Anorexia and bulimia

| Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by restricted food intake and weight loss, a distorted body image, and an intense fear of gaining weight.

Cause

The cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown. Many times it begins with the innocent practice of a diet to lose weight.

Theories such as social pressure on the beauty model, family influences and genetics have been postulated.

It is a disease that usually begins in adolescence, although it can occur in younger children. Normally, adolescents who suffer from it usually come from families where there is the problem of being overweight, some other mental disorder (such as depression or substance abuse).

Adolescents who suffer from it are often immature and emotionally dependent. Anorexia is accompanied in many cases by other disorders such as anxiety or affective disorders.

It is a disease that has increased 20 times in recent years among adolescents. It is estimated that 1 in 100 women between the ages of 16 and 18 have it. Only 10% of adolescents diagnosed with anorexia are male.

There are two types of anorexia behaviors that aim to reduce the number of calories in the diet:

• Restrictive: severely limits the amount of food, especially those that contain fats and carbohydrates.
• Bulimia: overeat and then vomit. He also abuses laxatives and diuretics

Symptoms

The most common symptoms of anorexia nervosa are: low body weight, fear of gaining weight, distorted vision of your body (you look fat even when your weight is below normal), refusing to maintain a body weight minimally, there is amenorrhea in women. The child or adolescent denies that they are hungry and does a lot of physical activity to lose weight. Find ways not to eat, like hiding food.

On a physical level, the following symptoms are associated with anorexia (due to malnutrition due to the lack of food they eat): dry skin, brittle hair, dehydration, abdominal pain, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, intolerance to cold and hirsutism.

Young people can become more irritable, isolating themselves socially.

Possible long-term complications of anorexia include the following:

• cardiovascular: they may have life-threatening heart problems: arrhythmias, hypotension, low heart rate (bradycardia) or damage to the myocardium (heart muscle) as a result of malnutrition.
• Hematological: anemia is the most frequent complication, followed by leukopenia (low number of red blood cells).
• gastrointestinal: there is a slowdown in the movement of the intestine causing constipation.
• Kidney: dehydration can damage kidney function
• Hormonal: in women there is the interruption of menstruation (amenorrhea)
• Bone: there is a loss of bone mass: osteopenia or, in the most severe cases, osteoporosis. So they are at higher risk for bone fractures.

Treatment

Treatment combines individual, family therapy, and nutritional rehabilitation. antidepressant medicine may be given if you have symptoms of depression. In most cases it requires hospital admission.

Bulimia

What is it?

It is an eating disorder characterized by uncontrolled binge eating followed by purging (self-induction of vomiting), use of laxatives, enemas or diuretics. Binge eating is characterized by eating large amounts of food in a short period of time.

Cause

The cause is not known for sure. It is believed that the factors that contribute to the development of bulimia may be socially imposed ideals of beauty and family problems. Approximately 40% of bulimic adolescents, at the beginning of their disease, meet criteria for anorexia.

It mostly affects women in their teens and they may have other mood disorders.

The types of bulimia are:

• Purgative: vomiting is induced regularly or overused with medications such as laxatives, diuretics, enemas, and other purgatives.
• Non-purgative: use other inappropriate behaviors such as fasting or excessive exercise to lose weight.

Symptoms

The most frequent symptoms are:

• Have a normal or below normal weight (but look fat)
• Repeated episodes of binge eating
• Make yourself vomit (secretly, no one notices)
• Exercise excessively or fast
• Inappropriate use of laxatives, diuretics, or purgatives
• Irregular or absent menstruation
• Anxiety or depression
• Excessive preoccupation with body shape
• Scars on the back of the fingers from the maneuver to induce vomiting

Treatment

Psychotherapy should be combined with the use of antidepressant medications if the adolescent has symptoms of depression. Family collaboration is essential.