Psychological Circles Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating are psychosomatic disorders most common in female adolescents and young women.
In Western countries they affect 1 - 2% of female adolescents between the age of 15 and 19. If less severe, sub-clinical forms are taken into account, the percentage would be considerably higher.
It is a commonly accepted opinion that these disorders are very rare or even non-existent in undeveloped countries and also very rare in transition countries, which may lead to the conclusion that these are the diseases of industrially developed, rich, Western consumer societies.
Eating disorders are bio-psycho-socially conditioned diseases. They appear and develop because of genetic, individual psychological, family and social factors. The proportion of these factors, which differs in every case, determines how serious the eating disorder is, the course of the disorder, the organism’s response to therapy and the outcome of the disease.
Most often anorexia develops between the ages of 13 and 15. It begins as a diet, very popular with young girls of that age, but very soon turns into progressive cuts in food and starvation, followed by fear of gaining weight.
The fear makes one lose weight, which causes kahexia and, in the most serious cases, death. Weight loss is accompanied by depression, different kinds of phobias and anxiety, and certain personalities develop more serious psychological pathology.
Experts think that puberty is responsible for these diseases because of the somatic changes it incites and requirements it imposes on young girls. There are two forms of anorexia: restrictive, in which thinness is achieved and maintained only by starvation, and purgative, in which starvation is mixed with different kinds of “purgation”: self-induced vomiting, abuse of purgatives and diuretics, and exhausting physical activities.
Bulimia, a much more frequent eating disorder than anorexia, is concealed, is more dangerous and troublesome for a girl. Its characteristics are bulimic crises during which a girl eats considerable quantities of calorific, easily digestible food.
An important feature of the crisis is the loss of control. The crisis is also accompanied by self-depreciation, depression, and fear of gaining weight. In order to prevent the latter, girls turn to self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives and diuretics, rigorous starvation between crises and, more rarely, exhaustive physical activities.
Accompanying psychopathology is conspicuous and more difficult. It comprises abuse of alcohol, “soft” drugs and medicines, self-injury and suicidal attempts. Binge-eating disorder is similar to bulimia in regard to the way people eat, the quantities of food they consume, and the fact that they lose control.
However, eating is not always followed by self-induced vomiting or other methods of purgation.
The healing depends on the seriousness and the phase of the disease. Together with nutritional, almost all forms of psychotherapy are used.
