Anorexia nervosa
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Over time different explanations are given for the origin of eating disorders. Probably the ideal of being slim and the related pressure put on woman, plays an important role.
These days people think a combination of physical, psychical and social factors influence anorexia nervosa:
- There is a connection between eating behavior and depression.
- Stuffing yourself can be looked upon as a form of conditioned behavior: after unpleasant experiences or frustrations someone immediately reaches for food.
- A disturbed mother-child relation or the fear to become an adult can play a role. Anorexia nervosa will slow down the physical growth to adulthood.
- Innate characteristics are probably of influence. It appears that anorexic patients often have a negative way of thinking, for example the desire to be perfect, thinking in extremes or having a negative image of themselves.
- Certain family-characteristics appear more often among patients having eating disorders. The question is however whether these characteristics are the result or the cause of the eating disorder.
People with anorexia nervosa are constantly afraid of becoming fat and as a result suppress their appetite and the feeling of getting hungry. People with anorexia nervosa constantly and downwardly adjust their ideal weight. In spite of a serious loss of weight, they continuously consider themselves too fat. Over time they loose the normal feelings for appetite, hunger and satisfaction. They constantly watch the calories they eat and their eating pattern becomes more and more monotonous. Society only recognizes anorexia nervosa after the patient has lost a striking amount of weight. There are, however, several variants of anorexia nervosa, which makes detection complicated. There is a variant where periods of eating very little are alternated with periods of stuffing oneself followed by throwing up or the use of laxatives. Also abuse of diuretics exists.
Treatment
Several different treatments are in use to cure anorexia nervosa, but it is still not possible to conclude which one has the best results. Some treatments are more focussed on the eating behavior, others focus more on the psychical backgrounds. A combination of both methods is probably the most effective way.
In general, enforced therapies are not effective. Inferior treatment, in particular if it is enforced can aggravate the problems. It is important that the doctor in attendance has experience in the treatment of eating disorders.
One of the first targets of the treatment is the recovery of the normal weight. In addition, the treatment should try to improve the way people look at themselves, experience their body and establish and maintain social contacts and relations.
Often a special form of behavioral treatment is used. Step by step people are learned to accommodate to a rising weight by controlled exposure to the threatening situations.
With the help of a cognitive therapy people will be learned to change the wrong notions regarding their weight and their body.
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