Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are a challenge for our society, although the rate is higher among adolescent girls, the truth is that children are also not immune to their clutches, nor are women who have gone through adolescence immune to these diseases.
The term, Good girl, is associated with hermetism, cleanliness, warmth, emotional control and countless demands that hinder the spontaneous and natural development of anyone. The stereotype behind which there are many claims is precisely that of condemning the same teenagers for whom they advertise.
- An easy way to control your weight.
- Control your body.
- Control your image is to make food sacrifices.
- Voluntary exemptions.
- Which in most cases are unfounded.
- Poorly managed and therefore accompanied by a high dose of frustration.
- Food is.
- In essence.
- Its tragic way of coping with and diverting one’s own suffering.
- The very desire to be who you are not.
- The contempt you feel when you look in the mirror.
We usually associate anorexia with dietary restriction and bulimia with punishment, vomiting, or compensatory behavior after eating. These are not strict standards and may vary depending on the person with the disorder.
In fact, there are two subtypes of anorexia, restrictive and purgative (purging is any compensatory conduct that aims to eliminate food consumed), non-purgative anorexia is associated with perfectionism, rigidity, hyperresponsibility and feelings of inferiority; the purgative type is associated with a family history of obesity, pre-morbid overweight, impulsivity, dysthymic reactions, emotional weakness, and addictive behavior.
In mental bulimia purging or compensatory behaviors are common, in this case of prototypical mental bulimia there is greater distortion of body image, greater abnormal eating habits and greater associated psychological problems.
Non-purgative (there is high consumption, but not compensatory behavior), it could be similar to a disorder caused by excessive eating, but not because there is an exaggerated idea of weight and body, this subtype is associated with other problems such as suicidal tendencies, addictive behaviors and impulsive control disorders.
The basis of these disorders is emotional, patients are unable to regulate their emotions Emotions that, in some occasions, have not been able to express themselves satisfactorily in an uns stimulating and restrictive family environment, with great demands in relation to their behavior or in an environment that did not adequately respond to their high intellectuality and desire for affection.
Eating disorders usually occur between the age of 10 and 30, 95% are women and have in common the overrated idea of thinness, they share an extreme concern for weight and body, cognitive distortions, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and social malfunction.
Given that most of the victims are teenage girls, one likely cause is that young women do not know how to handle the transition from girl to woman. Your communication system? Girl? They are still deficient and feel pressure, are they in a context of inhibited emotion, and at this age are they more aware of what the female sex is?Apparently it imposes them: thinness, beauty and submission.
The need for perfection, the fear of relapses and the distortion of perception maintain their patterns of behavior. These are role models who receive a reward only in their own repetition.
The personality of women with these disorders was associated with a pattern of vital disorganization, weakness, little intelligence and strong influence on the comments of others, but these are not the personal characteristics we find in these patients when we evaluate them.
Nor are they delusional people unable to discern the reality of imagination. Anorexia does not cause patients to become hysterical or delusional. According to some studies, this is also not a change in perception, but a comparison with increasingly demanding role models, which materializes in restrictive behavior.
In their way of relating to the world, of burying what they could never express, not eating is the best way they have found to control what they are going through. But when they don’t, they punish themselves mercilessly.
On the other hand, the fact that their attention is so focused on one goal frees them from confrontation with other problems, which will always be secondary, and allows them to be postponed until the search for a solution is a real problem.
Many children with any of these disorders manage to restore normalcy in their lives, doing this is hard work, which requires patience and relapses, yet to overcome it you need the support of people who love patients. Faith and perseverance in getting out of the tunnel are fundamental.
This is because the disorder directly attacks a person’s self-esteem, makes it lower because it always compares to models that he thinks are superior, more perfect, more desirable, so the person is always in a place of inferiority and aspiration, constantly. and continuously.
In addition, it is normal for people who have had some form of eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia, to have patterns of overdependence, fear of abandonment, hypersensitivity to criticism, alexitimia, etc. In one way or another, these can overcome types of disorders, but they do not heal and become a constant challenge to maintain their recovery throughout the life of the person.