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What is anorexia nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness and a complex mental illness.
The more typical manifestations are more females than males, and most of the age of the disease begins around puberty, and the more common age is in the range of 14-15 years old to 18-19 years old, and the proportion of onset is relatively high, and there are also adults who start after the age of 24-25.
In the eyes of outsiders, patients with anorexia nervosa are characterized by excessive dieting, food restriction, and excessive exercise, high-intensity, high-volume activities to achieve the goal of weight control. If you give this kind of child further communication, you can realize that there is a strong fear of obesity, and it is the fear of obesity that is the psychological basis for the appearance of excessive control of eating behavior.
The patient's feelings, cognition, and understanding of his body shape and weight are inconsistent with the general health standards, and are also inconsistent with the standards that everyone knows, and the more typical manifestation is that even if the body is already significantly emaciated and has been below the healthy weight, he still insists that he is on the fat side and will continue to be thin.
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The dangers of anorexia nervosa
Some of the physical symptoms of anorexia nervosa are related to malnutrition due to osmium, while others are related to behavioral problems such as vomiting or laxatives.
01 Appearance
01 Skin
Patients with anorexia nervosa have pale and dry skin, and those with hypercarotene may present with yellowish skin. Skin ecchymosis can occur due to decreased bone marrow function, thrombocytopenia, or increased intrathoracic pressure during vomiting.
Patients may also experience rashes, chilblains on the skin, brittle nails, induration of the palms, etc., related to taking weight loss medications. Patients with severe subcutaneous fat loss appear as "skin-to-bones" due to subcutaneous fat atrophy, loose skin, lack of elasticity, and clear subcutaneous veins.
The abdomen is scaphoid with obvious bones and atrophied muscles, and finally cachexia. Due to the lack of elasticity of the skin, the protruding bone can cause pain and even pressure ulcers when sitting and lying down for a long time, and it is difficult for the wound to heal.
02 Hair
Hair is dry, lacks shine, and even falls out profusely. Hair becomes thinning and hair increases on the outer surfaces of the body, such as the back to the arms.
03 Weakness
Malnutrition due to starvation causes the patient to appear debilitating. When you are severely malnourished, you lose your ability to work and become generally weak, and you need to be supported to move.
02 Central nervous system
As a result of malnutrition, the brain shrinks and brain function abnormally, resulting in a series of changes. In most patients, encephalopathy is restored with improved diet. However, some serious brain tissue changes are difficult to recover, such as scholars believe that with the increase of body weight, the amount of cerebral white matter and cerebrospinal fluid can return to normal, but the amount of cerebral gray matter is difficult to return to normal, and the prognosis of these patients is poor.
01 Mental condition
In the early days, he is energetic and even euphoric, sleeps less, and is very attentive to his surroundings. When nutritional status continues to deteriorate, patients are unresponsive and listless due to severe malnutrition.
02 Decreased thinking skills
Hunger has a significant impact on the functioning of the central nervous system. Patients experience difficulty concentrating, memory loss, learning ability, excessive sensitivity to noise, obsessive thinking, repetitive thinking, especially excessive consideration in terms of weight, food calories, and excessive pursuit of perfection. Patients' stubbornness about weight and food, and preoccupations that are difficult to change are also related to brain function.
03 Abnormal mood
Patients in the early stages of the disease may feel energetic or even euphoric, but they are emotionally unstable, prone to moving from one extreme to the other, and develop depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation as the disease worsens.
04 Impaired consciousness or seizures
Some patients experience confusion, delirium, seizures, and even coma when they have poor nutritional status, co-infection, or metabolic disorders.
In addition, the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular system, endocrine system, and digestive system of patients will be affected to varying degrees. The above is the harm that anorexia nervosa brings to the physical and mental health of patients.