is very fat and has a lot of extra pounds. But, most likely, this opinion is not the result of anorexia; the real reason is that in life such girls consider themselves passive, uninteresting, weak, stupid and ugly. They want to achieve at least something in life, that is, to have beautiful figure, in their opinion.
• Negative atmosphere around eating. The source of such a reason lies, as a rule, in early childhood. Many parents consider it necessary to feed their baby, despite his reluctance to eat. They forcefully begin to push food into the child, and he, in turn, develops gag reflex, arises negative attitude to eating food. For this reason, anorexia can occur already in the very early childhood, and sometimes it can hide and make itself felt in adolescence or adulthood, if there is the influence of additional factors.
• Unmet need for acceptance and love. In this case, the disease occurs because the girl strives to please other people. Very often this can happen to those girls who suffered from excess weight. When they begin to lose weight, they begin to notice how other people begin to show sympathy and be drawn to them. This fact reinforces the positive result of losing weight in a person, and they quickly continue in the same spirit. Very soon the disease begins to become pathological.
• Perfectionism. Obsessiveness and fixation in behavior. At long-term weight loss this trait is very severe consequences. Even if it begins as a completely normal and healthy process, then a very high desire for perfection can provoke a girl to become fixated on this idea, on the idea of ​​losing weight. She will constantly seem not beautiful enough for herself. And in order to appear beautiful to yourself and others, you need to eat less and less (according to people with anorexia).
• Fighting some obstacles. Some doctors believe that the basis of the disease anorexia is the girl’s desire to overcome some difficulties; the difficulties are their own constant appetite. By refusing to eat, the girl believes that she has overcome this difficulty and it brings her pleasure. This process brings the girl victory over herself and has an important meaning in her life. This is why it is so difficult for girls suffering from anorexia to give up such pathological behavior.

Girls, if your figure does not suit you in any way, and you are planning to get rid of extra pounds with the help of some effective diet, then before doing this, think carefully, is it worth it? Are you ready to risk your own health for the sake of invented beauty?

If you still decide to improve and correct your body and overcome extra pounds, then do it wisely, do not forget about the limits in such a struggle. Assess the current situation soberly, because the line between anorexia and ordinary harmless weight loss is very, very thin. It is very easy to cross, so if your friends or relatives have any doubts about your health, it is better to once again seek advice from a specialist. If nature has not blessed you with an ideal figure, then this is not a reason to fall into despair.

You need to know that you can be attractive, charming, beautiful and attract attention without an ideal appearance. Much more important flat stomach- charisma and self-confidence! Be healthy and love yourself for who you are!

In the last decade, anorexia has become a new fashion for modern youth. The idea of ​​an ideal figure has been formed in the minds of millions of people thanks to photographs of skinny models in glossy magazines.

Especially similar influence girls are susceptible age category from 12 to 18, less often up to 25 years. To meet the ideal, they torture themselves with diets and refuse food, every day getting closer to their goal. And at one point they can no longer stop.

Frequent victims of this debilitating disease are models and stars. For example, the French actress and model Isabelle Caro suffered from this disease from the age of 13. She became famous throughout the world after participating in advertising campaign"No anorexia."

Social advertising promoted healthy image life in order to prevent the death of many girls who drive themselves to exhaustion. The publication of a photo of a model suffering from this terrible disease caused a public outcry and numerous discussions in the press.

The fashion for anorexia is gaining momentum and has reached epidemic proportions. Girls unite in communities, promote exhaustion of the body as a way of existence, without realizing the consequences. Perhaps they were not explained that this disease is very serious and this is not a game at all, but long road at the cemetery.

Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disease that is accompanied by a disorder in food consumption. This disease is characterized by intense weight loss associated with an uncontrollable fear of obesity, a distorted image of one’s own appearance, which leads to deep disruptions in metabolic processes body.

Girls who are not happy with their figure and are on the verge of illness are terrified of getting fat; even a glass of water can threaten their “ideal” figure. Patients with anorexia can be compared to alcoholics and drug addicts - none of them realize the severity of the disease and its consequences.

As a rule, women are more likely to think about the need to lose excess weight than men. According to statistics, 1% of women and 0.2% of men suffer from anorexia. According to medical data, 40% of patients recover, 30% experience improvement, 24% have a chronic disease, and 6% die.

Causes of anorexia

One of the main social informants in many countries around the world is the media. Television, glossy magazines, cinema, advertising, and the Internet are the main sources of fashion for thinness and stereotypes about the ideal figure.

Teenagers are susceptible to the information they receive, which leads to a distorted vision of the world. The result is dissatisfaction own body, concerns about weight and, as a result, anorexia nervosa develops.

Girls who frequently read glamorous fashion magazines, articles about diets and weight loss-related issues are six times more likely to engage in weight loss practices and seven times more likely to engage in extreme unhealthy weight control.

Women who frequently look at photos of models have a decreased sense of self-esteem, which increases the likelihood of a desire to correct themselves with physical exercise and various diets.

One of psychological reasons The development of anorexia is a lack of self-acceptance. Most often, this is typical for teenage girls aged 12–16 years. They begin to worry about their appearance. The desire to please boys, to be accepted in the company of more beautiful friends, to become a model, and so on, pushes teenagers to take drastic measures.

The second reason is non-acceptance of parents. Protracted conflict with mother or father, psychological pressure, hidden resentment, careless statements about appearance cause complexes and self-doubt in the child. As a result, the development of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia begins gradually. Dissatisfaction with one's own reflection in the mirror gradually develops into a persistent belief that one is overweight. Thoughts arise about the need to correct the figure and fight extra pounds. Patients with anorexia choose several methods to combat obesity: they refuse to eat, try to cleanse the body of food (induce vomiting, take laxatives, give an enema).

At the beginning, when the first one is reached positive result, your mood improves, a feeling of lightness and a sense of fitness comes. Negative changes and signs of anorexia in the body are not noticed - hair loss and dullness, peeling skin, sallow complexion, thin brittle nails.

Then, active physical activity is added to the persistent restriction of food intake. The already exhausted body becomes even more exhausted. Pathological fatigue and drowsiness occur.

After only 1-1.5 years of active weight loss, patients look exhausted, with haggard features, sunken eyes. If you don't apply for medical assistance At this stage of development of anorexia, the likelihood fatal outcome reaches its maximum.

Symptoms of anorexia

The most obvious sign of anorexia is critical weight loss, close to exhaustion. Initially, anorexics refuse to eat, citing satiety or malaise. At the same time, they can talk for hours about food, caloric content of foods and diets - food completely covers all thoughts. Further - more. Weakness, fatigue, and possible fainting appear. They are constantly cold - due to lack of energy, the body cannot warm up.

Patients with anorexia are characterized by hostility, depression, secrecy, and increased anxiety. Lack of vitamins and minerals the body tries to replenish from secondary organs, as a result - dull hair, brittle nails, gray shade skin, puffy face.

As a result of fasting, women develop amenorrhea - the absence of three consecutive menstrual cycles, childbearing becomes difficult for them. acute problem. With low weight, early menopause may occur.

Anorexics often deny that they have any eating disorders. And attempts by relatives to feed the patient cause a violent reaction from him.

Anorexia in adolescents

Children cannot be aware of their actions and do not understand what is happening to them. However, they believe that with every lost kilogram they are becoming more beautiful and better. And suddenly they realize that they can no longer stop. This is the result of psychological abnormalities. This is anorexia in full bloom.

Teenagers begin to share portions, avoid family dinners together, and feed their portions to younger brothers and sisters and animals. Having become more sophisticated about the reasons for refusing food, they begin to lie about everything else.

Parents should know their child's habits and be wary of changes in behavior. It is important to talk to your children, explain to them what beauty is, healthy eating, healthy habits. At the same time, be careful, since excessive edification and imposing your own criteria on a child can have the opposite effect.

It is necessary to listen to your child’s ideas about beauty, about the world, what he dreams of and what he strives for. And from this, draw appropriate conclusions and make small adjustments so that the child cannot bring himself to a state of anorexia. Before an important conversation, it is better for parents to talk to specialists who can help give advice. How to conduct a conversation correctly and not get lost in emotions.

First of all, parents need to pay attention to themselves - whether they are eating right and playing sports. Encourage children to do things together. Show that you don't have to give up food if you want to lose weight. You can go to gym, go for a run, visit the pool. Suggest alternative options, without harm to psyche and health.

Often children say that they are not accepted in the team, they have no friends. In this situation, parents can organize some kind of party or event to bring them closer to their peers and create communication for the child.

Today, the problem of anorexia is growing. If a teenager is in a state of endless mood swings, irritability and lack of acceptance of the world around him, himself, his life and everyone around him, parents must assess the situation and take some action. When the first warning signs appear, it is necessary to urgently contact specialists, in particular a psychologist. Help will come!

Diagnosis of anorexia

The initial diagnosis should be made by a competent healthcare professional. There are a number of diseases such as viral infections, hormonal imbalance, brain tumors that can mimic psychiatric disorders, including anorexia nervosa.

The psychiatrist conducts a preliminary conversation with the patient, during which he draws attention to the following aspects:

1. the patient’s body weight is constantly decreasing and reaches a level 15% below ideal weight;
2. weight loss is provoked by the patient himself by refusing to eat;
3. obsession with losing excess weight due to a distorted perception of one’s own body;
4. amenorrhea in women.

Clinical studies when diagnosing anorexia are necessary to determine the extent of damage to internal organs due to fasting. These include, general analysis urine and blood, analysis for the presence of antibodies to viruses and bacteria, specific tests for the quality of functioning of the liver and kidneys, a test for glucose tolerance, the presence of nitrogen in urea and blood, ultrasound of internal organs and others.

For staging correct diagnosis it is necessary to analyze the obtained clinical and psychological data. Concomitant diseases may influence the severity of eating disorder symptoms.

For example, distinguishing between the diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder without additional abnormalities is often difficult to make because there is symptom overlap between patients. It would seem that minor changes in the general behavior of the patient can change the diagnosis.

Treatment of anorexia

Anorexia is not easy to get rid of. This is a psychological disease that torments its victim even in sleep. Patients cease to control their feelings and actions, their own fears drive them into a corner and doom them to loneliness. Anorexia – terrible disease, which can take years to heal.

Denial of the disease in anorexics delays the visit to the doctor, so relatives have to force the patient to see a psychotherapist. Since the disease is psychological, clinics are developing programs behavioral therapy, combining with other types of psychological assistance.

First they restore physical condition body. If an anorexic person is admitted to the hospital in critical condition, nutrition is provided through an IV to stabilize the condition. When the crisis passes, the patient is gradually introduced to food.

First, give food in small portions, monitor the patient for 2 hours after eating so that he does not vomit. If an anorexic refuses to eat, he is offered special mixtures. Patients usually do not object to drinking liquids or liquid foods.

People suffering from anorexia have extremely high blood levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin, which signals the physiological desire to consume food. High level ghrelin suggests that the body's hunger urge was suppressed and ignored. However, one small, simple study found that intravenous administration Ghrelin in patients with anorexia increased their food intake by 12-36%.

After normalization of nutrition and gradual weight gain, doctors proceed to treatment psychological state patient. Depending on the patient’s condition, he may be prescribed antidepressants that help relieve anxiety and fear and improve his mood.

It is important not to focus the patient's attention on food. Force-feeding and a strict regime can backfire. Some experts suggest using the so-called reward method.

A kind of contract is concluded with the patient - for a certain weight gain per day, he receives some kind of reward (for example, he is allowed to leave the ward for a while). If the patient does not gain weight, the conditions are reviewed. It is important that the choice of the desired reward remains with the patient.

To stabilize the psychological state of a patient with anorexia, psychoanalysis is used. As a result of psychoanalytic treatment, the underlying reasons for refusal to eat are revealed. The task of the psychotherapist is to help the patient get to the bottom of the reasons for his refusal to eat and jointly develop ways to solve the problem. Communication with the patient is aimed at changing his self-perception and eradicating psychological deviations.

Good results are obtained by keeping daily records indicating the amount of food taken, the type of food eaten, the time of absorption of food and a description of the environment in which the food was taken.

Brings positive results family psychotherapy. Most often used when the patient is under 18 years of age. In this case, family therapy is more successful than individual therapy.

IN various forms family therapy and treatment of anorexia, parents visit a psychotherapist together with the teenager, or separately. In any case, the main points of such treatment are similar: the family is seen as a resource for treatment; parents are given instructions under which they can take control of their child’s regular nutrition; behavioral programs are being developed to implement adolescent weight gain, etc.

When the child’s nutrition becomes regular and weight is gradually restored, the psychotherapeutic effect expands the area of ​​influence - by searching for problems of interaction in the family, conflicts between fathers and children are resolved. Family therapy allows recovery for 90% of patients with anorexia nervosa.

An unconventional treatment method is yoga. Treatment showed that eating disorder symptoms, including food preoccupation, decreased after each session.

According to studies, relapses of the disease are possible within the first year after the patient returns from stationary conditions, and occurs in 40% of patients with anorexia. Behavioral as well as pharmacological therapy can be provided to prevent relapse.

Consequences of anorexia

When a person goes on a hunger strike, he has no idea what harm he is causing to the body. Fasting is not a salvation, but a real killer.

Depending on the severity of the disease and the duration of fasting, various health consequences are possible. Girls who refuse to eat will experience metabolic disorders, problems with the liver, kidneys, skin, hair, and nails. The victim of anorexia will be an organism that will be extremely difficult to restore after such stress.

Glucose is the body's source of energy. During fasting, carbohydrate reserves are not replenished, and when glucose runs out, the body begins to look for alternative sources energy. The available sources within us are proteins and fats.

As a result of the destruction of proteins, in the body of a starving person, including those with anorexia, large number ammonia; when fats are broken down, acetone is formed. The breakdown products of proteins and fats accumulate in the body, and with each “hungry” day, the smell of acetone from the body and from the mouth intensifies. This toxic liquid begins to poison the body.

In “economy” mode, the body produces the stress hormone cartisol – nervous system is on the verge of breakdown, immunity is impaired. Immune strength is so reduced that the body is unable to fight either viruses or bacteria.

With anorexia, the barrier function of the liver decreases. As soon as a person stops consuming food, the liver begins to work twice as hard and produce additional fat as a source of its own energy. Fat accumulates in the liver, causing it to increase in size and fatty degeneration liver, which manifests itself as nausea, dizziness, and apathy.