Anorexia is significant weight loss resulting from extreme dieting.
Anorexics feel fat regardless of their weight. Often anorexics do not realize that they are thinner than normal and consider themselves fat even if they weigh 45 kg. In their efforts to become thinner, anorexics avoid eating and taking in calories under all circumstances. 10-20% of this disease results in death due to various complications.
Anorexics generally try to achieve perfection. They set very high goals and feel like they have to constantly prove themselves. They generally always put the needs of others before their own. An anorexic patient thinks that the only things they can control in life are their food and weight. The number on the scale each morning determines whether they are successful in their goal of being thin. When they manage to lose weight, they feel strong and in control. Often focusing on their calories and weight is a way to block out emotions they don't want. For anorexics, it is easier to lose weight than to deal with the problems directly. Generally, these people have very little self-confidence and sometimes feel that they do not deserve to eat. They often deny that there is a problem. They constantly deny the feeling of hunger. They resist violently when people try to help them, because for them therapy just means being forced to eat. Once they admit they have a problem and agree to get help, they can be treated. For this purpose, a combined treatment method is applied, approaching from psychological, medical and nutritional aspects.
Symptoms
1. Visible weight loss
2. Increasing introversion
3. Do not exercise excessively
4. Strong fear of gaining weight
5. Fatigue
6. Being constantly cold
7. Muscle weakness
8. Being obsessed with food, calories and recipes
9. Constantly finding excuses for not eating (e.g. I ate before, I don't feel well)
10. Unusual eating habits (e.g. cutting food into small pieces)
11. Get noticed next to food A disease that can occur
12. Complaining about being too fat even though she is very thin
13. Cooking for others but not eating himself
14. Limiting meals to only diet foods
15. Feeling shame or guilt for eating
16. Depression, depression, irritability, sudden emotional changes
17. Achieving weight control by vomiting, using laxatives or diet pills
18. Irregular menstruation
19. Stoppage of menstruation
20. Wearing loose clothing to hide weight loss
21. Constantly checking your weight on the scale
22. Dizziness and fainting
23. Difficulty eating in public
24. He is very secretive about his eating habits
25. A pale face almost white
26. Headaches
27. Perfectionist approach
28. Determining your personal value by what you eat or don't eat
29. There is no physical problem that could explain the weight loss
Physical/Medical Complications
1. Fatigue and lack of energy
2. Stopping of menstruation
3. Skin problems
4. Hair and nails are weak and break easily
5. Dizziness and headache
6. Excessive water loss
7. Shortness of breath
8. Irregularity in heartbeat
9. Cold hands and feet
10. Bloating
11. Constipation
12. Hair loss
13. Stomach cramps
14. Slowdown of metabolism
15. Body water accumulation (Edema)
16. Liver and kidney failure
17. Bone loss (Osteoporosis)
18. Insomnia
19. Anemia
20. Infertility
21. Depression
22. Potassium deficiency
23. Infertility
24. Depression
25. Heart attack and death
Causes
Doctors do not know exactly why this disease occurs. Research shows that many influences such as family approach, cultural factors and genes lead to the formation of the disease.
One of the reasons is the negative effects of the media on young people, especially women, in modern and economically developed societies. These are the messages. The main theme in these messages is that extreme thinness is attractive. Being thin, like models and some famous people, requires some people to lose a weight that is not healthy. Some people can be both healthy and thin, but the problem is that many young people cannot achieve that thinness without losing their health.
Some young people may develop wrong ideas by looking at the media's messages about thinness. For example, a 14-year-old girl thinks that the ideal weight of a person with a height of 1.60m is 40 kg. may believe it should be, whereas a healthy weight is 50kg. should be. As a result, she gradually begins to skip meals and refuses to get the nutrition she needs to be healthy. She becomes thinner and thinner, but still feels fat. Eventually, it becomes such that hospitalization is required due to malnutrition.
But eating disorders cannot be explained simply by food and thinning, the problem is much more complex than that. People with Eating Disorders desperately desire approval and acceptance from others, and sometimes they may find these feelings in the short term by being thin or comforting themselves by eating. Eating disorder is essentially the body's way of expressing its unexpressed emotions, itself and unmet needs.
When to Seek Medical Assistance for Anorexia?
>If there is extreme weight loss or if you alternate between overeating and extreme dieting, it may be important to talk to a doctor. Denial is a symptom of eating disorders, so a person often agrees to see a doctor at the insistence of a family member or friend. If you suspect that a family member or friend has an eating disorder, you should insist that he or she see a doctor. Do not waste time waiting and do not expect the problem to resolve itself.
Treatment for Anorexia
A generally accepted fact is that in the treatment of eating disorders, various clinicians from different fields, such as psychotherapists, doctors, eating specialists and nurses, participate in the treatment.
In most patients, eating disorders depression, which also needs to be treated in addition to the disorder It is also present in anxiety disorders and other psychiatric problems.
Eating disorders destroy people both physically and psychologically, so people with such disorders should consult a doctor immediately. Early diagnosis and taking precautions significantly affect the person's faster recovery. In cases where it is not diagnosed early and is delayed, the eating disorder may become chronic and threaten the life of the patient.
The most effective treatment method is to receive psychotherapy or psychological counseling with a doctor and an eating specialist. . Treatment should be determined individually, because the treatment should address the severity of the disease and the patient's specific problems and needs.
Psychological therapy should address both the patient's eating disorder and the personal and cultural psychological factors underlying the disease. The patient needs to learn how to live peacefully and healthily with both himself and food.
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