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No anorexia. Anorexia, symptoms, first signs, treatment. Signs of the initial stage

The first sign of the development of a painful psychological state is an excessive passion for various diets and a fanatical adherence to every new weight loss advice read in a magazine or on the Internet. The risk group includes those over the age of 16, models, participants in beauty contests, and young men predisposed to. In the latter, even a slight weight loss can already be regarded as anorexia. The task of relatives and friends is not to miss this first “call” and to prevent the development of the disease.

The worst cases of anorexia are presented in a simulated environment. 14-year-old Mayara Galvao Vieira, 21-year-old Hila Elmaliah, 18-year-old Eliana Ramos and many others died of cardiac arrest as a result of severe exhaustion.

A body mass index below 17% is best indicative of the onset of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexics suffer constant feeling hunger. They satisfy their need for food by frequent meals, and then artificially remove it from the body by vomiting or taking laxatives. Until a certain point, patients keep the situation under control. At an early stage, they can still stop the development of the disease, but after the anorexic has passed the point of no return, the body ceases to resist and does not accept incoming food. Moreover, the very thought of eating causes suffering to the victim of anorexia.

At this stage, the struggle begins not with insufficient weight, but the struggle for life, because. all body systems fail. First of all, the excretory and circulatory system suffers, it is here that, as a result of anorexia, changes incompatible with life occur. Due to the large loss of potassium during the artificial induction of vomiting, the development of arrhythmia, hypotension and a stable body are observed. On the part of the gastrointestinal tract, anorexics complain of the appearance of heartburn, flatulence, constipation and pain in the abdomen.

In 10% of cases, anorexia without appropriate treatment is fatal. Doctors call acute heart and kidney failure the main cause of death.

As a result of the removal of fluid and nutrients from the body, and also due to the fact that useful nutrients cease to enter the body, the patient has dry mucous membranes, the condition of the skin, hair and nails worsens. Attention should also be paid to the sexual component of the life of a person who can be diagnosed with anorexia. First of all, patients lose interest in sex, there is a failure of the menstrual cycle or a complete cessation. U - impotence.

Individually, these signs may indicate an exacerbation of other diseases, but together they indicate the development of a terrible disease that is sometimes difficult to stop. A few years ago, the organizers of fashion shows themselves provoked models to self-torture, lowering the bar of permissible weight. After a series of deaths and scandals that have erupted, the involvement of models suffering from anorexia is prohibited in many countries.

Many celebrities in pursuit of getting rid of extra pounds exhaust themselves by starvation. The most famous among them are Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham, Tara Reid and Lindsay Lohan.

Causes of cachexia and anorexia, risk factors

The reasons for the development of cachexia can be very diverse: helminthiasis, starvation, radiation sickness, metabolic disorders (energy waste, pathological increase in metabolism), etc. But, first of all, it is worth noting that more than half of cancer patients and AIDS patients fall ill with cachexia.

The causes of anorexia are different from the causes of cachexia, but it can be the result of cachexia. Most often, anorexic exhaustion is observed in cases of pathological following of fashion trends. A distorted idea of ​​\u200b\u200bits appearance, in particular about weight, often leads both men and men to the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bweight loss, even in cases where this is not necessary.

The death of 38-year-old male model Jeremy Glitzer in 2010 shocked the entire fashion world. In just a few years, a handsome and full of strength young man literally burned out from anorexia.

Physical exhaustion can be caused by various psychological factors: personal tragedies, the death of a loved one, discord in the family or with a lover, rape and other injuries. The risk group includes people with a genetic predisposition to low body weight, as well as those in whose family there are already patients with anorexia. In addition, alcoholics and drug addicts are at risk of anorexia.

Treatment of anorexia nervosa

Treatment consists in taking drugs that normalize appetite, and forced, along with constant monitoring of the patient's condition, in order to exclude the possibility of unauthorized removal of food. In some cases, it is necessary to eliminate a concomitant disease, the cause of anorexia. At the same time, drugs are prescribed that normalize the hormonal side of the disease - the restoration of menstruation, the functions of the endocrine system. The patient needs constant care, taking vitamins and minerals. However, the most important component in the treatment of this terrible disease is psychotherapeutic intervention.

Related article

Anorexia is a lack of appetite, in which there is a complete or partial refusal to eat. All this eventually leads to rapid weight loss.

Causes of anorexia

There are many reasons for the development of anorexia:

1. Diabetes


2. drug addiction or


3. Thyrotoxicosis


4. Infection


5. Anemia


6. Depression


7. Hormone and immune disorders

Increasingly, doctors began to diagnose anorexia nervosa. It is inherent in girls who consider themselves fat and are unhappy with their physical form. Sick

According to medical observations, about 20% of people with anorexia die. More than half of the deaths are due to suicide. As for natural death, its cause is heart failure and changes in internal organs incompatible with life, resulting from the exhaustion of the body.

Approximately 15% of women who are addicted to diets bring themselves to the development of an obsessive state, which is close to anorexia. The vast majority of anorexics are teenagers and young girls (especially girls working in the fashion industry).

Anorexia: causes and development factors

The cause of anorexia can be anemia, diabetes mellitus, drug addiction, anxiety phobias, various infections, immunological and hormonal disorders. Recently, anorexia nervosa has spread, which, as a rule, accompanies anxiety disorders of the psyche. With anorexia nervosa, it seems to a person that he is overweight, shows dissatisfaction with his body. Patients with mental anorexia refuse food, expose themselves to excessive physical exertion.

Anorexia can occur due to insufficiency of the hypothalamus in children and autism.

The presence of chronic pathology of organs and systems can contribute to the development of the disease. Among them are endocrine disorders (pituitary, hypothalamic insufficiency, hypothyroidism), diseases of the digestive tract (pancreatitis, gastritis, hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver, appendicitis), chronic insufficiency kidney function, malignant neoplasms, chronic pain of any etiology, prolonged hyperthermia (due to infections or metabolic disorders), dental diseases.

Iatrogenic forms of anorexia can develop while taking certain medications that adversely affect the central nervous system. As a rule, these are antidepressants, tranquilizers, as well as narcotic drugs, sedatives, caffeine, amphetamines and others.

In young children, anorexia can develop due to a violation of the feeding regimen (in particular, with persistent overfeeding of the child).

Psychological food aversion develops as a result of a strong fear of being overweight against the background of a markedly reduced self-esteem. Psychologists say that subconsciously anorexia is an obvious way to get rid of the fear of being overweight and losing attractiveness. The unstable teenage psyche very clearly fixes the idea of ​​losing weight as the most valuable thing for life. In other words, a person simply loses a sense of reality, ceases to adequately perceive himself and his state of health. Often, women and men suffering from anorexia, with an obvious lack of body weight, continue to consider themselves fat. Often, patients are aware that they are suffering from exhaustion, but at the same time they experience a subconscious fear of eating, and are not able to overcome it.

Types of disease: classification of anorexia

• Mental anorexia: appears with mental disorders that are accompanied by a loss of hunger (schizophrenia, paranoia, depression). It can also appear after taking psychotropic substances.
• Symptomatic anorexia: is a symptom of a somatic disease (diseases of the lungs, stomach and intestines, endocrine system, gynecological disorders).
• Nervous (psychological) anorexia: a person deliberately restricts himself in food.
• drug anorexia: occurs as a result of exceeding the dose of antidepressants, psychostimulants and other medicines.

Symptoms of anorexia: how the disease manifests itself

The main symptoms are significant weight loss, marked loss of appetite. Patients have disturbed sleep, there is general weakness, muscle spasms . Flabby or atrophied muscles, a thin subcutaneous fat layer, a flat stomach and sunken eyes, looseness or loss of teeth, brittle nails, age spots on the skin, hemorrhages on the body, dryness and hair loss, low blood pressure, decreased sexual desire, unstable mood are characteristic. , pallor. In women, the menstrual cycle is disrupted. With anorexia, due to the lack of magnesium, potassium and other minerals and vitamins, cardiac arrhythmia occurs, which can manifest itself as dizziness, fainting, and in some cases, sudden cardiac arrest. When the digestive system is affected, stomach pain, constipation, and sometimes nausea and vomiting occur. Anorexia can lead to depression.

Eating symptoms:

• an obsessive desire to lose weight, despite a clear lack of body weight;
• fatphobia - fear of excess weight;
• constant refusal to eat. Obsessive calorie counting, devoting all the time only to the problem of losing weight;
• turning the process of eating into a complex ritual (serving, carefully weighing food, cutting into small pieces, etc.);
• fanatical avoidance of events that are associated with eating (birthdays, holidays, meetings with friends);
• the appearance of psychological discomfort after eating.

Mental health symptoms:

• depressed mental state, apathy and depression;
• constant dissatisfaction with oneself, one's appearance;
• sleep disturbance and severe mental lability;
• Feelings of loss of control over their own lives
• refusal of the need for treatment, since patients with anorexia often do not realize their problem, considering themselves healthy people.

Physiological manifestations of anorexia:

• significant weight loss;
• tendency to faint, weakness and dizziness;
• body hair growth;
• decreased sexual activity, menstrual disorders;
• poor circulation and feeling cold.

Other behavioral changes in anorexia:

• pathological desire for physical activity. Patients with anorexia become very irritated if they fail to perform overload exercises;
• fanatical thinking and aggressive upholding of one's beliefs and lifestyle;
• choosing loose clothing that hides "overweight";
• inclination to solitude and avoidance of society.

Actions of the patient with anorexia

If you have symptoms of anorexia in yourself or loved ones, you should immediately seek help from a doctor.

Diagnosis of anorexia

In order to diagnose anorexia, body mass index (BMI) is determined. To calculate BMI, a person's weight in kilograms is divided by their height in meters squared. Normally, this indicator is equal to a value in the range from 18.5 to 25. An index value of less than 16 indicates a pronounced underweight.

Also important in the diagnosis of the disease are general analysis blood, urine, detection of hormone levels, biochemical analysis of blood. Gastroscopy, radiography, electrocardiography show the severity of anorexia, possible consequences.

With secondary anorexia, the underlying disease is treated. Nutrition is restored gradually to prevent possible complications in the form of edema, damage to the organs of the digestive system, and metabolic disorders. Initially, they take low-calorie foods in small doses, gradually moving to more nutritious foods, increasing the dose. In the treatment of severe cases, intravenous administration of nutrients is used.

In case of damage to the endocrine system, hormone therapy is prescribed. With anorexia nervosa, psychotherapy, the use of antidepressants are indicated. It is recommended to take multivitamin complexes (Elkar and others) and dietary supplements (L-carnitine).

Complications of anorexia

Possible complications include hormonal changes (deficiency of thyroid hormones, sex hormones, cortisol, somatotropin), diseases of the cardiovascular system (hypotension, arrhythmia, a decrease in the size of the heart muscle, lack of blood circulation), sexual dysfunction, changes in the musculoskeletal system (osteopenia , ), blood diseases (anemia), diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (degeneration of organs).

Prevention of anorexia

To prevent the disease, you should adhere to the optimal diet, avoid excessive physical activity, stressful situations.

Since most people do not naturally meet this standard, they try to become more beautiful in many ways, and not always in a healthy way. Teas and diet pills, diets, intense physical activity - this can start the path not only to greater attractiveness, but also to anorexia.

Anorexia is an eating disorder and, more importantly, a mental disorder, which is expressed in an increased attention to food and one's own weight, as well as extremely severe food restrictions. Anorexics are very afraid of getting fat, and sometimes they are able to literally starve themselves to death. Most often, this disease affects young girls - it is they who are most exposed to the effects of modern media products. They lose weight very much - often their weight is 15% below normal. But no matter how thin they become, no matter how bad they feel, even when they are on the verge of death, they continue to consider themselves too fat and still follow their diet.

Determining the exact causes of anorexia is difficult, but it is most likely that it is caused by many factors, including the patient's psychological problems and the influence of popular culture.

Symptoms

Severe weight loss is the most obvious symptom of anorexia, which, however, becomes noticeable when the body is already close to exhaustion. In the early stages, anorexia can be detected by the fact that a person began to eat less than usual, often refuses to eat, referring to the fact that he just ate or his stomach hurts. At the same time, he can talk a lot about food, about calories and diets, and even cook with pleasure. In general, food becomes a favorite topic of conversation for an anorexic; just as much it occupies his thoughts.

When the disease progresses, the anorexic constantly feels weak, gets tired quickly, sometimes faints. Dull, brittle hair, puffy face, sunken eyes, bluish skin color on the arms and legs (due to poor blood circulation) are also common symptoms of anorexia. In women, due to exhaustion, menstruation may stop. A patient with anorexia is constantly cold, as the body does not have enough energy to warm up. A layer of thin hair appears all over the body - with their help, the patient's body tries to keep warm. Then osteoporosis develops, digestion processes are disturbed, malfunctions in the work of the heart and central nervous system may occur. nervous system.

Treatment

Anorexia usually takes at least 5 years to heal. This is a difficult process that requires the patient to be very involved and willing to overcome the disease. More than 60% of patients starting treatment for anorexia return to a healthy lifestyle. Another 20% recover almost completely, but in order to avoid relapses, they need regular examinations and additional courses of therapy.

At the first stage of treatment, the physical health of the patient is restored. Sometimes patients are hospitalized in a very serious condition, and they need not only food through a dropper, but also treatment for complications of anorexia, often very dangerous. When the patient's condition stabilizes, he is gradually accustomed to a normal diet, helping him to return to a healthy weight.

Then a course of psychotherapy begins, during which the patient and the doctor together look for the causes of the disease and ways to overcome it. Cognitive behavioral therapy is usually used to help the patient get rid of a distorted image of their own body.

Sometimes the patient is prescribed antidepressants. They help to cope with anxiety and some other problems, but they should be taken as briefly as possible.

Statistics

• Anorexia is the third most common chronic disease in adolescents.
• The average age at which eating disorders begin today is 11-13 years old.
• About 80% of women in many surveys said they want to lose weight
• 50% of girls aged between 13 and 15 think they are overweight
• 80% of 13-year-old girls have at least once been on a diet or tried to lose weight in other ways
• 20% of people who suffer from anorexia and do not receive timely treatment will die
• Anorexia has the highest mortality rate among mental disorders
• Only 1 in 10 people with some form of eating disorder receive adequate treatment
• 1-5% of girls and young women suffer from anorexia

What you need to know about anorexia

• There is no one to blame for anorexia. Anorexia does not mean that the parents raised their child incorrectly. Cultural, genetic and personal factors interact closely with life events, which creates fertile ground for the emergence and development of psychological eating disorders.
• There is nothing pleasant about anocresia. Many people who follow debilitating diets recklessly declare that they dream of becoming ill with anorexia. They see only the obvious manifestation of this disease - excessive thinness, but do not notice the danger of this "fashionable" disease. Patients with anorexia are by no means proud of their ideal figure and do not feel unimaginably beautiful; if you talk to such a person, you will learn a lot about him - for example, that a girl who weighs 55 kilograms and is 180 meters tall considers herself fat, unattractive and unstylish. Patients with anorexia suffer from a never-ending sense of their own imperfection, they are frightened and cornered by their fears.
• You can’t get rid of anorexia just like that, this is not a disease that reminds of itself once a month. The consciousness of patients with anorexia does not belong to them, they cannot control their feelings. Such people are literally obsessed with thoughts about weight, food, extra calories and body image. Many suffer from the disease even in their sleep - they are haunted by nightmares, obsessive dreams about food and nutrition. And in a dream, poor sufferers and sufferers continue to count calories and be horrified by 100 gained grams. Anorexia is a terrible disease that pulls its victim out of normal life and dooms her to loneliness. Anorexia is very difficult to cure. Sometimes it takes years to fight it.
• Anorexia can be fatal. By the way, anorexia has the highest mortality rate among psychological diseases. If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of an eating disorder, act quickly - seek medical advice.

Specific symptoms of anorexia

The patient with anorexia is primarily distinguished by the unwillingness to maintain a weight corresponding to his constitution, age and height. To be precise, the normal weight of a person should be 85% or less of the weight that is considered standard for a person of this build, age and height.

As a rule, the victim of anorexia constantly feels an unrelenting fear of getting better and gaining excess weight, and this fear completely overrides all other feelings and emotions. This fear does not take into account the real weight of a person, and does not let go of its victim even when she is on the verge of death from exhaustion. First of all, the causes of anorexia lie in low self-esteem, which is also one of the main symptoms of this serious illness. A patient with anorexia believes that his weight, figure parameters and size are directly related to self-awareness and personal status. Victims of anorexia often deny the seriousness of their condition and cannot objectively assess their own weight.

Another symptom characteristic of women is the absence of at least three periods in a row. In particular, a woman is diagnosed with amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) if her period begins only after hormonal therapy (for example, estrogen administration).

Types of behavior in anorexia

There are two types of behavior in anorexia nervosa

• Restrictive - the patient voluntarily restricts food intake and does not eat to satiety, and then provokes vomiting.
• Cleansing - the patient overeats, and then provokes vomiting or abuses laxatives, diuretics or enemas.

Unlike depression or panic attacks, anorexia nervosa is difficult to treat. There is no universal and effective medicine against anorexia. First of all, doctors prescribe general medicines that are used to treat any health problems, such as electrolysis abnormalities or heart rhythm disorders.

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IN last decade anorexia has become a new fashion for today's youth. In the minds of millions of people, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe ideal figure has been formed thanks to photographs of skinny models in glossy magazines.

Girls of the age category from 12 to 18, less often up to 25 years, are especially susceptible to such influence. To live up to the ideal, they torture themselves with diets and refuse to eat, getting closer to their goal every day. And at one moment they can no longer stop.

Models and celebrities are frequent victims of this debilitating disease. For example, the French actress and model Isabelle Caro suffered from this disease from the age of 13. She became famous all over the world after participating in advertising campaign"No anorexia." PSA promoted healthy lifestyles in order to prevent the death of many girls who bring 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 the depletion of the body as a way of existence, not realizing the consequences. Perhaps they were not explained that this disease is very serious and this is not a game at all, but a long road to the cemetery.

Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disease that is accompanied by a disorder in food intake. This disease is characterized by intense weight loss associated with an uncontrolled fear of fullness, a distorted idea of ​​one's own appearance, which leads to profound disturbances in the body's metabolic processes. Girls who are not happy with their figure and are on the verge of illness are terribly afraid of getting fat, even a glass of water can threaten their “ideal” figure. Patients with anorexia can be compared with alcoholics and drug addicts - none of them is aware of the severity of the disease and its consequences.

As a rule, thoughts about the need to lose weight are more often visited by women 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% have an improvement in their condition, in 24% the disease takes a chronic form, 6% die.

Causes of anorexia

One of the main social informants in many countries around the world is the media. Television, glossy magazines, movies, advertising, the Internet are the main sources of fashion for thinness and stereotypes about the ideal figure. Adolescents are susceptible to the information they receive, which leads to a distortion of the vision of the world. As a result, there is dissatisfaction with one's 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 issues were six times more likely to practice weight loss methods and seven times more likely to engage in extreme unhealthy weight control. Women who frequently look at photos of models have reduced self-esteem, which increases the likelihood of a desire to correct themselves with the help of exercise and various diets.

One of psychological reasons The development of anorexia is the rejection of oneself. Most often, this is characteristic of teenage girls aged 12-16 years. They begin to worry about their appearance. The desire to please the boys, to be accepted in the company of more beautiful girlfriends, to become a model, and so on, pushes teenagers to drastic measures.

The second reason is the rejection of parents. A protracted conflict with a mother or father, psychological pressure, hidden resentment, careless statements about appearance cause complexes and self-doubt in a 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 conviction of being overweight. There are thoughts about the need to adjust the figure, the fight against extra pounds. Patients with anorexia choose several methods of dealing with fullness: they refuse to eat, they try to cleanse the body of food (induce vomiting, take laxatives, put an enema).

At first, when the first positive result is achieved, the mood improves, a feeling of lightness and a feeling of smartness come. Negative changes and signs of anorexia in the body are not noticed - hair loss and dullness, skin peeling, earthy complexion, thin brittle nails.

Then, active physical activity is added to the stubborn restriction in food intake. An already exhausted body is exhausted even more. There is pathological fatigue, drowsiness.

Already after 1-1.5 years of active weight loss, patients look emaciated, with haggard features, sunken eyes. If you do not seek medical help at this stage in the development of anorexia, the likelihood of death reaches a 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, calorie content of foods and diets - food completely covers all thoughts. Further more. There is weakness, fatigue, possible fainting. They are constantly cold - due to a lack of energy, the body cannot warm up.

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

As a result of starvation, women develop amenorrhea - the absence of three consecutive menstrual cycles, childbearing becomes an acute problem for them. Low weight may lead to early menopause.

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

Anorexia in teenagers

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

Teenagers begin to share portions, avoid joint family dinners, feed their portion to younger brothers and sisters, animals. Sophisticated in the reasons for refusing food, they begin to lie about everything else.

Parents should be aware of their child's habits and be alert for changes in behavior. It is important to talk with your children, explain to them what beauty, healthy eating, healthy habits are. At the same time, be careful, since excessive edification, 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 about and what he aspires to. And from this to draw appropriate conclusions and small adjustments so that the child could not bring himself to a state of anorexia. Before an important conversation, it is better for parents to talk with specialists who will help to prompt. How to conduct a conversation correctly and not break into emotions. Parents are afraid of what might happen next. Do not shout and slam the door - it will not help. In adolescents, during the fasting period, sensitivity increases, they are ready to burst into tears for any reason.

First of all, parents need to pay attention to themselves - whether they eat right, play sports. Get the kids 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 alternatives, without harm to the 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, event to bring them closer to their peers, to create communication for the child.

Today, the problem of anorexia is growing. If a teenager is in a state of some kind of endless mood swings, irritability and rejection of the world around him, himself, his life and everyone around, parents should assess the situation and take some action. When the first signs-bells appear, it is necessary to urgently turn to specialists, in particular to a psychologist. Help will be!

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 imbalances, brain tumors that can mimic psychiatric disorders, including anorexia nervosa.

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

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

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

To make a correct diagnosis, it is necessary to analyze the obtained clinical and psychological data. Comorbid conditions can affect the severity of eating disorder symptoms. For example, distinguishing between diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder without additional variation is often difficult to make, as there is symptomatic 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 a dream. Patients cease to control their feelings and actions, their own fears drive them into a corner and doom them to loneliness. Anorexia is a terrible disease that can take years to heal.

The denial of the disease in anorexics delays the visit to the doctor, so relatives have to forcibly lead the patient to a psychotherapist. Since the disease is psychological, behavioral therapy programs are being developed in clinics, combining with other types of psychological assistance.

First, restore the physical condition of the body. If an anorexic is admitted to the hospital in a critical condition, to stabilize the condition, nutrition occurs through a dropper. When the crisis passes, the patient is gradually accustomed to nutrition. First, they give food in small portions, control 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 fluids or liquid foods.

People suffering from anorexia are extremely high level the hunger hormone ghrelin in the blood, which signals the physiological desire to consume food. High levels of ghrelin suggest that the body's hunger urge has been suppressed, ignored. However, one small, simple study found that giving ghrelin intravenously to anorexic patients increased their food intake by 12-36%.

After the normalization of nutrition and gradual weight gain, doctors proceed to the treatment of the patient's psychological state. Depending on the patient's condition, he may be prescribed antidepressants, which help to remove anxiety and fear, and cheer up.

It is important not to focus the patient's attention on food. Force-feeding, strict regimen 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, they are allowed to leave the ward for a while). If the patient is not gaining weight, the conditions are reviewed. It is important that the choice of the desired reward remains with the patient.

Psychoanalysis is used to stabilize the psychological state of a patient with anorexia. As a result of psychoanalytic treatment, the underlying causes of refusal to eat are clarified. 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 consumption of food and a description of the environment in which the food was taken.

Family therapy brings positive results. It is 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 a 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 settings in which they can take control of the regular nutrition of their child; behavioral programs are being developed to implement adolescent weight gain, etc. When the child's nutrition becomes regular and the weight is gradually restored, the psychotherapeutic effect expands the zone of influence - by searching for problems of interaction in the family, there is a resolution of conflicts between fathers and children. Family therapy makes it possible to recover 90% of patients with anorexia nervosa.

Yoga is an unconventional method of treatment. The treatment showed that the symptoms of the eating disorder, including food anxiety, decreased after each session.

According to studies, relapses of the disease are possible during the first year after the patient returns from hospital, and occurs in 40% of patients with anorexia. Behavioral as well as pharmacological therapies can help prevent relapse.

Consequences of anorexia

When a person goes on a hunger strike, he does not even realize what harm he is doing to the body. Starvation is not a salvation, but a real killer.

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

Glucose is the body's energy source. During fasting, carbohydrate stores are not replenished, and when glucose runs out, the body begins to look for alternative sources of energy. Available sources within us are proteins and fats. As a result of the destruction of proteins, in the body of a starving person, including an anorexic patient, a large amount of ammonia is formed, and when fats are destroyed, acetone is formed. The body accumulates decay products of proteins and fats, 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 the "economy" mode, the body produces the stress hormone cortisol - the nervous system is on the verge of collapse, immunity is impaired. Immune forces are so reduced that the body is not able to fight either viruses or bacteria.

With anorexia, the barrier function of the liver is reduced. As soon as a person stops consuming food, the liver begins to work in double mode and produce additional fat as a source of its own energy. Fat accumulates in the liver, as a result of which it increases in size, fatty degeneration of the liver occurs, which is manifested by nausea, dizziness, and apathy.

The brain, with such a serious illness as anorexia, will remind you of itself with headaches that can last for a year. Pain in the right hypochondrium as a result of fatty hepatosis, impaired concentration, memory loss. Black circles under the eyes, pallor skin, dryness and peeling, split ends, dull hair, exfoliating nails - all this is the result of starvation, lack of vitamins A, D, E.

Decreased levels of potassium in the blood lead to cardiac arrhythmia, constipation, muscle damage, fatigue, and even paralysis.

Lack of calcium in the body provokes a decrease in bone mass. This is especially critical for young, not fully formed teenagers. The processes of growth and puberty slow down. On early stages treatment, these processes are reversible.

An insufficient amount of nutrients causes anemia of the blood, as a result of a low content of hemoglobin, oxygen "starvation" of cells occurs.

Most terrible consequence- death. Of all mental disorders, anorexia has the highest mortality rate.

Examples of death statistics: Anna Carolina Rosten, a Brazilian model, died of anorexia at a young age (21) weighing 39 kg; Uruguayan model Lucel Ramos died of a heart attack at the age of 22, at the time of her death she weighed 44 kg with a height of 175 cm.

Finally, I would like to say, if you are unhappy with yourself, think that you have a lot of extra centimeters and kilograms, do not despair. the best way to correct everything, there will be a restriction of flour products and sugar, the inclusion of various cereals in the diet, more vegetables and naturally sports, or just try to lead a mobile lifestyle. Sitting on the strictest diets, you can either deplete your body to anorexia, or your body will play a very bad joke with you. Constantly starving, the body will quickly get tired of your bullying and, during the next diet, it will begin to put aside “for later”, that is, in adipose tissue, everything that you eat. And from this, your weight will increase by two, or even three times. So think about whether you need this kind of problem.

We wish you to always remain attractive, no matter how much you weigh.

Thank you

Anorexia is a disease manifested by an eating disorder caused by disorders of the neuropsychic sphere, in which the desire to weight loss and fear of fullness. Many doctors and scientists consider anorexia a disease of the mental sphere with physical manifestations, since it is based on eating disorders, due to the peculiarities of the constitution, the type of reactions of the nervous system and brain activity.

People suffering from anorexia lose body weight by refusing to eat or eating only non-caloric foods, as well as harassing themselves with heavy, long, daily physical activity, enemas, inducing vomiting after eating or taking diuretics and "fat burners".

As weight loss progresses, when body weight becomes too low, a person develops various menstrual irregularities, muscle cramps, skin pallor, arrhythmia and other pathologies of internal organs, the functioning of which is impaired due to lack of nutrients. IN severe cases changes in the structure and functioning of the internal organs become irreversible, resulting in death.

Anorexia - general characteristics and types of disease

The term anorexia is derived from the Greek word "orexis", which translates as appetite or desire to eat, and the prefix "an", which negates, that is, replacing the meaning of the main word with the opposite. Thus, the interlinear translation of the term "anorexia" means the lack of desire to eat. This means that in the very name of the disease its main manifestation is encrypted - this is a refusal to eat and an unwillingness to eat, which, accordingly, leads to a strong and sharp weight loss, up to an extreme degree of exhaustion and death.

Since anorexia is understood as a state of refusal of food of various origins, this term reflects only the most common feature several disparate diseases. And therefore, the strict medical definition of anorexia is rather vague, since it sounds like this: refusal of food in the presence of physiological need in food, provoked by disturbances in the work of the food center in the brain.

Women are most susceptible to anorexia, in males this disease is extremely rare. Currently, according to statistics from developed countries, the ratio of women and men suffering from anorexia is 10: 1. That is, for ten women suffering from anorexia, there is only one man with the same disease. A similar predisposition and susceptibility to anorexia of females is explained by the peculiarities of the functioning of their nervous system, stronger emotionality and impressionability.

It should also be noted that anorexia, as a rule, develops in people with a high level of intelligence, sensitivity and some personality traits, such as persistence in achieving goals, pedantry, punctuality, inertness, uncompromisingness, painful pride, etc.

The assumption that anorexia develops in people with a hereditary predisposition to this disease has not been confirmed. However, it was found that in people suffering from anorexia, the number of relatives with mental illness, character anomalies (for example, despotism, etc.) or alcoholism reaches 17%, which is much more than the average for the population.

The causes of anorexia are varied and include both a person’s own personal characteristics and the influence of the environment, the behavior of loved ones (primarily mothers) and certain stereotypes and attitudes in society.

Depending on the leading mechanism of development and the type of causative factor that provoked the disease, there are three types of anorexia:

• Neurotic - due to excessive excitation of the cerebral cortex by strong experienced emotions, especially negative ones;
• Neurodynamic - due to inhibition of the center of appetite in the brain under the influence of irritants of extreme force of a non-emotional nature, for example, pain;
• Neuropsychiatric (also called nervous, or cachexia) - due to persistent volitional refusal to eat or a sharp restriction in the amount of food consumed, provoked by a mental disorder of varying severity and nature.

Thus, it can be said that neurodynamic And anorexia nervosa are formed under the influence of stimuli of extraordinary strength, but of a different nature. In anorexia nervosa, the factors of influence are emotions and experiences related to the psychological sphere. And with neurodynamic, the decisive role in the development of anorexia is played by irritants not emotional, but, relatively speaking, "material", such as pain, infrasound, etc.

Neuropsychiatric anorexia stands apart, because it is provoked not so much by the impact of extreme force, but by an already developed and manifested disorder of the mental sphere. This does not mean that anorexia develops only in people with pronounced and severe mental illness, such as, for example, schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, hypochondria, etc. After all, such mental disorders are relatively rare, and much more often psychiatrists are faced with the so-called borderline disorders, which in the medical environment are classified as mental illnesses, and at the household level are often considered simply personality traits. Yes, border mental disorders consider severe stress reactions, short-term depressive reactions, dissociative disorder, neurasthenia, various phobias and variants of anxiety disorder, etc. It is against the background of borderline disorders that anorexia nervosa most often develops, which is the most severe, long-lasting and common.

Neurotic and neurodynamic anorexia are usually recognized by a person who actively asks for help and turns to doctors, as a result of which their cure does not present any particular difficulties and in almost all cases is successful.

And anorexia nervosa, like drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling and other addictions, is not realized by a person, he stubbornly believes that "everything is under control" and he does not need the help of doctors. A person suffering from anorexia nervosa does not want to eat, on the contrary, hunger torments him quite strongly, but by an effort of will he refuses food under any pretext. If a person for some reason had to eat something, then after a while he can cause vomiting. To enhance the effect of refusal of food, anorexia nervosa sufferers often torture themselves with physical exercises, take diuretics and laxatives, various "fat burners", and also regularly induce vomiting after eating to empty the stomach.

In addition, this form of the disease is caused not only by the influence of external factors, but also by the characteristics of a person’s personality, and therefore its treatment presents the greatest difficulties, since it is necessary not only to debug the process of eating, but also to correct the psyche, forming the correct worldview and eliminating false stereotypes and attitudes. . Such a task is complex and complex, and therefore psychologists and psychotherapists play a huge role in the treatment of anorexia nervosa.

In addition to the indicated division of anorexia into three types, depending on the nature of the causative fact and the mechanism of the development of the disease, there is another widely used classification. According to the second classification, Anorexia is divided into two types:

• Primary (true) anorexia;
• Secondary (nervous) anorexia.

Primary anorexia due to severe diseases or injuries mainly of the brain, such as, for example, hypothalamic insufficiency, Kanner's syndrome, depression, schizophrenia, neurosis with a pronounced anxious or phobic component, malignant neoplasms of any organ, the consequences of prolonged cerebral hypoxia or stroke, Addison's disease, hypopituitarism, poisoning, diabetes, etc. Accordingly, primary anorexia is provoked by some external factor that disrupts the work of the food center of the brain, as a result of which a person simply cannot eat normally, although he understands that this is necessary.

Secondary anorexia, or nervous, is caused by a conscious refusal or restriction of the amount of food consumed, which is provoked by borderline mental disorders in combination with the attitudes that exist in society and relationships between loved ones. In secondary anorexia, it is not the diseases that cause eating disorders, but a strong-willed refusal to eat, associated with the desire to lose weight or change one's appearance. That is, with secondary anorexia, there are no diseases that disrupt appetite and normal eating behavior.

Secondary anorexia, in fact, fully corresponds to the neuropsychic in terms of the mechanism of formation. And the primary one combines both neurodynamic, and neurotic, and anorexia caused by somatic, endocrine or other diseases. In the further text of the article, we will call secondary anorexia nervosa, since it is precisely this name that is most often used, common and, accordingly, understandable. We will call neurodynamic and neurotic anorexia primary or true, uniting them into one type, since their course and principles of therapy are very similar.

Thus, given all the signs and characteristics of various types of pathology, we can say that primary anorexia is a somatic disease (such as gastritis, duodenitis, coronary artery disease, etc.), and nervous - mental. Therefore, these two types of anorexia are quite different from each other.

Since anorexia nervosa is currently the most common and a big problem, we will consider this type of disease in as much detail as possible.

At the household level, distinguishing anorexia nervosa from primary is quite simple. The fact is that people suffering from anorexia nervosa hide their disease and condition, they stubbornly refuse medical care, believing that they are all right. They try not to advertise the refusal of food, reducing its consumption by various methods, for example, quietly shifting pieces from their plate to neighboring ones, throwing food in the trash or bags, ordering only light salads in cafes and restaurants, citing the fact that they are "not hungry" etc. And people suffering from primary anorexia realize that they need help, because they try to eat food, but they do not succeed. That is, if a person refuses the help of a doctor and stubbornly refuses to admit the existence of a problem, then we are talking about anorexia nervosa. If a person, on the contrary, is actively looking for ways to eliminate the problem, turns to doctors and is treated, then we are talking about primary anorexia.

Photo of anorexia

These photographs show a woman suffering from anorexia.

These photographs show a girl before the development of the disease and in the advanced stage of anorexia.

Causes of anorexia

To avoid confusion, we will consider separately the causes of true and anorexia nervosa, since they differ significantly from each other.

Causes of true anorexia

Primary or true anorexia is always due to some causal factor that depresses or disrupts the food center in the brain. Typically, these factors are various diseases both the brain and internal organs.

So, the following diseases or conditions can be the causes of primary anorexia:

• Malignant tumors of any localization;
• Type I diabetes mellitus;
• Addison's disease;
• hypopituitarism;
• Chronic infectious diseases;
• Helminths that affect the intestines;
• Diseases of the digestive tract (gastritis, pancreatitis, hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver, appendicitis);
• Chronic pain of any localization and origin;
• Alcoholism or drug addiction;
• Depression;
• Poisoning with various poisons;
• Neuroses with an anxious or phobic component;
• Schizophrenia;
• hypothalamic insufficiency;
• Kanner's syndrome;
• Sheehen's syndrome (pituitary necrosis, provoked by large blood loss with vascular collapse in the postpartum period);
• Simmonds syndrome (pituitary necrosis due to postpartum sepsis);
• Pernicious anemia;
• Severe avitaminosis;
• Temporal arteritis;
• Aneurysm of the intracranial branches of the internal carotid artery;
• brain tumors;
• Radiation therapy of the nasopharynx;
• Neurosurgical operation;
• Brain injury (for example, anorexia against the background of a fracture of the base of the skull, etc.);
• Chronic long-term renal failure;
• prolonged coma;
• Increased body temperature for a long period of time;
• dental diseases;
• Taking glucocorticoids (Dexamethasone, Prednisolone, etc.) or sex hormones, including oral contraceptives.

In addition, true anorexia can develop while taking drugs that act on the central nervous system, such as tranquilizers, antidepressants, sedatives, caffeine, etc. Anorexia is also provoked by the abuse of amphetamine and other narcotic substances.

In young children, anorexia can be provoked by persistent constant overfeeding, as a result of which the child develops an aversion to eating, because he does not feel well after eating.

Thus, primary anorexia can be triggered by various factors. However, it must be remembered that in these conditions or diseases, anorexia is not the main or leading syndrome, moreover, it may be completely absent. Therefore, the fact that a person has any of the above causative factors does not mean that he will necessarily develop anorexia, but its risk is higher compared to other people.

Causes of Anorexia Nervosa

This disease is due to a number of causative factors that must be present in a person in a complex in order for him to develop anorexia. Moreover, the nature of the causal factors that make up the general etiology of anorexia nervosa is different, since among them there are social, genetic, biological, personality traits, and age.

Currently, the following causes of the development of anorexia nervosa have been identified:

• Personality traits (the presence of such traits as punctuality, pedantry, will, stubbornness, diligence, accuracy, morbid pride, inertia, rigidity, uncompromisingness, a tendency to overvalued and paranoid ideas);
• Frequent diseases of the digestive tract;
• Stereotypes regarding appearance that exist in the microenvironment and society (the cult of thinness, recognition of only slender girls as beautiful, weight requirements in the community of models, ballerinas, etc.);
• Severe course of adolescence, in which there is a fear of growing up and future changes in the structure of the body;
• Unfavorable family situation (mainly, the presence of hyper-custody on the part of the mother);
• The specificity of the body structure (thin and light bone, high growth).

These reasons can provoke the development of anorexia nervosa only if they act in combination. Moreover, the most important triggering factor in the development of the disease is personality traits, when superimposed on any other causes, anorexia develops. This means that a prerequisite for the development of the disease are the personal characteristics of a person. All other factors can provoke anorexia only if they are superimposed on personality traits. That is why anorexia nervosa is considered a psycho-social disease, the basis of which is the personality structure, and the starting point is the features of the social environment and microenvironment.

A huge role in the development of anorexia nervosa belongs to overprotection by the mother. So, it has now been proven that girls of transitional, adolescence, who are faced with excessive guardianship and control from their mother, are very prone to anorexia. The fact is that in adolescence, girls begin to realize themselves as a separate person, for which they need self-affirmation among their peers, which is done through the performance of certain actions that are considered independent, inherent only to adults and therefore "cool". However, activities that teenagers perceive as "cool" and that they need to assert themselves are often frowned upon by adults.

As a rule, in the absence of overprotection on the part of adults, adolescents perform some actions that allow them to assert themselves and win "respect" and recognition among teenagers, after which they continue to develop normally mentally and form as a person. But girls under hyper-custody cannot perform these actions, and they need them for further personal growth, since they are independent and are interpreted as manifestations of their will and desires. After all, the child must leave the circle of "childish" parental instructions and prohibitions and begin his own, independent actions that will allow him to finally form and grow up.

And girls who suffer from overprotective mothers cannot afford independent action because adults are still trying to keep them in line with children's taboos and limits. In such a situation, a teenager either decides to rebel and literally "breaks out" from under the mother's hyper-custody, or outwardly does not protest, restraining himself, but subconsciously looking for an area in which he can make independent decisions and, thereby, prove to himself that he adult.

As a result, the girl transfers the desire to express herself as a person through independent actions to control over food, starting to reduce its quantity and stubbornly restraining her hungry urges. A teenager perceives his ability to control the amount of food he eats precisely as a sign of an adult and independent act that he is already able to perform. Moreover, they are tormented by the feeling of hunger, but the ability to live a whole day without food, on the contrary, gives them strength and strengthens self-confidence, because the teenager feels that he was able to withstand the "test", which means that he is strong and mature, able to manage his own life and desires. That is, refusing food is a way to replace independent actions from other areas of life that adolescents cannot do due to the excessive guardianship of mothers who control all their steps and believe that the child is still too small and needs to be protected as long as possible and that's it. decide for him.

In fact, anorexia gives a teenager or adult with an unstable mentality the opportunity to feel psychologically fulfilled, because he can control his weight and what he eats. In other areas of life, a teenager turns out to be completely weak-willed, powerless and insolvent, and in refusing food - on the contrary. And since this is the only area in which a person is wealthy, he stubbornly continues to starve in order to get psychological feeling success even at the risk of death. In some cases, people even enjoy the feeling of hunger, because the ability to endure it is their "talent", which others do not have, due to which a feature necessary for the personality appears, a kind of "zest".

What is anorexia nervosa and what are its causes: comments from a nutritionist and psychologist - video

Clinical picture of the disease

The clinical picture of anorexia is very polymorphic and diverse, since the disease ultimately affects the work of many internal organs and systems. So, doctors divide the entire set of manifestations of anorexia into symptoms and signs.

Symptoms of anorexia are the subjective sensations experienced by a person suffering from this disease. Unfortunately, patients with anorexia not only do not share these feelings with others, but diligently hide them, because they stubbornly believe that everything is in order with them. But people who managed to recover, after the experience, told all their feelings in detail, thanks to which the doctors managed to identify the symptoms of anorexia.

In addition to symptoms, doctors also distinguish signs of anorexia, which are understood as objective, visible to others changes in the human body that occur as a result of the disease. Signs, unlike symptoms, are objective manifestations, not subjective sensations, so they cannot be hidden from others, and they often play a crucial role in diagnosing and determining the severity of the condition.

Symptoms and signs of anorexia are not static, that is, they may be present at some stages of the disease and absent at others, and so on. This means that various signs and symptoms develop and manifest themselves in different periods course of anorexia. Usually their manifestation is determined by the degree of depletion of internal organs from a lack of nutrients, which, in turn, leads to disruption of the organs and systems and the corresponding clinical symptoms. Such disorders in the functioning of various organs and systems that have arisen against the background of the disease are often called complications or consequences of anorexia. Most often, people suffering from anorexia face the following complications: hair loss, brittle nails, dryness and thinning of the skin, susceptibility to infectious diseases, menstrual irregularities, up to the complete cessation of menstruation, bradycardia, hypotension, muscle atrophy, etc.

Symptoms and signs of primary and anorexia nervosa are almost the same. However, with primary anorexia, a person is aware of his problem and is not afraid of food. The rest of the changes in the body associated with a lack of nutrients are the same for any type of anorexia, so we will present the symptoms and signs of all types of the disease together.

Anorexia - symptoms

Typical symptoms of anorexia include the following:

• Very low body weight, which decreases even more over time, that is, the process of losing weight does not stop, but continues, despite excessive thinness;
• Refusal to gain weight and maintain normal body weight;
• Absolute confidence that the current very low body weight is normal;
• Fear of food and restriction of food intake by any means and under various pretexts;
• Fear of fullness or excess weight, reaching a phobia;
• Weakness, pain, spasms and cramps in the muscles;
• Feeling uncomfortable after eating;
• Deterioration of blood circulation and microcirculation, which provokes a constant feeling of cold;
• Feeling that the events of life are not controlled, that vigorous activity is impossible, that all efforts are in vain, etc.

Signs of anorexia

Signs of anorexia can be divided into several groups depending on which aspect of a person's behavior they concern (for example, food, social interaction, etc.).

So, signs of anorexia are the following changes in eating behavior:

• Persistent desire to lose weight and reduce the calorie content of the daily diet, despite a very low body weight;
• Narrowing the circle of interests and focusing only on issues of food and weight loss (a person talks and thinks only about weight loss, excess weight, calories, food, food compatibility, their fat content, etc.);
• A fanatical calorie count and a desire to eat a little less every day than the previous one;
• Refusal to eat in public or a sharp decrease in the amount of food eaten, which is explained, at first glance, by objective reasons, such as “already full”, “had a hearty lunch”, “I don’t want to”, etc .;
• Ritual consumption of food with careful chewing of each piece or, on the contrary, swallowing almost without chewing, placing very small portions on a plate, cutting food into very small pieces, etc.;
• Chewing food, followed by spitting, which diligently drowns out the feeling of hunger;
• Refusal to participate in any activities that involve the consumption of food, as a result of which the person becomes withdrawn, unsociable, unsociable, etc.

Besides, signs of anorexia are the following features behaviors:

• The desire to constantly perform hard physical exercises (constant exhausting workouts for several hours a day, etc.);
• Choice of baggy clothes that should hide supposedly overweight;
• Rigidity and fanaticism in defending one's opinion, peremptory judgments and inflexible thinking;
• A tendency to seclusion.

Also signs of anorexia are the following changes in various organs and systems or mental state:

• Depressed state;
• Depression;
• Apathy;
• Insomnia and other sleep disorders;
• Loss of working capacity and ability to concentrate;
• Complete "withdrawal into oneself", obsession with one's weight and problems;
• Constant dissatisfaction with appearance and the rate of weight loss;
• Psychological instability (mood swings, irritability, etc.);
• Severing social ties with friends, colleagues, relatives and loved ones;
• Arrhythmia, bradycardia (heart rate less than 55 beats per minute), myocardial dystrophy and other cardiac disorders;
• A person does not consider that he is sick, but on the contrary, considers himself healthy and leading a correct lifestyle;
• Refusal of treatment, from going to the doctor, from consultation and help of specialists;
• Body weight is significantly below the age norm;
• General weakness, constant dizziness, frequent fainting;
• The growth of fine vellus hair all over the body;
• Hair loss on the head, flaking and brittle nails;
• Dryness, pallor and laxity of the skin, with blue fingers and the tip of the nose;
• Lack of libido, decreased sexual activity;
• Violations of the menstrual cycle up to amenorrhea (complete cessation of menstruation);
• Hypotension (low blood pressure);
• Low body temperature (hypothermia);
• Cold hands and feet;
• Muscle atrophy and dystrophic changes in the structure of internal organs with the development of multiple organ failure (for example, renal, hepatic, cardiac, etc.);
• swelling;
• hemorrhages;
• Severe disorders of water-salt metabolism;
• Gastroenterocolitis;
• Prolapse of internal organs.

In those suffering from anorexia, refusal to eat is usually due to an obsession and a desire to correct or prevent a defect in a full figure. It should be remembered that people hide their desire to lose weight, and therefore visible signs of anorexia in their behavior do not appear immediately. At first, a person refuses to eat episodically, which, of course, does not cause any suspicion. Then all high-calorie foods are excluded and the number of meals during the day is reduced. When eating together, anorexic teens try to shift pieces from their plate to others, or even hide or throw away food. However, paradoxically, anorexics willingly cook and literally "feed" other family members or loved ones.

An anorexic person refuses to eat with the help of powerful volitional efforts, because he has an appetite, he wants to eat, but is mortally afraid to get better. If you force a person suffering from anorexia to eat, then he will make various efforts to get rid of the food that has entered the body. To do this, he will induce vomiting, drink laxatives, give an enema, etc.

In addition, in order to achieve weight loss and "burn" calories, anorexics try to constantly be on the move, exhausting themselves with workouts. To do this, they visit gym do all the housework, try to walk a lot, and avoid just sitting or lying still.

As physical exhaustion progresses, the anorexic develops depression and insomnia, which in the initial stages are manifested by irritability, anxiety, tension, and difficulty in falling asleep. In addition, the lack of nutrients leads to beriberi and dystrophic changes in the internal organs, which cease to function normally.

Stages of anorexia

Anorexia nervosa proceeds in three successive stages:

• Dysmorphomaniac - at this stage, a person has dissatisfaction with his own appearance and the associated feeling of his own inferiority and inferiority. A person is constantly depressed, anxious, looks at his reflection in the mirror for a long time, finding, in his opinion, terrible flaws that simply need to be corrected (for example, full legs, rounded cheeks, etc.). It is after realizing the need to correct the shortcomings that a person begins to limit himself in food and look for various diets. This period lasts from 2 to 4 years.
• anorexic- at this stage, a person begins to constantly starve, refusing food and constantly trying to make his daily diet minimal, as a result of which there is a fairly rapid and intense weight loss of 20 - 50% of the original. That is, if a girl weighed 50 kg before the start of the anorexic stage, then by the end of it she would lose from 10 to 20 kg of weight. To enhance the effect of losing weight, patients at this stage begin to carry out exhausting, hours-long workouts, take laxatives and diuretics, do enemas and gastric lavages, etc. At this stage, bulimia often joins anorexia, as a person is simply unable to restrain a terrible, excruciating hunger. In order not to "get fat", after each meal or an attack of bulimia, anorectics induce vomiting, wash the stomach, give an enema, drink a laxative, etc. Due to weight loss, hypotension develops, interruptions in the work of the heart, the menstrual cycle is disturbed, the skin becomes rough, flabby and dry, hair falls out, nails exfoliate and break, etc. In severe cases, failure of an organ develops, for example, renal, hepatic, cardiac or adrenal, from which, as a rule, death occurs. This stage lasts from 1 to 2 years.
• cachectic- at this stage, the loss of body weight becomes critical (more than 50% of the norm), as a result of which irreversible dystrophy of all internal organs begins. Edema appears due to protein deficiency, any food ceases to be absorbed due to irreversible changes in the structure of the digestive tract, internal organs stop working normally and death occurs. The cachectic stage can last up to six months, however, if during this period urgent measures are not taken and treatment of a person is not started, then the disease will end in death. Currently, about 20% of patients with anorexia die, who could not be helped in a timely manner.

It must be remembered that these three stages are characteristic only of anorexia nervosa. True anorexia proceeds in one stage, which corresponds to cachectic for anorexia nervosa, since a person loses the ability to eat normally sharply, without any previous psychological abnormalities and dissatisfaction with one's own appearance.

weight for anorexia

A reliable sign of anorexia is a weight that is at least 15% lower than normal for the height and features of the human skeleton. The simplest and most accurate assessment of the correspondence of weight to a person's height is body mass index (BMI). With anorexia, the body mass index (BMI - equal to body weight in kilograms divided by height squared, expressed in meters) does not exceed 17.5. Moreover, even if a person, under the supervision of doctors or relatives, has gained weight, then after a while he will definitely lose weight again, that is, he will not be able to maintain the achieved normal weight.

Treatment of anorexia

The treatment of people suffering from true anorexia is primarily aimed at eliminating the causative factor and replenishing the body weight deficit. If it is possible to eliminate the cause of anorexia, then, as a rule, patients recover successfully and return to normal life. For weight gain, a high-calorie diet is developed from easily digestible products, which are cooked sparingly (steamed, boiled, stewed), finely chopped and given to a person in small portions every 2 to 3 hours. In addition, various vitamin preparations are used (primarily Carnitine and Cobalamide), protein and saline solutions.

Treatment of anorexia nervosa is much longer and more complicated than true anorexia, since there is a very powerful psychological component in its development. Therefore, the treatment of anorexia nervosa consists of properly selected psychotherapy, therapeutic nutrition and medication, the action of which is aimed at stopping and eliminating painful symptoms from various organs and systems, including the central nervous system. In addition, it is mandatory to use fortifying drugs, vitamins and protein solutions, which allow you to make up for the deficiency of all nutrients in the body as soon as possible.

The psychotherapy of anorexia nervosa is aimed at reassessing values ​​and reorienting the personality to other aspects of life, as well as forming another self-image that is perceived as beautiful (for example, instead of a thin girl, imagine a magnificent beauty with rosy cheeks, full breasts, luxurious hips, etc.) . It is on the success of psychotherapy that the final result of treatment and the speed of full recovery depend.

Therapeutic nutrition is a crushed soft semi-liquid or mushy food prepared from high-calorie, easily digestible foods with a high protein content (caviar, fish, lean meat, vegetables, fruits, cereals, dairy products, etc.). If an anorexic has protein edema, or he does not digest protein foods well, then a protein solution (for example, Polyamine) should be administered intravenously, and fed with light food. In severe cases, a person is fed parenterally in the first 2 to 3 weeks, that is, special nutrient solutions are administered intravenously. When body weight increases by 2 - 3 kg, you can cancel parenteral nutrition and switch to eating in the usual way.

So that a person suffering from anorexia does not cause vomiting after eating, it is necessary to inject 0.5 ml of a 0.1% solution of Atropine subcutaneously 20 to 30 minutes before eating. After eating, it is necessary to monitor the patient for 2 hours so that he does not secretly induce vomiting and does not wash the stomach. Feed a person should be 6 - 8 times a day, giving him food in small portions. It is advisable to put the anorexic sufferer to bed after eating so that he can lie down calmly or even sleep.

On average, therapeutic high-calorie nutrition is needed for 7-9 weeks, after which you can gradually transfer a person to ordinary foods prepared in the usual ways. However, the calorie content of the diet should remain high until the person gains normal body weight for his age and height.

Anorexic will have to re-learn how to treat food normally, and not be afraid of products. You will have to overcome the terrible thought in your own head that one piece of cake eaten will immediately lead to fat deposits in problem areas, etc.

In addition to therapeutic nutrition during the treatment of anorexia, it is imperative to give a person vitamin preparations and general strengthening agents. The most effective at the initial stages of therapy are the vitamins Carnitine and Cobalamide, which must be drunk for 4 weeks. In addition, you can use any multivitamin complexes for a long period of time (0.5 - 1 year). As a general tonic, it is recommended to use infusions or decoctions of mountain ash, calamus root, eleutherococcus or dandelion, plantain leaves, mint, lemon balm, etc.

Drugs in the treatment of anorexia nervosa are rarely used and only from the group of antidepressants to relieve painful sensations, alleviate the person's condition and prevent the recurrence of the disease. So, , failure of various organs, etc.) the following famous people:

• Debbie Barem - British writer (died at 26 from a heart attack caused by irreversible disorders in the heart muscle due to lack of nutrients);
• Christy Heinrich - American gymnast (died at 22 from multiple organ failure);
• Lena Zavaroni - Scottish singer of Italian origin (died at 36 from pneumonia);
• Karen Carpenter - American singer (died at 33 from cardiac arrest due to lack of nutrients);
• Luisel Ramos - Uruguayan fashion model (died at 22 from a heart attack caused by depletion of the heart muscle due to lack of nutrients);
• Eliana Ramos (sister Luisel) - Uruguayan fashion model (died at 18 from cardiac arrest caused by lack of nutrients);
• Ana Carolina Reston - Brazilian model (she died at the age of 22 from liver failure, provoked by irreversible disorders in the structure of the liver, due to the lack of essential nutrients);
• Hila Elmaliah - Israeli model (died at 34 from numerous complications from the internal organs caused by anorexia);
• Mayara Galvao Vieira - Brazilian model (died at the age of 14 from cardiac arrest due to anorexia);
• Isabelle Caro - French fashion model (died at the age of 28 from multiple organ failure, provoked by anorexia);
• Jeremy Glitzer - male fashion model (died at 38 from multiple organ failure due to anorexia);
• Peaches Geldof - British model and journalist (died at age 25 in her home under unexplained circumstances).

In addition, the famous British singer Amy Winehouse suffered from anorexia nervosa, but she died at the age of 27 from a drug overdose.

Anorexia and bulimia

bulimia is a variant of an eating disorder, just the opposite of anorexia - it is a constant uncontrolled overeating. Unfortunately, many people suffering from anorexia also experience bouts of bulimia, which literally overtake them during fasting periods. Each episode of bulimia is accompanied by inducing vomiting, performing heavy physical exercises, taking laxatives, enemas and other actions aimed at removing the food that has entered the body so that it cannot be absorbed.

As a rule, the causes and approaches to the treatment of anorexia and bulimia are the same, since these diseases are two variants of different eating disorders. But the combination of anorexia with bulimia is more severe than with isolated variants of eating disorders. Therefore, the treatment of anorexia, combined with bulimia, is carried out according to the same principles as for isolated bulimia.

Books about anorexia

Currently in the domestic market fiction There are the following books about anorexia, which are either autobiographical or based on real events:

• Justine "This morning I decided to stop eating." The book is autobiographical, describing the life and suffering of a teenage girl who, determined to become fashionably thin, began to restrict herself in food, which eventually led to the development of anorexia.
• Anastasia Kovrigina "38 kg. Life in 0 calories mode". The book is written on the basis of the diary of a girl who constantly followed diets in pursuit of thinness. The work describes experiences, torments and all aspects related to the period of a person’s life, in which diets and calories were the main ones.
• Zabzalyuk Tatyana "Anorexia - to be caught and survive." The book is autobiographical, in which the author described the history of the emergence and development of anorexia, as well as the painful struggle with the disease and the final recovery. The author gives advice on how not to become anorexic and how to get out of this terrible state, if the disease has developed.

In addition, there are the following popular science books about anorexia, which talk about the nature, causes of the disease, as well as ways to cure it:

• Elena Romanova "Death diet. Stop anorexia". The book gives a detailed description of anorexia, provides different points of view on the causes of the disease, etc. The description of various aspects of the disease is illustrated by the author with excerpts from the diary of a girl, Anna Nikolaenko, who suffers from anorexia.
• I.K. Kupriyanov "When losing weight is dangerous. Anorexia nervosa - a disease of the XXI century." The book tells about the mechanisms of development of anorexia, the manifestations of the disease, and also gives advice on how to help those suffering from this disease. The book will be useful to parents, as the author describes how to build a system of education that will lay the child right attitude to their appearance and food, and thereby eliminates the risk of anorexia.
• Bob Palmer "Understanding eating disoders". A book in English for teenagers published in collaboration with the British Medical Association. The book describes the causes and consequences of anorexia, gives recommendations for proper nutrition and maintaining normal body weight.
• Korkina M.V., Tsivilko M.A., Marilov V.V. "Anorexia Nervosa". The book is scientific, it contains research materials on the disease, provides diagnostic algorithms, approaches to treatment and features of anorexia in men.

In addition, there are several books on the domestic book market dedicated to recovering from anorexia and starting a new life. A similar book on anorexia is the following:

• "Finding Yourself. Recovery Stories". The book contains various real stories of recovery of people who suffered from anorexia or bulimia, told by themselves.

Anorexia in children

Before use, you should consult with a specialist.