“I don’t want to eat, but I eat,” is a common complaint. Let’s figure out what it means.
Bulimia nervosa is common. The modern world is cruel to women who have an imperfect figure. The covers of glossy publications are full of images of thin models, which causes uncertainty in their appearance and envy of many ladies. It is not surprising that this disorder is common among women of any age. They complain at the doctor’s appointment: “I don’t want to eat, but I eat.”
Manifestations of bulimia
Bulimia nervosa is commonly understood as a deviation associated with eating behavior. With this disorder, the patient experiences severe hunger, which leads to overeating. Each such episode ends with the patient striving to empty his stomach. Usually for this he artificially induces vomiting or takes laxatives.
Bulimia is a pathology that is prevalent mainly among women who are overly worried about their weight. She is diagnosed much more often than anorexia. However, bulimia is much more difficult to detect. In a patient with anorexia, weight decreases rapidly, and in people suffering from bulimia, weight is often within normal limits. Due to this feature of the disease, some patients manage to hide it for many years.
Causes of the disease
So, a person complains: "I do not want to eat, but I eat." How is this manifested?
A similar disorder can develop for a variety of reasons. But in most cases, it appears in those women and girls who are too worried about their own weight.
Very often they make excessive demands on their appearance, believing that a thin body is the key to their beauty and success. Many of them have low self-esteem.
Childhood memories
Quite often, the reasons lie in childhood memories, when a child in a family was forced to eat on a limited schedule, severely limited the scope of eating and proportions. Sometimes the opposite situation develops: a cult of food reigns in the family, parents eat a lot, are overweight. Bulimia can begin to develop in a still growing child. Especially if parents make excessive demands on his studies, behavior, do not take into account his opinion and do not pay attention to his desires. Such children have a feeling of loneliness, anger, misunderstanding. To eliminate this negative, they begin to consume a large amount of food, and then artificially empty the stomach.
At risk are, as a rule, girls and young women, whose age is 13-35 years. Most patients with eating disorders are 15-28 years old.
Often people report: "I am starting to eat and I can not stop." But not the words themselves are terrible, but the consequences of what is happening. After a bulimia sufferer takes another batch of food, he begins to blame himself for this, only exacerbating the situation and causing unpleasant emotions. And everything goes in a circle. As a result, the patient dislikes his body and himself, panics, loses the ability to self-control.
Manifestations, symptoms of pathology
As a rule, patients who arrange stressful snacks for themselves, relatives and others try not to show the manifestations of their disorder. Only if relatives and friends are careful, they will be able to identify him in time, thereby contributing to the appeal to a specialist and the appointment of therapy.
The behavioral signs of bulimia are as follows:
- A person eats a large amount of food, in a hurry, eating food, swallows it in pieces, practically without chewing.
- After eating, a person suffering from an upset hurries to retire to the toilet to provoke vomiting.
- In addition, you can see that he is secretive, not self-confident, closed.
The main physiological symptoms of bulimia are as follows:
- A person’s weight often changes: a person suffering from bulimia can dramatically gain weight or lose weight.
- A weakened state, lack of energy, lethargy are noticeable.
- A person has a predisposition to throat disease.
- Bowel and stomach diseases may develop.
- There are metabolic disorders.
- Frequent vomiting provokes problems with gums, teeth.
- The skin has a dehydrated, flabby appearance.
With a long absence of necessary therapy, this disorder can provoke serious diseases of the gynecological sphere, digestive tract, and respiratory tract injury. One of the dangerous consequences of bulimia nervosa is the development of diabetes mellitus or other endocrine disruption.
Most patients do not regard their condition as pathological, deny that they have symptoms of the disease, disorders in the body.
Relationship with Anorexia Nervosa
Quite often bulimia nervosa develops in people who suffer from anorexia. These nervous pathologies have common causes of development: it is the pathological desire to lose weight that leads to the formation of anorexia.
In patients suffering from bulimia, there is always an increase in appetite, they are engaged in gluttony. In the case of anorexia, a person restricts himself in food until weight loss becomes catastrophic. Anorexia nervosa develops, as a rule, in girls whose age is 15-25 years.
The main reason why girls refuse to eat is their fear of gaining excess weight. They are not able to adequately assess their appearance and body. Even with excessively low weight they are considered to be thick. Symptoms of anorexia nervosa are as follows:
- Mental disorders: depression, excessive nervousness.
- Reluctance to have a weight that matches body build and height.
- Pathological fear of weight gain.
- Denial that there is an eating disorder. The patient is not able to give an adequate assessment of the state of his body.
- Hormonal disorders.
- Disorders of the digestive tract.
- Menstrual irregularities.
As you can see, there is really much in common between anorexia and bulimia. Except, perhaps, for the phrase: "I do not want to eat, but I eat." After all, with anorexia, they just refuse food.
Therapy
How to deal with the disease? To cure bulimia, a comprehensive approach is required, which involves medication and psychological assistance. Group or personal psychotherapy is used to eradicate the problem: a specialist helps the patient understand the full depth of the problem.
With complex or advanced forms of bulimia, the patient is placed in a hospital. It is required that a person is constantly monitored. Patients are fed according to the schedule and only in the presence of a medical professional.
Leaving such people alone with oneself is impossible. There is a risk that they will again begin to empty their stomach. Practice shows that the best treatment is that which combines diet therapy, the use of drugs, psychotherapy.
Psychologists offer the following types of therapy for nervous overeating:
- Family
- Interpersonal.
- Cognitive-behavioral.
- Group
The impact of drugs involves the use of mineral and vitamin complexes. This is necessary to make up for the deficiency of these elements that the patient lost during the illness. If necessary, a person is prescribed drugs to eliminate problems with the digestive tract. In addition, taking antidepressants is an integral part of exposure.
The sooner therapy is started, the more effective it will be.