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| | One of the serious eating disorders is anorexia. Most people have heard about
it, but few realize that it affects quite a large fraction of American
population these days. Statistics show that three to five percent of
the population is anorexic. What this means is that these people starve
themselves repeatedly to lose weight. Why? They do so because they are
convinced that they are overweight and do not look good enough. Most
people suffering from this
eating disorder are young people in
puberty, and anorexia affects twice as many young women as men.
Usually teenagers are affected by the images of good looking slim
peers and glamorous skinny models from magazines and TV
advertisements. This results in dissatisfaction about one's own look,
leading to depression, and then anorexia. These teenagers would try
anything to lose weight - from extreme dieting to laxatives.
Teenagers suffering from this disorder have very weak immune system
and are an easy target for many diseases. Their inner organs like
heart and lungs have very slim tissues - the result of staving and
lack of sufficient calories, minerals and vitamins. Low immune system,
chronic weakness and depression, usually make the situation even
worse for anorexic person - both physically and emotionally.
They live in a constant fear of becoming fat people, and
cut down their daily meals to the amounts dangerous for their health
and even life.
Such people have under fifteen percent less body weight than normal
for their age, gender, and height.
This disorder is more spread among celebrities - these are the people
who are constantly looked up upon, and any physical imperfections in
their look would be noticed by the public. People of "public"
professions - dancers, singers, actors - are more likely to become anorexic
than people of professions where personal looks matter less.
Food addiction by nature - product of modern fashion, which dictates us its frameworks, measures and standards of excellent understanding. Tendency of person towards outer and inner harmony is natural and is caused by his state of mind, sensation of personal comfort. Why then, as if purposely, the more close we "come nearer" to social "ideal", the more intricate and isolating forms he assumes – exhausted body, splitting hair, dry skin, sunken eyes, yellow teeth, attacked by gastric acid and eyes, deprived of live shine...?
First symptoms of anorexia sickness are: progressing weight loss, panic fear due to obesity, sleeping disorders, guilty feeling during starvation and food intake and depression.
As a rule, girls, belonging to age group of 14 to 19, are prone to anorexia disease and also aged people, falling into senile marasm.
In the first case, unrestrained aspiration to thinness is connected, in young girls, with the formation of own libido and imposed canons of beauty; fundamental set occurs in their consciousness about direct proportional dependence of sexual appeal on body weight, ability to rationally assess their appearance erases.
In the second case of advanced age people, who are susceptible to paranoic seizures,
obsessional idea chases them about the wish of surrounding people, to get rid , particularly, poison the patients.
In classical variant, anorexia appears in two variations: restrictions and purifications. "Restriction" process is understood as aspiration of the patient to observe rigid diets, restrictions in food intake with simultaneous increase in physical activities or aspiration to completely refuse food. "Purification " is aspiration of patient by any means, by every possible procedures (stomach washing, intake of laxative drugs, enema, artificial induced vomits etc.) to get rid of eaten food.
Anorexia treatment is also in 2 stages and is conducted simultaneously both on psychological and as well as at physiological level. In easy cases of anorexia, when the disease is identified during early stages of development of illness, treatment can be out-patient and in cases of heavy exhaustion, when the deviation of body weight is more than 15 % of standard weight or at sharp weight loss of more than 40 % from initial weight within a negligible time interval.
During first stage of treatment, physical condition of the patient is improved first & foremostly. For this purpose, various general health-improving means, vitamins, blood substitutes and complete bed rest are prescribed by the therapist after careful inspection and laboratory analyses and additional tests. Insulin injection, followed by high-calorie diet with 6 time food intake are prescribed for restoration of appetite and increasing the body weight of patient. It is considered that the weight increase by 2-4 kg within 4 weeks is optimum.
During second stage of treatment, patients are put on general regime. Soft tranquilizers and antidepressants are added to general health-improving therapy. Patient undergoes psycho-correction of valuable orientation with stress on explanation of harm due to starvation, elimination of emotional disorders, linked with food intakes, formation of correct relationship towards appearance and food behavior as a whole. Hypnosis is effective in isolated cases. Autogenous training sessions are used to eliminate unpleasant sensations in the body.
And at the end of treatment, the patient takes consultation with qualified diet specialist and receives food regimen in accordance with structure of organism.
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Anorexia is a condition when a slim person would try anything to become even slimmer. The opposite would be a fat person who would do nothing to become slimmer. They even have a name for it - Rosie O'Donnel.
