Anorexia or Bulimia: pointers to later depression
May 7, 2008
Teenage girls with early signs of anorexia and bulimia are twice as likely to be addicted to drugs, suffer a mental illness or have an abortion as an adult, even though most do not develop full-blown eating disorders.
A Royal Children’s Hospital study of 2000 girls found that an alarming one in 10 teenagers between 15 and 17 had symptoms of a serious eating disorder.
But experts say the true figure is likely to be much higher because many girls are not being diagnosed or are in denial about their illness.
The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that 28% of girls who had symptoms in adolescence suffered depression in their early 20s, compared with 11% of those with no weight issues.
There was a sixfold increased risk of anxiety and doubling of risk for alcohol and amphetamine dependency.
The research revealed that 34% of girls with eating disorder symptoms were sexually active before age 16 — double that of their peers.
And their chance of falling pregnant or having a termination by their early 20s was greatly increased.
Extreme weight loss, distorted body image, not menstruating and a fear of gaining weight are symptoms of anorexia.
But despite 10% of girls suffering at least two symptoms, most were not treated because a diagnosis is only made when a patient has all four symptoms.
Author of the study, Professor George Patton of the centre for adolescent health, said the results showed that extreme dieting behaviour was not just a teenage phase.
- Source: Jill Stark, Anorexia a pointer to later depression, The Age, Apr. 18, 2008
Anorexia Warning Signs
“It’s very easy to overlook when a teenager is not eating as much as usual, but there are often other indications,” says Steve Bloomfield of the Eating Disorders Association (UK). According to an article in the Birmingham Post, he lists the following warning signs that may indicate Anorexia:
- Rigid or obsessional behaviour, such as cutting food into tiny pieces
- Mood swings
- Restlessness and hyperactivity
- Wearing big baggy clothes
- Vomiting or taking laxatives
But above all, remember youngsters should never be losing weight.
“There are times when weight gain slows down and speeds up,” he adds.
“That’s perfectly normal in teenagers. But it is definitely, absolutely a danger sign if a youngster is losing weight during adolescence.”
The Anorexia Workbook: How to Accept Yourself, Heal Your Suffering, and Reclaim Your Life
Despite ever-widening media attention and public awareness of the problem, American women continue to suffer from anorexia nervosa in greater numbers than ever before. This severe psychophysiological condition—characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming obese, a persistent unwillingness to eat, and severe compulsion to lose weight—is particularly difficult to treat, often because the victims are unwilling to seek out help.
This book uses innovative new techniques based on a revolutionary model of psychotherapy called acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT, to teach readers that efforts to control and stop anorexia may do more harm than good. Instead of focusing efforts on judging impulses associated with the disorder as “bad” or “negative,” this approach encourages sufferers to mindfully observe these feelings without reacting to them in a self-destructive way.Guided to this more compassionate, more receptive frame of mind, readers are coached to employ various acceptance-based coping strategies.
Structured in a logical, step-by-step progression of exercises, the workbook first focuses on providing readers with a new understanding of anorexia and the ways they might have already tried to control the problem.
Then the book progresses through techniques that teach how to use mindfulness to deal with out-of-control thoughts and feelings, how to identify choice that will lead to better heath and quality of life, and how to redirect the energy formerly spent on weight loss into those actions that will heal the body and mind.
Although this book is written specifically to anorexia sufferers, it includes a clear and informative chapter on when readers need to seek professional treatment as well as advice on what to look for in a therapist.
- Source: The Anorexia Workbook
