"I'm not hungry, but I'm eating" is a common complaint. Let's figure out what it means.
Bulimia nervosa is not uncommon. The modern world is cruel to women who have an imperfect figure. The covers of glossy magazines are full of images of thin models, which causes insecurity in their appearance and envy among many ladies. Not surprisingly, this disorder is common among women of all ages. They complain at the doctor’s office: “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. He usually induces vomiting or takes laxatives to do this.
Bulimia is a pathology that is prevalent mainly among females who are overly worried about their weight. It is diagnosed much more often thananorexia. However, detecting bulimia is much more difficult. In an anorexic patient, weight decreases rapidly, and in people suffering from bulimia, weight is often within the normal range. Because of this feature of the disease, some patients manage to hide it for many years.
Causes of disease development
So, a person complains: "I don't want to eat, but I eat." How does it manifest?
This 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 memories from childhood, when a child in a family was forced to eat according to a limited schedule, the scope of what was eaten and the proportions were severely limited. Sometimes the opposite situation develops: the 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 such negativity, 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 aged 13-35 years. Most of the patients suffering from eating disorders are 15-28 years old.
People often report: "I start eating and I can't stop." But it is not the words themselves that are terrible, but the consequences of what is happening. After a bulimic sufferer takes another portion of food, he begins to reproach himself for this, only aggravating the situation and causing unpleasant emotions. And everything goes in circles. As a result, the patient experiences dislike for 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 attentive, they will be able to identify it in time, thereby contributing to the appeal to a specialist and the appointment of therapy.
Behavioral signs of bulimia are as follows:
- A person eats a large amount of food, in a hurry, eating food, swallowing it in pieces, almost without chewing.
- After finishing a meal, a person suffering from a disorder rushes to the toilet to induce vomiting.
- In addition, you can see that he is secretive, insecure, withdrawn.
The main physiological symptoms of bulimia are:
- A person's weight fluctuates frequently: a bulimic sufferer can rapidly gain or lose weight.
- Noticeable weakened state, lack of energy, lethargy.
- The person haspredisposition to the occurrence of diseases of the throat.
- Diseases of the intestines and stomach may develop.
- There are metabolic disorders.
- Frequent vomiting provokes problems with gums, teeth.
- Skin looks dehydrated, flabby.
With a long absence of the necessary therapy, this disorder can provoke serious diseases of the gynecological sphere, the digestive tract, and injuries to the respiratory tract. One of the dangerous consequences of bulimia nervosa is the development of diabetes mellitus or other endocrine disorders.
Most patients do not regard their condition as pathological, they deny that they have symptoms of the disease, disorders in the body.
Associated 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.
Patients suffering from bulimia always have an increase in appetite, they indulge in gluttony. In the case of anorexia, a person restricts himself in food until the weight loss becomes catastrophic. Anorexia nervosa develops, as a rule, in girls who are 15-25 years old.
The main reason why girls refuse to eat is their fear of gaining weight. They are not able to adequately assess their appearance and body. Even with excessively low weight, they consider that they are fat. The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are:
- Mental disorders:depression, excessive nervousness.
- Reluctance to have a weight that matches body composition and height.
- Pathological fear of gaining weight.
- Denial of having 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.
- Irregular menstruation.
As you can see, there is indeed a lot in common between anorexia and bulimia. Except, perhaps, the phrase: “I don’t want to eat, but I eat.” Indeed, with anorexia, food is just refused.
Therapy
How to deal with the disease? To cure bulimia, an integrated approach is required, which involves medication and psychological assistance. To eradicate the problem, group or personal psychotherapy is used: a specialist helps the patient understand the full depth of the problem.
In complex or advanced forms of bulimia, the patient is placed in a hospital. It is required that a person is constantly supervised. Patients are fed according to the schedule and only in the presence of a he alth worker.
You can't leave such people alone with yourself. There is a risk that they will start emptying their stomach again. 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.
Exposure to medicines involves the use of mineral and vitamin complexes. This is necessary to make up for the deficiency of these elements lost by the patient during the illness. If necessary, a person is prescribed drugs to eliminate problems with the digestive tract. In addition, an integral part of the impact is taking antidepressants.
The sooner treatment is started, the more effective it will be.
