Dangerous form of Eating disorder - Anoreixa Nervosa

Karen Carpenter was the music sensation of 70’s. She was an accordion player turned flutist turned drummer turned singer who died at the age of 32. The fans of the carpenter musical group were shocked to hear about the death of the lead singer who had dominated the pop/soft music during that time. The cause for her death was listed as cardiac arrest, secondary to chronic starvation. At the age of 32, she was 5’4” but weighed only 108 lbs. She gave hits like “Close to you” and “We’ve Only Just Began” which could be heard once in a while, on radio, was the victim of the eating disorder known as anorexia nervosa.

It is also known as star or starlet disease or rich women disease or slimmer disease. One can see this disorder in women and girls, where they have this notion that they are fat, even though they are underweight and thus they limit the amount of food they eat. They have the fear of gaining weight and refuse to maintain adequate weight. Anorexia nervosa is a stubbornly persistent and life threatening disorder.

The disorder is usually found in adolescents and after age of 25 appears rare. The victims are generally females say in the order of 90 to 95 percent. There is very little evidence about this eating disorder in men because of their relative rarity and the other thing is that most of the research is carried out on females only.

It has been noted that this disorder is mainly found in certain professions like ballet dancers, models and gymnasts.

Causes of Anorexia
1. Culture – Culture plays significant influence on an individual, like in U.S. for the past few decades the American philosophy of being “Slim and Trim” has engulfed the girls and young women’s mind. Skinny models, actress, dancers etc are taken as the role models and females on basis judge themselves how beautiful they are.

2. Gaining Control – Children of authoritative parents tends to find areas in their live where they can have their control as they are kept under stern control of their parents who keep a watch over them and generally set high standards for them.

3. Crude Remarks – Adolescents is the age where they get conscious of their looks and try to gain approval from others and if at this point they get to hear crude remarks about being chubby, fat etc than they set unrealistic goals.

4. Family – If a child is born in a family where the parents are dieting themselves, and are too conscious of their looks than from childhood only, wrong ideal of body image is induced in child and if he or she has anorexic mother or sister than the chances of developing this disorder are high. Criticism by parents, sometimes unconsciously or consciously on the child’s body image can also trigger the disorder.

5. Self perception – How we perceive ourselves is important, if the person hate the way they look, feel helpless and above all set unrealistic expectations than they are more prone to develop the disorder.

Symptoms

1. Physical Symptoms

• Looking too slim

• Loss of menstrual cycle

• Don’t eat much and even one does, than feel bad about it or throw up by taking pills or bowel movement

• Having symptoms like headache, tiredness, constipation, feeling cold, hair loss and it also leads to decrease of protein in the blood.

2. Psychological Symptoms

• Obsessive and tightly self controlled in their every style.

• Usually follow restricted pattern

• Are either moody or depressed most of the time

• Forget things

• Poor judgment

• Have wrong perception of self

3. Behavioral Symptoms

• Often socially detached

• Maintain considerable distance from peer group

• Tend to wear baggy kind of clothes to hide their appearance

• Hate the way they look and always feel they are too fat. Their talk usually circles around food and weight.

• Fear of being, or becoming fat.

• Exercising more than required

Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa

Every individual is different and naturally the causes vary too. So there is no straight fast rule to prevent it but yes following some simple steps will surely help.

• Family is the biggest supportive factor, they along with friends can make the person relax in their company and involve him or her in social events.

• Try to talk to him or her and know the reason behind not eating properly, may be its environment,

• Have a proper physical and mental check up from physician and psychologist respectively

• Medication is necessary in some cases like depression, compulsive obsessive symptoms

• If the problem becomes grave, like the loss in body weight is more than 20 to 25 percent ,less than normal body weight than the person should be hospitalized immediately

• Restore the healthy eating patterns

• Individual therapy, family therapy and drug therapy using antidepressants, should be used in the treatment

• Don’t be afraid to seek professional help, consult a psychiatrist or psychologist.

• Cognitive therapy is also useful as it helps in changing the unhealthy thought processes of an individual and developing the coping skills.

• Biofeedback is helpful in reducing stress in people suffering from this disorder

Prognosis and Complications

Such individual tend to have disorganized thinking pattern, develop osteoporosis, numbness in hands and feet, increase in cholesterol level, and the death rate is high as five to ten percent of the patients die within 5 to 10 years of suicide or by depression caused by several problems and diseases.

It’s been seen that many patients after treatment think, that they have been ‘cured’ but still they continue to exhibit the traits of anorexia nervosa, by being skinny and striving for perfection.

Anorexia Nervosa should be treated as soon as possible. There are several self-help organizations run by support groups which are powerful and effective means of providing long-term compliance and thus decrease the relapse rate. They could be found within the communities, throughout the world and help the individuals with this disorder as they themselves had suffered from this disorder and are thus more experienced.