Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa

The eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia nervosa are the most known and frequent, the last two decades have become a real emergence of mental health for the devastating effects they have on the health and lives of adolescents and young adults. In the United States, medical associations that deal with eating disorders do not hesitate to call a real epidemic that crosses all social strata and different ethnic groups.

If not treated in time and with appropriate methods, eating disorders may become a permanent condition and in severe cases lead to death, which usually occurs by suicide or cardiac arrest. According to the American Psychiatric Association, are the leading cause of death from mental illness in Western countries. One study published in the British journal The Lancet indicates that research on treatment is much more advanced in the case of bulimia nervosa, which were conducted more than fifty studies and trials and management practices based on evidence is possible. Less attention, however, was so far devoted to research on possible treatments for anorexia nervosa and other forms of eating disorder.

Anorexia and bulimia are complex diseases, certain conditions of psychological and emotional, thus requiring treatment of both the food problem in saying that his psychic nature. The aim is to bring the patient through therapy aimed at changing the behavior el'attitudine to adopt solutions for managing their emotional stress that they are not harmful to their health and to restore a balanced eating. Can occur in people of different age, sex, social origin, but are usually more common in young women aged between 15 and 25 years.

What is born an eating disorder?
At the center of eating disorder, which manifests itself as a complex disease resulting from the interaction of multiple biological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and psychiatric disorders, there is still part of an obsessive patient overestimation of the importance of its physical form of its weight and body and a need to establish control over it. Among the reasons that lead to the development of anorexic and bulimic behavior, we show, as well as a component of familiarity (and transgenerational studies on twins have shown that the disorder food is more likely to occur among the relatives of a person already sick, especially if it is the mother), the negative influence from other family and social components, the feeling of being subjected to an excess of pressure and expectation, or otherwise to be highly neglected by their parents, feel the object of derision for its physical form or not achieving the desired results due to problems with weight and appearance. For some people, this is a trend that the self leads to alter their eating behavior or abuse of alcohol or drugs.

The anorexia and bulimia but may also depend on whether the individual is affected particularly traumatic situations, such as sexual violence, family tragedies, abuse by family members or people outside, difficult to be accepted socially and his family . One of the reasons why a girl begins to undergo a diet is the excessive need to pay a fee that aesthetic rewards thinness, even in its excesses. According to many psychiatrists, in fact, the current propensity to prefer a model of feminine beauty that enhances leanness has devastating consequences on food behavior of many adolescents.

Physical and psychological effects
The effects of eating disorders are very heavy, both on the physical and the psychological. From a physical point of view, the effects of malnutrition and intestinal ulcers involve permanent damage to the tissues of the digestive tract, dehydration, damage to the gums and teeth, severe damage to heart, liver and kidneys, nervous system problems, difficulties with concentration and storage, damage to bones, with increased likelihood of fractures and osteoporosis, blocking growth, internal bleeding, hypothermia, and swollen glands.
The psychological impact, however, include depression, low self-esteem, sense of shame and guilt, difficulties in maintaining social and family relationships, mood swings, tendency to Manichaean and manic behavior, propensity for perfectionism.

Symptoms and characteristics
The eating disorders include many different conditions. The most well known and are anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa
A person becomes anorexic when reducing or stopping their usual diet, down to below 85% of normal weight for their age, sex and height. The anorexia is due to the refusal to take food, determined by an intense fear of buying weight or become fat, even when you are underweight. Often, a person with anorexic begins to avoid all foods considered fat foods and to focus on 'healthy' and low calorie, with an obsessive attention to caloric content and composition of foods and balance. Meals are often avoided or eaten very slowly, brood at length swallowed every mouthful. The body is perceived and lived so altered, with an excess of attention to form and the frequent refusal to admit the seriousness of the current condition of underweight.

Diagnosing anorexia is not always simple in very young subjects, because the physical changes that accompany adolescence and involve imbalances of weight and height may mask the early stages. In children, it is more common that anorexia occurs through other symptoms such as nausea and not feeling hungry. In girls, however, a classic symptom is the cessation of menstruation for at least three months later, symptoms that do not apply to young teens who have not yet had the menarche, or the girls who take the contraceptive pill.

The anorexia is manifested in two ways:

with restrictions, as determined by the steady reduction in the amount of food ingested.

with eating and subsequent elimination: Power compulsive autoindotto followed by vomiting, inappropriate use of laxative and diuretic pills, over-exercise to lose weight.

The anorexic person becomes so obsessed by the food that his life ends up being totally focused on the question of food, try to prevent interest and enthusiasm towards anything else.

Bulimia Nervosa
A person eating in bulimia is very different from what normally happens when you eat too much. Characteristic of the bulimic behavior are:

ingestion of too much food, sometimes for a total of several thousand calories in a time very close, for example in the space of two hours, and usually hidden by other

the feeling of being unable to stop eating and they can not control their behavior

the abbuffata is preceded and followed by a very strong emotional stress

Having eaten so excessive, the bulimic person usually feels guilty and tends to punirsi vomiting, ingesting laxatives and diuretic pills with the intent to lose weight. If this behavior becomes repetitive, for example, occurs twice a week for three months, it was faced with a clear sign of eating disorder. Rarely, patients bulimic does not inflict any punishment.
In the long run, a bulimic person is entering a phase of depression and disgust towards himself and tries to conceal their behavior to others, even if its shape and physical appearance end up becoming an obsession with learning and have strong impact on their self-esteem. A bulimic person may be of normal weight, underweight or overweight, unlike an anorexic who is always under weight. Moreover, the weight of a bulimic person can vary enormously and rocked that can be used as a symptom of an eating disorder.

In addition all'anoressia and bulimia, there is also a kind of eating disorder not defined. Not all cases are in fact exactly describe the typical symptoms of anorexia and bulimia. Some, for example, start with a form of anorexia but then, unable to keep down weight, glide toward bulimic behaviors. According to the American Psychiatric Association, half of the patients end up anorexic also have symptoms of bulimia, and in some cases patients develop bulimic anorexic behavior.