The first signs of anorexia: how to recognize the disease?

Anorexia is a mental illness that is becoming more common. Especially often it is registered among adolescents and young people. In 80% of cases, victims of anorexia are persons aged 14-18 years.

Among the main causes of this disease are the following:

• biological factor (hereditary predisposition);

• physiological - pathologies characterized by disturbances in the digestive and endocrine system, when a person feels pain or other unpleasant symptoms during or after a meal, so deliberately refuses to eat normally;

• psychological reasons - the influence of public opinion on the standards of beauty, internal conflicts, discontent with their appearance;

• social factor - the desire to imitate.

The first signs of anorexia

Quite often, it is rather difficult to suspect this pathology at the early stages of its development. Sometimes the obvious symptoms of the disease manifest themselves in the course of its prolonged course, when even medicine can not always save the patient.

The first signs of anorexia include the following:

1. Progressive weight loss. If a person who does not have problems with being overweight, tries to lose weight in all ways, you can immediately suspect the initial stage of the disease.
2. Refusal of food. At first, patients begin to take small portions of food, they can then eat only once a day, and later refuse any products, even those that were previously liked and taken often.
3. Inadequate perception of one's appearance. The first signs of anorexia often include the desire to lose weight due to the fact that a person considers himself "fat", criticizing his figure, although others say the opposite.
4. Development of depression. A patient with anorexia begins to avoid contact with other people and stops visiting public places, becomes withdrawn and believes that it is better to be alone.
5. The first signs of anorexia also include the development of insomnia, the appearance of a sense of guilt due to food intake. As a result, the patient artificially causes vomiting to get rid of the dishes that he used.

If you have these symptoms, you should immediately seek qualified help.

It is worth noting that as a result of constant starvation, the work of all organs and systems is disrupted , symptoms of beriberi occur , menstrual function is disrupted, and sexual desire is reduced. The patients develop chronic fatigue, arrhythmia, low blood pressure, muscle spasms are observed , the condition of hair and skin deteriorates. Anorexics are always cold, becoming irritable and aggressive. In addition, they show an increased interest in debilitating diets, go in for sports until exhaustion and have a panic fear of increasing body weight without realizing their problem, because they can not adequately assess their health.

In the absence of treatment, serious damage to the cardiovascular system and endocrine organs develops, pathologies of bones and muscles arise, inflammatory processes in the organs of the digestive system. Severe depressive conditions can provoke suicide.

Unfortunately, the statistics are disappointing - a significant proportion of those who struggle with excess weight have already died of anorexia, and in the public there is further propaganda for losing weight only in order to correspond to the "ideals" of beauty.