Any eating disorder can cause serious health problems. As a rule, it is based on psychological factors. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of them together with specialists.
Types of problems
Experts know that an eating disorder can manifest itself in different ways. The tactics of treatment in each case should be selected individually. It will depend on the diagnosis and condition of the patient.
The most common types of disorders are:
- compulsive overeating;
- bulimia
- anorexia.
It is not always possible to recognize people who suffer from any of these disorders. For example, in bulimia nervosa, the weight may be within normal limits or slightly less than the lower limit. At the same time, people themselves do not understand that they have an eating disorder. Treatment, in their opinion, is not required for them. It is dangerous any condition in which a person tries to make himself the rules of nutrition and strictly adheres to them. For example, a complete refusal of food after 16 hours, a strict restriction or a complete refusal to consume fats, including vegetable origin, should alert.
What to look for: dangerous symptoms
It is not always possible to understand that a person has an eating disorder. Symptoms of this disease must be known. To find out if there are problems, a small test will help. You just need to answer the following questions:
- Do you have a fear that you will get fat?
- Do you catch yourself thinking too often about food?
- Do you refuse to eat with hunger?
- Do you count calories?
- Do you divide the food into small pieces?
- Do you occasionally experience bouts of uncontrolled absorption of food?
- Are you often told about your thinness?
- Do you have an obsessive desire to lose weight?
- Do you induce vomiting after eating?
- Do you feel nauseous after eating?
- Do you refuse the use of fast carbohydrates (bakery products, chocolate)?
- Are there only diet foods on your menu?
- Are others trying to tell you that you could eat more?
If you answered “yes” to these questions more than 5 times, then it is advisable for you to consult a specialist. He will be able to determine the type of disease and choose the most appropriate treatment tactic.
Characteristics of Anorexia
Refusal of food appears in people as a result of mental disorders. Any strict self-restrictions, an unusual selection of products are characteristic of anorexia. Moreover, patients have a constant fear that they will recover. In patients with anorexia, the body mass index may be 15% less than the established lower limit of normal. They have a constant fear of obesity. They believe that weight should be below normal.
In addition, for people suffering from this disease, the following is characteristic:
- the appearance of amenorrhea in women (lack of menstruation);
- impaired functioning of the body;
- loss of sex drive.
This eating disorder is often accompanied by:
- taking diuretics and laxatives;
- an exception to the diet of high-calorie foods;
- provoking vomiting;
- taking medications designed to reduce appetite;
- lengthy and exhausting workouts at home and in the gym with the goal of losing weight.
To establish the final diagnosis, the doctor must examine the patient completely. This eliminates other problems that appear in much the same way. Only then can treatment be prescribed.
Characteristic signs of bulimia
But people with mental health problems may not only develop anorexia. Specialists can diagnose a neurogenic disease such as bulimia. In this condition, patients periodically cease to control how much they eat. They have bouts of gluttony. As soon as overeating is completed, patients have severe discomfort. There is pain in the stomach, nausea, often episodes of gluttony end with vomiting. Feeling guilty for such behavior, hostility, and even depression causes this eating disorder. Treatment alone is unlikely to succeed.
Patients try to eliminate the consequences of such overeating by inducing vomiting, washing the stomach or taking laxatives. You can suspect the development of this problem if a person is haunted by thoughts about food, he has frequent episodes of overeating, periodically he feels an irresistible craving for food. Often episodes of bulimia alternate with anorexia. If untreated, this disease can lead to rapid weight loss, but the balance is disturbed in the body. As a result, serious complications arise, and in some cases a fatal outcome is possible.
Symptoms of Compulsive Overeating
Understanding how to get rid of an eating disorder, many forget that such problems are not limited to bulimia and anorexia. Doctors are faced with a disease such as compulsive overeating. It in its manifestations resembles bulimia. But the difference is that people suffering from it do not have regular unloadings. Such patients do not take laxatives or diuretics, do not induce vomiting.
With this disease, bouts of gluttony and periods of self-restraint in food can alternate. Although in most cases, between episodes of overeating, people constantly eat something little by little. It is because of this that significant weight gain occurs. This psychological problem in some can occur only periodically and be short-term. For example, this is how certain people react to stress, as if seizing problems. With the help of food, people suffering from compulsive overeating are looking for an opportunity to enjoy and deliver new pleasant sensations.
Reasons for the development of deviations
For any eating disorders, the participation of specialists is indispensable. But help will be effective only if it is possible to identify the causes of eating disorders and eliminate them.
Most often, the following factors provoke the development of the disease:
- high standards for oneself and perfectionism;
- the presence of traumatic experiences;
- stress experienced due to ridicule in childhood and adolescence over weight ;
- low self-esteem ;
- mental trauma resulting from early sexual abuse;
- excessive care about the figure and appearance in the family;
- genetic predisposition to various eating disorders.
Each of these causes can lead to self-perception being impaired. A man, regardless of his appearance, will be ashamed of himself. You can identify people with such problems by the fact that they are not happy with themselves, they can’t even talk about their bodies. They attribute all failures in life to the fact that they have an unsatisfactory appearance.
Problems in adolescents
Very often an eating disorder begins in adolescence. Significant hormonal changes occur in the child’s body, his appearance becomes different. At the same time, the psychological situation in the team is changing - at this time it is important for children to look like they are accepted, not to go beyond the established standards.
Most teenagers are preoccupied with their appearance, and against this background, they may develop various psychological problems. If the family did not devote sufficient time to developing an objective, adequate self-esteem in the child, they did not instill a healthy attitude to food, then there is a risk that he will have an eating disorder. In children and adolescents, this disease often develops against a background of low self-esteem. At the same time, for a rather long time, they manage to hide everything from their parents.
These problems develop, usually at the age of 11-13 years - during puberty. Such adolescents focus on their appearance. For them, this is the only tool that allows you to gain self-confidence. Many parents play it safe, fearing that their child has developed an eating disorder. In adolescents, it can be difficult to distinguish between normal preoccupation with the appearance and pathological condition in which it is time to sound the alarm. Parents need to start worrying if they see that the child:
- tries not to attend events where there will be feasts;
- spends a lot of time on physical activity in order to burn calories;
- too dissatisfied with his appearance;
- uses laxatives and diuretics;
- fixated on weight control;
- overly scrupulously monitors the calorie content of the products and the portion size.
But many parents think that there can be no eating disorder in children. At the same time, they continue to consider their teenagers at 13-15 years old as babies, turning a blind eye to the emerging disease.
Possible Consequences of Eating Disorders
You cannot underestimate the problems that these symptoms can lead to. After all, they not only adversely affect health, but can also cause death. Bulimia, like anorexia, causes dehydration, kidney failure, and heart disease. With frequent vomiting, which leads to a lack of nutrients, such problems can develop:
- damage to the kidneys and stomach;
- a feeling of constant abdominal pain;
- development of caries (it begins due to the constant exposure to gastric juice);
- lack of potassium (leads to heart problems and can cause death);
- amenorrhea;
- the appearance of cheeks "hamster" (due to a pathological increase in the salivary glands).
With anorexia, the body goes into the so-called fasting mode. Such signs may indicate this:
- hair loss, brittle nails;
- anemia;
- amenorrhea in women;
- decrease in heart rate, respiration, blood pressure;
- persistent dizziness;
- the appearance of a hair gun throughout the body;
- the development of osteoporosis - a disease characterized by increased fragility of bones;
- increased joint size.
The sooner the disease is diagnosed, the faster it will be possible to get rid of it. In severe cases, even hospitalization is necessary.
Psychological help
Many people with overt eating disorders find that they have no problem. But without medical help, it is impossible to correct the situation. After all, you cannot independently figure out how to conduct psychotherapy of an eating disorder. If the patient resists and refuses treatment, then the help of a psychiatrist may be needed. With an integrated approach, a person can be helped to get rid of problems. After all, with severe violations, psychotherapy alone will not be enough. In this case, medication is also prescribed.
Psychotherapy should be aimed at the person’s work on his own image. He should begin to adequately evaluate and accept his body. It is also necessary to adjust the attitude to food. But it is important to work out the reasons that led to such a violation. Specialists who work with people suffering from eating disorders say their patients are overly sensitive and prone to frequent negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, anger, sadness.
For them, any restriction in food or overeating, excessive physical exertion are a way to temporarily alleviate their condition. They need to learn to manage their emotions and feelings, without this they will not be able to overcome an eating disorder. How to treat this disease, you need to deal with a specialist. But the main objective of therapy is the formation of the patient's correct lifestyle.
Worse work to get rid of the problem goes to those who have difficult relationships in the family or constant stress in the workplace. Therefore, psychotherapists must work on relationships with others. The sooner a person realizes that he has a problem, the easier it will be to get rid of it.
Recovery period
The most difficult task for patients is the development of self-love. They need to learn to perceive themselves as individuals. Only with adequate self-esteem can one restore physical condition. Therefore, nutritionists and psychologists (and in some cases psychiatrists) should work on such patients at the same time.
Professionals should help overcome an eating disorder. Treatment may include:
- drawing up a nutrition plan;
- the inclusion in life of adequate physical exertion;
- taking antidepressants (necessary only if certain indications are available);
- work on self-perception and relationships with others;
- treating mental disorders such as anxiety.
It is important that the patient has support during the treatment period. Indeed, often people break down, take breaks in treatment, promise to return to the intended plan of action after a certain time. Some even consider themselves cured, although their eating behavior remains virtually unchanged.