Anorexia And Bulimia: The Price Of Emotional Intransigence

Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia represent a challenge for our society. Although its rate is higher in adolescent girls, the truth is that boys are also not escaping their clutches and women who have passed adolescence are not immune to these diseases either.

The term “good girl” is associated with hermeticism, cleanliness, warmth, emotional control and countless demands that place obstacles to the spontaneous and natural development of any person. The stereotype, behind which a great deal of demands is hidden, condemns precisely the same teenagers they advertise for.

An easy way to control your weight, control your body, control your image is through food sacrifices. Voluntary resignations that in most cases are unfounded, mismanaged and therefore come with a high dose of frustration. This way of relating to food is, at bottom, his tragic way of managing and averting his own suffering. The very desire to be who you are not, the contempt you feel when you see yourself in the mirror.

Anorexia and bulimia

We usually associate anorexia with food restriction and bulimia with punishment, vomiting or compensatory behavior after eating. These are not rigid standards, and may vary depending on the person suffering from the disorder.

In fact, there are two subtypes of anorexia, restrictive and purgative (purging is any compensatory behavior that aims to eliminate the ingested food). Non-purging anorexia is associated with perfectionism, rigidity, hyper-responsibility and feelings of inferiority. The purgative type is associated with a family history of obesity, premorbid overweight, impulsiveness, dysthymic reactions, emotional weakness, and addictive behaviors.

In bulimia nervosa, purges or compensatory procedures are common. In this case of prototypical bulimia nervosa, there is greater body image distortion, greater abnormal eating patterns, and greater associated psychological problems.

The non-purgative (there is a large consumption, but no compensatory behavior), could be similar to a disorder due to high food consumption, but it is not because there is an overvalued idea of ​​weight and body. This subtype is associated with other problems such as suicidal tendency, addictive behavior and impulsive control disorders.

What do they have in common?

The basis of these disorders is emotional, patients find themselves unable to regulate their emotions. Emotions that on some occasions they could not express satisfactorily in a family environment that was not very stimulating, restrictive, with great demands in relation to their behavior or in an environment that could not adequately respond to their high intellectuality and desire for affection.

Eating behavior disorders usually appear between 10-30 years of age, 95% are women and have in common the overvalued idea of ​​thinness. They share an extreme concern with their weight and body, cognitive distortions, depressive and anxiety symptoms, in addition to impaired social functioning.

Why appear at this age?

If we take into account that most victims are teenagers, one of the likely causes is that young women do not know how to manage the transition between girls and women. Their “girl” communication system is still deficient and they feel pressure, find themselves in a context of inhibited emotion, and at this age they are more aware of what the female gender “apparently” imposes on them: thinness, beauty and submission.

The need for perfection, the fear of relapses and the perceptual distortion cause their behavioral patterns to be maintained. These are behavioral patterns that are only rewarded on their own repetition.

Myths about anorexia and bulimia

The personality of women with these disorders was associated with a pattern of vital disorganization, weakness, low intelligence, high influence in relation to others’ comments. But it is not the personal characteristics that we find in these patients when we assess them.

Nor are they delusional people incapable of discerning reality from imagination. Anorexia does not make patients delusional and hysterical. According to some studies, this is not a perceptual change either, but a comparison with increasingly demanding models, which materializes in restrictive behavior.

In their way of relating to the world, of burying what they could never express, not eating is the best way they have found to control what they are going through. But when they don’t, they punish themselves without mercy.

They are not hysterical, they feel alone

On the other hand, having their attention so focused on one purpose frees them from facing other problems,  which will always be secondary, and allows them to be postponed until the moment when looking for a solution is a real problem.

Many of the girls and boys who suffer from some of these disorders are able to restore normality to their lives. Doing so is hard work, requiring patience, and usually backsliding. However, to be able to overcome it, the support of people who love the patients is needed. Your support, your faith and your persistence to get out of the tunnel are critical.

This happens because the disorder directly attacks the person’s self-esteem, makes him inferior because he always compares himself with models that he believes are superior, more perfect, more desirable. Therefore, a person is always situated in a place of inferiority and aspiration, constantly and continuously.

Furthermore, it is normal for people who have suffered some type of eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia, to present patterns of excessive dependence, fear of abandonment, hypersensitivity to criticism, alexithymia, etc. Somehow these types of disorders can be overcome, but they don’t cure and become a constant challenge to maintain their recovery throughout the person’s life.