A thinness disease is anorexia. It is based on a neuropsychic disorder, which manifests itself in an obsessive desire to lose weight and in fear of obesity.
This is a serious disease that is fraught with many sad consequences. Even a fatal outcome is possible. What anorexia is, what are its causes and symptoms, as well as how to treat it, will be discussed in this article.
Specificity
The disease of thinness occurs due to a malfunction of the food center of the brain. This is manifested in the refusal of food and in the absence of appetite.
Anorexia has a high mortality rate. A fatal outcome overtakes about 20% of the total number of people suffering from the disease. And about half of these cases are the result of suicide. Natural death, as a rule, occurs due to heart failure, which leads to general exhaustion of the body.
According to statistics, 15% of women, concerned about losing weight and diets, bring themselves to a state in which the notorious food center begins to refuse.
As a rule, young girls and adolescents suffer from anorexia. Also, this disease, along with bulimia, is an occupational disease of models. 72% of girls working on the catwalk have it.
Another thinness disease is often the result of taking certain medications in excess.
What is characteristic: not a single person suffering from anorexia recognizes the presence of violations and does not agree with the severity of the disease.
Classification
There are several types of disease of excessive thinness. Distinguish anorexia by the mechanism of occurrence. There are such types of it:
- Neurotic. It arises as a result of the negative emotions exerted on the cerebral cortex.
- Neuropsychic. In this case, refusal of food is due to the overvalued idea of losing weight or depression, schizophrenia, or a syndrome of obsessive states.
- Neurodynamic. It is formed due to inhibition of the nerve center in the cerebral cortex by strong stimuli. Due to severe pain, for example, a person may not want to eat at all.
In children, anorexia is formed due to hypothalamic insufficiency. Another cause may be Kanner’s syndrome.
Risk factors
There are certain conditions that predispose to the development of thinness disease. Anorexia, the photo of which is presented in the article, most often develops in people suffering from one of the following:
- Endocrine Disorders Hypothyroidism, hypothalamic and pituitary insufficiency, etc.
- Malignant neoplasms.
- Gastrointestinal diseases. This is cirrhosis of the liver, gastritis, hepatitis, appendicitis, pancreatitis, etc.
- Renal failure of a chronic nature.
- Diseases of a chronic nature.
- Long hyperthermia.
- Dental diseases.
- Chronic pain
There is also the concept of iatrogenic anorexia, which leads to the use of certain medications that affect the central nervous system. These include tranquilizers, antidepressants, sedatives and drugs, caffeine and amphetamine.
In children, thinness disease often occurs due to violation of the rules and feeding regimen.
Anorexia Nervosa
It occurs most often. The disease of thinness in young girls is formed for the following reasons:
- Low self-esteem.
- Self-doubt.
- Feeling of inferiority.
- The feeling of personal discrepancy with some "standards" of beauty.
- Fear of being overweight.
- Psychological pressure from the side. For example, some parents are cruel to their children, forming complexes in them, constantly talking about the imperfection of their appearance.
The disease of thinness on the subconscious mind is becoming the obvious way to lose weight and the fear of losing its attractiveness. An unstable youthful psyche captures this idea as overvalued. A teenager loses a sense of reality and the ability to adequately perceive the state of his health and his appearance.
Almost all anorexic girls consider themselves fat, even if they weigh critically low. Sometimes they realize that they are exhausted, but still refuse to eat, for fear of gaining weight.
A vicious circle is forming. Due to a lack of nutrients, the brain centers that regulate appetite are inhibited. And the body simply ceases to demand what it needs (food).
Symptoms
So, the name of the disease of severe thinness and what are its causes is clear. Now you need to consider its symptoms. They can be distinguished in the following list:
- Obsessive desire to lose weight, even if the weight is normal.
- Fear of fullness.
- A painstaking count of calories.
- Obsessions that are related to food.
- The constant refusal of food, motivated by the lack of hunger or the reservation "I'm full (a)."
- Turning food consumption into a ritual: cutting food into tiny pieces, chewing thoroughly, serving in small portions.
- The desire for physical activity.
- The tendency to wear spacious clothes (it hides supposedly overweight).
- Rigid, fanatical, hard thinking, aggressive defense of one’s views.
- Propensity to privacy.
- Apathy, depression, loss of working capacity.
- Dissatisfaction with oneself and appearance.
- Sleep disturbance.
- Sensation as if control over life was lost.
- More than 30% decreased body weight.
- Dizziness.
- Weakness.
- Frequent fainting.
- The growth of soft and very thin hair on the body.
- Menstrual disorders and decreased libido.
- A constant feeling of cold, arising from poor circulation.
And most importantly - a person suffering from a thinness disease (anorexia) does not believe that he has health problems.
Effects
Here is the danger of a long refusal of food:
- Dystrophy, and then cachexia - marked exhaustion.
- Slow heart rate.
- Pale skin.
- Blue tip of the nose and fingers.
- Decreased body temperature.
- Hypersensitivity.
- Decreased skin elasticity, dry skin.
- Brittle hair loss.
- Atrophy of muscle tissue.
- Amenorrhea in women.
- Changes in the internal organs of a dystrophic nature.
- Edema and hemorrhage.
- Psychopathy.
- Heart failure.
The worst consequence, as mentioned earlier, is death. Unfortunately, not rare.
Treatment
A severe thinness disease called anorexia therapy is extremely difficult. In general, 3 months of psychotherapy and parallel work to normalize weight are enough. But the patient himself must come to this. Since the reason is psychological. And it is important for him to realize the seriousness of his condition.
Treatment takes place in a hospital and is aimed at restoring metabolism, normalizing body weight. Often anorexic patients are admitted to the hospital in a borderline state, with loss of consciousness and acute heart failure. These people experience deep disturbances in homeostasis, and they need emergency assistance, which implies the restoration of ionic and water-electrolyte balance. Nutrients are also administered parenterally.