Why Does Anorexia Nervosa Occur? Symptoms and Causes and Treatment

Anorexia is not at all a disease of models or those who dream of becoming them. Very often, anorexia is not at all related to the need to look slim. Says psychologist Natalya Inina.

One girl I worked with ate only seeds and candies. She had a strong distrust of the world, a fear of people. As a child, she survived rape. Of course, this is the hardest mental trauma. But there was another problem. Mother tightly controlled her daughter's life: with whom she is friends, that she reads, what she dresses.

In fact, she treated her daughter as a thing. And the girl chose her destructive way to cope with the situation - she simply stopped eating. Obviously, in this case, anorexia was an attempt to isolate themselves from the world. The problem was not food as such, but distrust of people and fear of life.

Bulimia is a condition no less terrible than anorexia, only with anorexia a person does not eat anything, and with bulimia it eats everything that comes to hand. He empties the refrigerator, and pickles pickles jam, then cutlets, then fish, then some canned goods, all this washed down with Coca-Cola, compote or something else ...

Usually, the desire to dominate and control hides a deep fear, anxiety that generates controlling behavior

Such food is a great stress for the body. And of course, after such a “meal” a person feels bad - he has overeaten, feels all the signs of poisoning. But physiological problems are not limited to. A person experiences terrible psychological discomfort, he is covered with a feeling of guilt, self-loathing. Therefore, he does all this in solitude.

I’ll tell you about one client who suffered from bulimia. This was an imperious, temperamental woman who manipulated relatives. And she had a lot of them: parents, brother, sisters, husband, two children. And she tried to manage everything, demanded that everyone report to her, but at the same time constantly complaining that she had to "drag everyone on herself." Unfortunately, a typical picture.

Relations with Food:

Usually, behind this desire to rule and govern lies deep fear, anxiety, which generates controlling behavior. Relations with food were just a symptom of the general destructive structure of the personality. Bulimia hid a deep dissatisfaction with itself and a great desire to be in the center of events.

In both cases, when women realized that the matter was in themselves, in their relations with themselves and loved ones, problems with food receded. In general, in such cases, I try to avoid topics related to food. We need to talk about life, feelings, goals, meanings, feelings, about the difficulties that stand in the way.

Gradually, the topic of food ceases to be significant - food begins to take up the place that it should: just serve our body. A healthy body, accordingly, creates comfortable living conditions.