Some of us tend to use food as food for the soul, not realizing that it destroys both the soul and the body. How to recognize alarms? Explanations of a systemic family therapist, a specialist in eating disorders, Rimma Maksimova.
There is a lot of food in our society, sometimes too much, and we deal with it in different ways. Eating disorders are becoming more common these days. Most psychotherapists believe that this is symptomatic behavior, an attempt to adjust to reality and influence family processes that seem out of control.
Anorexia
What is this? The disease of the full refrigerator: in psychoanalysis, it symbolizes the mother, the first source of food in our life. Anorexia often develops in adolescent girls as a reaction to a crisis in the family, to the divorce of parents, especially if there is no contact with the mother. Control over the body becomes an unconscious attempt to get out of the chaos. It is also possible that the child benefits from the illness in the form of parental attention. It happens that a daughter’s anorexia rallied the parents, depriving them of time for quarrels, or forced one of the parents to get rid of addiction to alcohol.
Who is suffering. Beauty standards force teenagers to lose weight in order to please the opposite sex. The problem is getting younger, girls are starting to resort to a way to control their weight through refusing food and fasting. Basically, anorexia manifests itself between the ages of 10 and 14 in girls, boys get sick about four times less often.
However, older girls are also susceptible to anorexia. More often these are sensitive natures with low self-esteem, emotionally reacting to difficulties, despite external well-being. For them, weight control is a way to reduce their emotionality and avoid stress. By refusing to eat, they also refuse the pleasure that food brings, they create a kind of protective shell that does not allow them to feel hungry. Gradually, this trend spreads to other areas of life where you can have fun, partnerships disappear, the circle of friends narrows.
When to start worrying. The patients themselves do not notice their illness, so their loved ones should be worried if they observe the following 5 signs:
Diet without goals. The goal of the diet is to lose weight. When the goal is reached, the diet ends. If a relative stops eating without any purpose, this is an alarming signal. A teenager on a diet usually complains about food restrictions. Anorexic does not complain — fasting makes him euphoric.
Sorting products. The use of low-calorie foods, the rejection of fat and sugar, long thorough chewing. Anorexic makes sure that the products do not mix and do not touch each other.
Hyperactivity. Anorexic goes in for sports, bringing himself almost to exhaustion, and at the same time closed, he has no interest in the world.
Desire to be cleansed. The patient drinks a lot of water — up to 6 liters per day, can use laxatives, enemas and diuretics. A symptom of anorexia is the desire to retire for a long time in the toilet.
Super control. It is difficult for many to control nutrition, and anorexics feel their exclusivity: they are the best at it.
What to do. Anorexia in 10% of cases is fatal, so an appeal to a psychiatrist is necessary. But anorexia is a family symptom that stabilizes the situation, and after recovery there is a danger of returning to the previous behavior model, so the help of a family psychologist will be useful.
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Bulimia
What is it. Uncontrollable gluttony, eating everything, regardless of taste. A bulimic sufferer loses his natural feelings of hunger and satiety, trying to fill the unbearable feeling of emptiness inside with food. Bulimia as a symptom can symbolize the punishment of a mother who is perceived as not being attentive enough; punishing yourself for some of your desires; bulimia with vomiting may indicate an inability to «digest» certain interpersonal relationships.
Who is suffering. Bulimia occurs in 9 out of 10 girls with anorexia. They start eating everything and gain weight again. There are also cases when overweight people stop paying attention to their weight, and then only health problems can lead them to a doctor. Bulimia can occur when adult children begin to live separately: women who have devoted themselves to the family lose the meaning of life, and food becomes their solace.
When to start worrying. If you have problems with being overweight. In case of episodes of binge eating twice a week or more often during the last three months.
What to do. Seek help from psychiatrists and psychotherapists who are skilled in working with eating disorders.
Compulsive overeating
What is it. The same outbreaks of violent gluttony as in bulimia, but patients do not cause themselves to vomit. Every time anxiety arises, food drowns it out; nutrition is not associated with either bodily hunger or satiety. Overeating may be caused by an unconscious fear of sexual relations or reflect a childhood fear of starvation. Food does not bring pleasure, on the contrary, there is a feeling of guilt for the inability to resist. After gluttony comes a period of abstinence as compensation for overeating.
Who is suffering. Those who are painfully experiencing their fullness, real or imaginary. Anxious people who feel like they are losing control of their lives. They often suffer from depression and insomnia.
When to start worrying. If crises happen once a week for six months.
What to do. Take care of your inner child, learn to accept yourself. Remember that every restriction in food prepares a breakdown. If necessary, contact a specialist.
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Orthorexia
What is it. An obsession with eating right, «an unhealthy fixation on something inherently healthy,» as her physician Steven Bratman put it.
Who is suffering. Orthorexia is not recognized as a disease. But the number of those who fixate on a healthy diet is estimated at 6,9% of those surveyed.1, and their number is likely to increase.
When to start worrying. When thoughts about food come up frequently and without regard to eating, they become a way of judging other people.
What to do. Recognize the problem: sometimes this is enough. Common sense helped Steven Bratman, who went through a period of fixation on healthy food: one day he realized that the guidelines for proper nutrition contradict each other: sweets are not allowed, but honey is healthy; eggs are a great source of protein, any animal protein is poison, and so on. The realization that he was following a controversial philosophy set him on the path to recovery. But sometimes you have to figure out the reasons that caused obsessions.
1 L. Donini et al. «Orthorexia nervosa: a preliminary study with a proposal for diagnosis and an attempt to measure the dimension of the phenomenon». Eat Weight Disorders, 2004, № 9 (2).