Today, #boys cause anorexia nervosa due to vomiting for weight loss# caused a heated discussion on Weibo.
Image source: Weibo
A 15-year-old boy from Hengshui, Hebei came to the hospital because of weight loss, acid reflux, and nausea. He was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, which was mainly related to psychological factors. The child said that he felt uncomfortable before. Parents take it seriously, thinking that they are fat, so they use fingers, pencils, chicken feathers, etc. to induce vomiting. After that, there was a sudden weight loss accompanied by various adverse symptoms.
Today we will talk about anorexia.
How terrible is anorexia?
Anorexia is characterized by the patient’s own intentional strict restriction of eating, weight loss to significantly lower than the normal standard or severe malnutrition, and the patient still fears gaining weight or refuses to eat normally. an eating disorder. It has a notorious reputation for low hospitalization rate, low cure rate, and high mortality rate.
Because many domestic patients in my country deny their illness, there are only large-scale statistics from abroad. Foreign survey results of female college students and high school students show that the prevalence rate is 0.5% to 1%. The age of onset is 12 to 25 years old, and the highest prevalence is 14 to 18 years old.
According to small-scale statistics from the Shanghai Mental Health Center, the number of visits to a doctor has more than tripled in the past five years.
What is even more frightening is that many patients with anorexia do not take the initiative to seek medical attention, only when their long-term anorexia and reduced food intake affect their health and are forced to be sent to see a doctor by their family members.
Severely severe anorexia sufferers may experience malnutrition or serious suicidal and self-injurious behaviors, posing a great threat to the patient’s life.
What are the symptoms and manifestations of anorexia?
Has a strong fear of obesity and is overly concerned about body shape and weight;
Have special attitudes and behaviors towards eating, such as deliberately restricting food intake, carefully selecting recipes, eating slowly, etc.;
Use excessive exercise to avoid weight gain, such as daily forced exercise, housework, and even refusing to sit in the house, etc., the intensity is mostly disproportionate to physical strength;
Depressed mood is very common in clinical practice, which is characterized by low mood, often accompanied by emotional instability, impulsiveness, and explosiveness. Some patients have compulsive characteristics. They must persuade others to do Things are rigid and in a specific order;
The weight loss will be significantly lower than the normal standard, resulting in weight loss, dry skin, hair loss, slow metabolism, and even severe organ dysfunction, water and electrolyte disorders and other serious diseases, which are life-threatening;
abnormal sexual function, such as amenorrhea or menarche in female patients, loss of libido, stagnation of secondary sexual characteristics, etc.; laboratory tests can show changes in hormone levels, which need to be monitored under the guidance of a doctor .
Chen Jue, director of the Clinical Psychology Department of the Shanghai Mental Health Center and director of the Eating Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment Center, once said, “Eating disorders are minor diseases in psychiatry, but they are the cause of death in mental disorders. One of the highest rates, the mortality rate is as high as 5% to 20%.”
To suffer from anorexia means that life becomes a game of calories, food and weight. The exit of the game is to eat as little and as little as possible.
In Dr. Chen Jue’s experience, many patients with anorexia will later fall into the predicament of binge eating, repeatedly entering a vicious circle.
“Basically, most of my patients so far have told me that they usually start to lose weight within a year before they start to binge eat, because they are afraid of getting fat, and many people will induce vomiting , from then on, repeated overeating to induce vomiting.”
If you need to lose weight, you must pay attention to scientific methods.
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Planning: jiu | Producer: Eric
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