Material and emotional nourishment are closely related in each of our personal histories. Freud said that the two basic needs of human beings are hunger and love. Conflicts with food are a way of expressing feelings that cannot be said, emotions that are difficult to recognize, and affections that, from our unconscious, try to manifest themselves.
Obsession with physical attractiveness can become a serious problem for our mental and physical health, especially with regard to eating disorders, with pre-teens and adolescents being a more vulnerable population.
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, orthorexia, and other eating disorders
Anorexia nervosa is one of the eating disorders that resonates the most in recent times, although the first data comes to us from the Middle Ages with the classification of “Mysterious Disease.”
To clarify that anorexia means lack of appetite, while anorexia nervosa is a complex disease in which lack of appetite may or may not occur. The person who suffers from anorexia nervosa is often hungry; however, they overestimate the strength of not eating. Anorexia nervosa causes the patient to always see themselves as having “excess kilos,” even though their body is skeletal.
There are two types, restrictive and purgative. In women, amenorrhea or lack of menstruation is also characteristic. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by an abrupt and significant weight loss, placing it below healthy minimums, reaching a BMI or Quetelet index of 15. This low weight is the effect of a pathological behavior of the affected person, who performs a meticulous control in the intake of food, due to their fear of gaining weight and a severe distortion of their body image, associated with low self-esteem and an important component of control.
According to epidemiology, the incidence is much higher in women. This difference in the proportion between men and women may be mainly due to the great pressure exerted by society in general. In our society, the most representative female models are usually very thin, and those who lose weight are praised. Physique and appearance reach a pathogenic concern in our modern Western society. This disease is not known in non-industrialized countries.
It usually appears in adolescence, although cases are increasingly seen at earlier ages, such as eight years old. But its maximum prevalence is from twelve to eighteen years old. It is considered a disorder of multifactorial origin, which can only be understood by taking into account not only the person suffering from the disease, but also their family and social environment.
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that is distinguished by the presence of frequent binge eating. Intake of a large amount of food in an uncontrolled manner, followed by purging rituals due to the fear of gaining weight, whether it be vomiting, exercising for many hours, not eating, or the use of diuretic and laxative products. A difference with respect to anorexia nervosa is that they do not reach the low BMIs of the former. More common in women than in men, with habitual onset in adolescence. The person who suffers from bulimia is fully aware that their eating behavior is pathological. There are no clear conclusions about the causes of bulimia. It is often said that there are both genetic and psychological, family and/or cultural factors that could make some individuals more prone than others.
Orthorexia is an alteration in eating behavior that is increasingly widespread. It is characterized by a pathological obsession with healthy food. These are people who meticulously choose the foods they are going to eat, have control over the components of everything they ingest and over the preparation of the foods. The idea of a healthy diet is taken to the extreme, ceasing to consume foods labeled as harmful for having undergone industrial processes such as carrying colorings or additives.
Vigorexia is a disorder with mismatch in eating behavior and with muscle dysmorphia, also known as Adonis syndrome or reverse anorexia. They have the obsession with showing off well-developed muscles. They train their body in gyms in order to increase muscle mass, ingest supplements such as proteins and anabolics.
The permarexia is the obsession with following diets and regimens permanently; it is a routine. Objective to lose weight, with bad habits and irrational behaviors in food. It is considered a risk behavior that can be the prelude to serious diseases such as bulimia or anorexia.
Megarexia is the antithesis of the well-known anorexia and bulimia. They are obese people who look in the mirror and see themselves as thin and healthy, being prone to a hypercaloric diet.
Drunkorexia consists of not eating or eating in small quantities to compensate for the empty calories ingested with alcohol.
Potomania is an obsession with drinking excessive water daily, with an average of 4 liters daily, reaching in certain cases up to 6 or 8 liters of water a day. If we overdo it with water we can suffer excessive sweating, insomnia and even irreversible kidney damage.
Pica is one of the strangest eating disorders that consists of eating non-digestible “foods,” without any nutritional contribution, such as hair, plaster, rubber, glass and any object.
We will conclude with sadorexia, a combination between anorexia and sadomasochism, consisting of not consuming food (or vomiting it) adding physical abuse. The self-inflicted injuries is a form of self-punishment to counteract with the anxiety of seeking food, and through physical pain avoid eating.
Early detection of problems with food is essential
Through the tool dìde the early detection can be carried out not only of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia but also of others thanks to the annotations of the observers of the minors regarding their habits of nutrition and behavior, as well as the possibility of discriminating other indicators, up to a total of 35, of various emotional, behavioral, educational and learning as well as developmental and social difficulties, covering ages from 2 to 18 years, performing an effective and facilitating screening for the success of the development of the minor.
