Anorexia nervosa in children and adolescents
Anorexia nervosa Is a disease that affects all adolescents and young people under the age of 30 without exception. The provoking factors are the stereotypes of behavioral reactions and the creation of artificial images in the media. The medical term for anorexia nervosa comes from two Latin words that translate as “refusal to eat.”
Anorexia in children has the following common signs:
- inconsistency of characteristics of body weight recommended for given age and sex of the child norms;
- psychological fear of gaining extra pounds and becoming fat;
- distorted perception of the display of his body;
- in girls with a steady menstrual cycle, the absence of at least three menstrual periods in a row – a condition called amenorrhea.
There are two types of anorexia nervosa:
- restriction in the use of food, characterized by the desire to observe a strict diet and exhausting physical exercises;
- complete refusal to eat, in case of its use, vomiting is induced artificially, and laxatives are taken.
Both types of anorexia in children and adolescents have psychological motivations. In this case, episodes of nervous breakdowns can alternate with abundant food intake. As a result, the child has an unpleasant sensation after eating the usual dishes. He feels heaviness in the stomach, weakness, dizziness due to the release of an unusually large amount of insulin into the blood. Against this background, nausea and vomiting develop. All this contributes to the consolidation. In the psychological consciousness of the child, they washed that eating is harmful to his body.