Anorexia and Bulimia are serious eating disorders. They can affect anyone of any age, gender, or background. My experience with clients over the past twenty years treating these disorders has taught me that this mindset more often than not is the result of unpleasant experiences, media-driven, or unresolved trauma in childhood, and can be treated successfully with Hypnotherapy. People suffering from this type of illness do not think about food and their body in the same way as other people.
The main symptom of anorexia is losing a lot of weight deliberately. For example by eating as little as possible, making oneself vomit, and overexercising. They will want their weight to be as low as possible, much less than the average for their age and height. They may be so afraid of gaining weight that they cannot eat normally.
After they have eaten, they may try to get rid of food from their body by making themselves sick regularly. Signs of regular vomiting could include: leaving the table immediately after meals, dental problems such as tooth decay or bad breath, caused by the acid in vomit damaging their teeth and mouth.
The need to obsessively burn calories usually draws people with anorexia to ‘high-impact activities, such as running, dancing or aerobics. Some people will use any available opportunity to burn calories, such as preferring to stand rather than sit.
They may try to make food pass through their body as quickly as possible. For example, by either taking laxatives or medication that helps to empty the bowel or diuretic medications that help remove fluid from the body. In reality, laxatives and diuretics have little effect on the calories absorbed from food.
Eating and food
Although anorexia means loss of appetite, people with anorexia do not usually lose their appetite; they like food and feel hungry. However, they do not think about food in the same way as other people. This can show itself in various ways. For example, they may tell lies about eating, or what they have eaten, give excuses about why they are not eating, pretend they have eaten earlier, tell lies about how much weight they have lost or gained, find it difficult to think about anything other than food, counting the calories in food excessively, avoiding food they think is fattening, hiding food, cutting food into tiny pieces – to make it less obvious that they have eaten very little, and to make the food easier to swallow, taking appetite suppressants, such as slimming pills or diet pills.
They may also drink lots of fluids that contain caffeine, such as coffee, tea and low-calorie fizzy drinks, as these can provide a low-calorie, short-term burst of energy. Some people with anorexia also begin to use illegal stimulant drugs known to cause weight loss, such as cocaine or amphetamines.
Self-esteem, body image and feelings
People with anorexia often believe that their value as a person is related to their weight and how they look. They think other people will like them more if they are thinner, positively seeing their weight loss. They often have a distorted view of what they look like. For example, they think they look fat when they are not. They may try to hide how thin they are by wearing loose or baggy clothes.
Many people will also practise a type of behaviour known as body-checking, which involves persistently and repeatedly weighing themselves, or checking their body in the mirror.
Anorexic people usually have low self-esteem or lack confidence. They may withdraw from relationships and become distant from members of their family and friends. They often suffer from Maladaptive perfectionism.
Anorexia can also affect studying, job performance and find it difficult to concentrate.
They might lose interest in their usual activities and have fewer interests despite being always busy.
Other signs of anorexia
Eating too little for a long time can result in physical symptoms, such as fine downy hair growing on their body, their pubic hair becoming sparse and thin, have pain in their abdomen, feel bloated or constipated, have swelling in their feet, hands or face (known as oedema), experience low energy levels, as their sleep patterns may have changed, have low blood pressure, feel cold or have a low body temperature, feel light-headed or dizzy
In children with anorexia, puberty and the associated growth spurt may be delayed. They may gain less weight than expected and maybe smaller than other people of the same age.
Women and older girls with anorexia may stop having their periods, it can also lead to infertility.
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