Definition and Origins
Eating disorders affect many adolescents, especially women. Although more rare there are cases of food obsessions even among males and in menopausal women. The age of onset, unfortunately, is becoming increasingly precocious while the sensitivity to the problem, fortunately, is increasing.
When self-esteem is excessively influenced by physical fitness and weight, the chances of falling into the trap of eating disorders are greatly increased.
Eating disorders are in fact linked to the dysfunctional assessment that the person makes of himself. We speak of dysfunctional evaluation when the perceived value of the person is strongly connected to the ideal of thinness, to weight and to the control of one's own body shape. In practice the person feels he is worth or not worth as a human being in relation to the needle of the scale that greatly influences the relationship with food.
Eating disorders are today a pervasive factor that manifests discomfort and inner suffering of a generation made fragile by a society that increasingly tends to discriminate between bodies of the A, B and C series.
Eating disorders include 3 main forms: anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.
All these eating disorders have in common the obsessive thought of food, the morbid fear of becoming overweight combined with a deforming perception of their body and a low self-esteem
Anorexia
An anorexic girl, as thin as she may be, cannot live with a body that always seems excessively fat. The weight problem becomes so important that you skip meals by pushing it to abuse medicines like laxatives and diuretics while pursuing an ideal of unattainable thinness.
Anorexia usually begins with a diet and conceals a profound discomfort that the person tries to silence by obsessively controlling calories and weight.
Anorexia harshly attacks the body in its vital functions to cause very serious consequences such as kidney failure, osteoporosis, cardiovascular changes, loss of teeth and hair. If this condition persists for a long time, the internal clock is disrupted and the condition becomes really serious: unfortunately you can die of anorexia.
Bulimia
This eating disorder (bulimia = "ox hunger") is characterized by an exaggerated food intake (a bulimic girl arrives to ingest thousands of calories in a few hours). Desperate attempts to get rid of ingested foods follow one another, usually through self-induced vomiting or through the massive use of laxatives or diuretics.
After these attacks of uncontrolled hunger, during which nothing is more important than food, deep feelings of guilt arise which cause the subject to sink into depression.
Unfortunately, this is a real dependency comparable to the one that binds a drug addict to drugs with equally devastating consequences on the life, psyche and health of those who suffer from it.
Uncontrolled feeding disorders
Those suffering from this eating disorder, just like in the case of bulimia, consume very large amounts of food. Unlike a bulimic person, those who suffer from binge eating disorder do not expel what they eat. Because of these binges the girl can be overweight even though she is often completely normal. It happens in fact that following this immoderate intake of food the person fasts for a few days or uses very intense physical exercises to dispose of the calories ingested.
A variant of this eating disorder, called night-eating syndrome, is characterized by diurnal anorexia and nocturnal insomnia that can only be defeated by taking large quantities of food (nocturnal bulimia).
Treatment
How to cure eating disorders?
Eating disorders require a complex therapeutic approach that is realized with the collaboration of many figures (dieticians, endocrinolics and psychotherapists).
When you suffer from a food problem it is good:
gather as much information as possible on the subject in order to realize its danger and how it is possible to get out of it
contact a family member, a relative, a friend, or better yet, an association as soon as possible. When you suffer from eating disorders, asking for help, even if it is difficult, is the greatest favor that the person can do to herself and to those who love her.
Useful links:
www.bulimianoressia.it ABA, a non-profit association, has been involved since 1991 in the field of prevention, information and research on anorexia, bulimia, obesity and eating disorders.
www.sullealidellementi.it Association made up of volunteers with the aim of preventing anorexia, bulimia and obesity
See also: Body image; Bigoressia; Swimsuit and bikini syndrome test; Anorexia and sport
