The body is the home of your soul, your partner, not your enemy.
The American country singer superstar who sang "Yesterday once more" and "Close to you", Karen Carpenter, died of anorexia nervosa on February 4, 1983, at the age of 33. At first, she was dissatisfied with her figure, lost weight, dieted, suffered from anorexia, and gradually failed her body.
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are mental illnesses that have extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors about weight and food, and can be life-threatening. According to the American Psychiatric Association's fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), it includes anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other specific eating disorders.
Anorexia nervosa:
among them anorexia, characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss,
Anorexia nervosa, also known as anorexia psychosa, is a psychiatric eating disorder characterized by deliberate dieting leading to weight loss. It mostly occurs in adolescence (about 85% of the onset is between 13 and 20 years old), and the prevalence of women is about ten times higher than that of men, and about 90~95% of anorexia patients are women; 5-~20% of people with anorexia will die, which is one of the most fatal psychological problems.
The duration of illness can range from a few months to several years. Some people continue to diet even though they were overweight before dieting, but they still continue to diet at normal weight; Others who maintain weight due to professional needs, such as singers, actors, models and athletes, have a higher incidence of the disease.
An anorexia patient named Hoshiko said that her appetite was up and down, and when it was bad, she felt nauseated and vomited when she saw food, and even when it was good, she couldn't eat a lot, because she was full when she ate a little, although the body still needed more energy. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning, and if you maintain the ideal state in your mind, you feel victorious and safe. If you gain a pound and a half a pound a little, you feel that you can't control your life and there is no hope.
cause
Behind the dieting of people with anorexia, there may be a belief that "I feel like I'm not good enough, not good enough, not beautiful enough, too fat". And the source of this belief may come from the depreciation of one's own value by the people around you in the environment in which you grew up.
For example, Carpenter, who pursues perfectionism, has been trying to show the appearance of a good child since she was a child, but her parents are very stingy about praising her. When she was a child, she would be laughed at for her slightly chubby figure for a while. So, she always feels like she's not good enough and can always do better.
This perfectionism of thinking she is not good enough is reflected in all aspects of her life, others evaluate her well, the media has not broken her negative news, and later this perfectionism has shifted to her harshness of her figure.
In addition to the environment in which you grew up may be a factor, the social environment, media, and mainstream aesthetics can also affect the mindset of people with anorexia. Most of the advertisements and beauty pageants are suggesting to the public that thinness is beauty. This makes it easier for people who are already very concerned about the eyes of others to be more harsh and dissatisfied with their figure.
Warm tips from counselors
For most people with anorexia, a good advice is to try to fall in love with your body and take care of yourself. But although this is simple to say, it is not easy to do.
If you are having a hard time, seek professional support and counselling, there are many resources available to help you. It may not only be physiological interventions, such as supplementing the body's nutrition and receiving prescription drugs, but also need to be psychologically solved from the root cause to help oneself understand beauty more objectively and accept oneself.