Anorexia: causes, stages and symptoms Anorexia is a disease for which a person self-destines, in fact - he himself organizes it. Anorexia is a meaningful, deliberate refusal of food, a deliberate weight loss, and beyond reasonable limits. It's just an obsession, a behavioral disorder, because the characteristic "nervous" anorexia here is very appropriate.


Causes and stages of the disease

Anorexia is common in young girls during puberty( very rarely in young men), the likelihood of developing anorexia with age will come to naught. The disease manifests itself as a very obtrusive phobia in front of a large weight, forcing a person to dramatically reduce the diet, as well as interfering with a sober look at themselves from the side. The number of patients with anorexia has recently increased significantly. And this was facilitated by the introduction into the teenage souls of the cult of photomodels( subtile).

As for the reasons, do not wait for any specifics. Theories that try to explain such causes, which provoke a mental malfunction as an anorexia, there are many. The vulnerable soul of a teenager in itself has many secrets. At this time in the body of the adolescent physiological, as well as psychological changes occur. There is such a phenomenon as a teenage disharmonious crisis, or hyperbolization of one's own problems and experiences. And thus, the seeds of potential anorexia fall into fertile soil. Here it is most appropriate to talk not about the very causes of the disease, but about the factors that are capable of provoking the development of the disease.

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Factors hereditary - scientists have found out that there is a special gene that induces a tendency to anorexia. And if there are other unfavorable factors( unbalanced diet, psychoemotional overload), carriers of such a gene with a high degree of probability in themselves will develop anorexia. Of great importance is also the presence of persons in the genus, suffering from anorexia, as well as depressive disorders or alcoholism.

Physiological factors are the early onset of menstruation, excess weight, etc.

Personal factors are self-doubt, understated self-esteem, perfectionism, feelings of inferiority. Anorexicam often such traits are inherent in nature, such as accuracy, excessive punctuality, etc.

There are also socio-cultural factors. Anorexia is most often found in developed countries, where the primary needs of people are fully satisfied, while the forefront is the desire to match aesthetic trends and fashion trends.

Stages and symptoms of anorexia

Anorexia develops four stages in its development. The initial stage lasts from 2 to 4 years. The foundations of those "delusional" and "overvalued" ideas are laid in it, which in the future will lead to disastrous consequences for the human body. The patient is dissatisfied with his own appearance, and this is due to the actual changes in it, which is very typical for the process of puberty. For potential anorexic, the positive opinion of others has no weight. And careless observation, on the contrary, can trigger a mental disorder.

The next stage is anorectic. It can be identified by the active tendency of the person to correct all his imaginary defects, and this leads to a loss of body weight, which is significant( even up to 50%), as well as to the development of somatormonal abnormalities, cessation, and sometimes to a decrease in menstruation.

Various methods of patients are used for weight loss. These are debilitating exercises in the gym, intake of laxatives, as well as diuretics, enemas, restriction on the amount of food taken, artificially induced vomiting, excessive consumption of coffee, smoking( and a large number).

Behavioral disorders, which originated at the initial stage of the disease, begin to give a result and in the physiological plan. Often inflammatory processes of the gastrointestinal tract develop, there is an omission of gastrointestinal organs, stomach pains become more frequent and constipation appears. After eating after a while, there are attacks of suffocation, dizziness, hyperhidrosis, tachycardia. What is characteristic is that, even against the background of a rapid reduction in the intake of nutrients into the body, the patient does not lose physical activity and working capacity at the anorectic stage.

As a result, the anorectic stage is followed by cachectic anorexia, and somatogormonal disorders prevail in it. Fully terminate menstruation, there is no trace of subcutaneous fat, dystrophic changes in the skin, skeletal and cardiac muscles, pressure drops, palpitations become less frequent, body temperature decreases. Due to the decrease in peripheral blood circulation, the skin becomes dark and loses elasticity, the patient constantly feels cold, hair and teeth fall out, nails become brittle, anemia develops.

The patient from a full-fledged diet, even in the phase of extreme exhaustion, continues to refuse, being no longer able to look at himself adequately( both literally and figuratively).Mobility is lost, the patient spends more and more time in his bed. Due to the violation of water-electrolyte balance, convulsions are possible in the body. Such a state, without any assumptions, should be recognized as life-threatening and immediately begin violent treatment.

The latest stage of anorexia is the stage of reduction. This, in fact, the return of the disease, relapse. After carrying out the necessary therapeutic measures, a person has an increase in weight, and this entails a new surge in the patient's delusions about his appearance. The former activity returns to the patient again, as well as the desire to protest weight gain by various "old" methods - by forced vomiting, by taking laxatives, etc. It is for this reason that the anorectics after leaving the stage of cachectic should remain constantly under supervision. It is worth noting that relapses are possible within a couple of years.

As a rule, the treatment of this terrible disease starts at the docking of the anorectic and cachectic stages( ideally it should start much earlier, with an emphasis on the psychological component, but the person does not get to the doctor at the preliminary stages of the disease).In the stage of cachetic treatment, three main tasks are set before themselves. This will prevent irreversible dystrophy, also restore body mass and prevent massive losses in the body fluid, restore the blood electrolytic balance. This will prevent irreversible dystrophy, as well as restore body weight and prevent massive losses in the body fluid, restore the blood electrolytic balance.