Die from anorexia, weighing 22 kilograms and thinking you were fat

Women suffer in almost nine out of ten cases of eating disorders, conditions that are affecting more and more men and which appear at younger ages: according to the Royal Academy of Medicine, specialists are already treating children aged 6 to 11 with these health problems . Spain (Ranma) on the eve of International Day Against Eating Disorders, which is celebrated on November 30.

Anorexia and bulimia are the two most well-known disorders, but binge eating is the most common, affecting 3% of the population. “Overeating can contribute to the development of obesity, although anorexia nervosa carries the greatest mortality risk, followed by bulimia nervosa,” explains Professor Monica Marazuela, Ranma Academician and head of the University’s Endocrinology and Nutrition Service. Princess Hospital of Madrid.

Experts are sounding the alarm about diseases that have spread along with social media. “Many teenagers become obsessed with what others might think of them based on their body shape or the likes they receive online. They are unable to value themselves for their intelligence, their kindness, their abilities and their values, but rather remain superficial,” emphasizes Professor Celso Arango, an academic psychologist who knows extreme stories about eating disorders.

“I have seen patients with restrictive eating disorders die in the intensive care unit many years later, weighing 22 or 23 kilograms of bones and skin, and who were still absolutely sure that they were overweight in the buttocks, legs or arms. This is because they not only have a pathological fear of weight gain, but also suffer from a cognitive distortion of their body image and an inability to objectively perceive their body,” laments Arango. These disorders are associated with systemic diseases, cardiac arrhythmias, hormonal problems and problems with all organs (thyroid, liver or kidneys), which ultimately cause 10% of deaths among patients.

The head of the child and adolescent psychiatry service at the Gregorio Marañon University Hospital in Madrid is seeing increasingly younger patients, even some of them as young as six years old, whereas “previously they appeared from the age of 12.” “With this type of disease, the earlier they appear, the better the prognosis, but if they are not treated promptly, girls will not even get their first menstruation,” notes Arango.

Among boys, experts warn of an increase in vigorexia, a variant of an eating disorder. “It is a distortion of body image caused by an obsession with having a bodybuilder’s body. They don’t want to be thin, but very strong, and everything revolves around this, which becomes an addiction to the gym,” emphasizes Arango.

According to profiles compiled by health professionals, patients with eating disorders tend to be perfectionistic, meticulous, obsessive, self-punishing, demanding and rigid; Factors that include the possibility of being somewhat overweight and being bullied at school because of your appearance. From there, they realize they can lose weight by controlling their food intake, and they lose more and more until it gets out of control and they develop a pathological fear of gaining weight that causes them to develop cognitive distortions.

Experts emphasize the importance of social-emotional learning in schools to emphasize values ​​associated with the person, not who they look like or how others see them. They also remember that patients’ treatment should be based on a combination of psychological therapy, nutritional counseling, medical intervention, group therapy and, in some cases, medications to help them establish a healthy relationship between food and body.