Anorexia survival is dependent on treating the psychological disease as much as giving nutritional support. It can be a frustrating process.
There is real tragedy for the parent of the affected person. The parent has to watch their beautiful baby grow and develop into a normal, healthy teenager who develops this tragic disease that sees them suffer terribly from sickness and weakness and in many cases takes their lives. Many parents are exasperated and completely helpless and suffer in anguish as nobody seems to be able to help their child in the battle of anorexia survival.
The first symptoms are often in the early teens as young girls (and increasingly teenage boys) start to examine their bodies as sexual maturity and puberty begins. They may examine themselves in the mirror and ask you whether they are fat. The fashion magazines are glamourous with the portrayal of waif-like models as "normal" and the teenagers start to obsess about their own bodies in comparison to what the fashion industry describes as "perfect". The parent doesn't recognise a problem initially as most teenagers go through a certain angst with their appearance and start to obsess with popular culture.
Fragile teenage minds often develop obsessive behaviours as a consequence of the fashion pages of popular mass media. The fashion industry is responsible for incorrectly defining the healthy female form. The catwalk models portray the image of "thin is in" but this desired body shape is in effect very unhealthy. Female fertility, vitality and health is severely compromised in such a poor body condition. With modern digital photography and manipulation of images, the fashion model's body lines, wrinkles and even bags under the eyes are removed. Digital images are easily remastered in the modern world to remove blemishes and imperfections. The teenage eyes do not see the doctoring of the images and assume that these images are real. A picture tells a thousand words, as they say, and the popular mass media feeds image after image to insecure teenagers desperate to fit into peer groups and conform to societies misleading and wayward view of 'perfection'. Anorexia survival becomes challenging when you have to fight against this mass off popular culture feeding your sick child confusing images of what a "normal" body shape is.
There is often a trigger that leads to serious illness. Teenagers may react badly to a peer calling them "fat" at the time of a major disappoitment in their lives. The victim associates and connects being fat with the disappointment. The teenager may not realise a goal or have a breakup in a relationship. There is often a trigger for the disease which connects body weight to the tremendous disappointment and the deadly game for anorexia survival is triggered.
There is an element of "hiding" the problem by lying about eating meals and avoiding situations where a social group may eat. This becomes counter productive as guilt about lying and avoiding normal social interactions further alienates the anorexia sufferer. Bulimia also has a furtive elemnt to it where they indulge and feel so bad about themselves after the indulgence that they feel it necessary to purge. The cruel reality in the beginning is that society tells them "they look fantastic" when they initially shed some body weight. This feeds the machine of denial and sacrifice as society has rewarded their dieting with encouragement and makes them feel good about themselves. Unfortunately when body weight falls to dangerously low levels, society is too frightened or polite to say "they have taken things too far and don't look good at all".
Medical treatment is often unrewarding in anorexia survival. Sometimes what happens in a group situation is that the patients become competitive and try to become sicker than everybody else. This of course is counter productive. The support group can become a "team" where each member is dependent on another to keep improving with treatment and therapy. failure rates can be high when the group is broken up. When the group is disbanded, the emotional support group is disconnected and the patient relapses into the eating disorder.
There is a concept called neuroplasticity that differs from conventional treatment. If traditional psychological treatments and group therapy just isn't working and you are desperate to find help, neuroplasticity might be worth considering.
------
Even a doctor was surprised by the effectiveness of this
treatment and
now she recommends this for anorexia survival. Click here to discover
what the doctor recommends for you
http://www.anorexia-survival.com
Loading...