Anorexia: When Thinness Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

Anorexia is easily perceived simply as the need to be skinny, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. It is a complex disease with a high mortality rate. For this reason, we should never confuse disease with symptom.

Many people are not aware that the need to be skinny is a form of self-destruction. For many people, it starts with a problem they can’t control, so they start regulating their diet tightly as a way to protect themselves from their fears and defenses. They feel the need for positive reinforcement of their body image, and this is a need that will drive even their own lives and survival.

But why is this happening? Is it a mental problem, or are there other factors that are out of control for a person that affect his or her brain? Today, we answer these questions and find out how this obsession with leanness is only a small part of anorexia.

What happens in the mind of an anorectic person?

People with anorexia consciously try to reduce their food consumption, even to the extent that they may almost completely avoid food. The less they eat, the better.

So can we call it a mental illness? In reality, this terminology can bring confusion when it comes. We are sure that it is caused by obsessive behavior with huge concern about the consequences of eating.

This suggests that the brain of a person with anorexia does not function in the same way as that of a healthy person. We all have a system of pleasure and reward that is really important to our survival. In people with anorexia, this system has changed.

For example, every time a healthy person feels hungry and eats, his brain produces a positive reaction. In this way, his relationship with food is healthy. This does not happen in people who suffer from anorexia because they are unable to distinguish a positive stimulus from a negative one.

But this is not the whole truth. Many neurobiologists are convinced that people with anorexia have changes in the function of neurons that communicate with the part of the brain that recognizes hunger. This area is related, interestingly, also to emotions, feelings and perceptions of the body.

Hormones are also complicit. In people with anorexia, many hormones that also stimulate appetite and weight are at low levels, causing a more severe eating disorder.

The desire to be skinny

We have seen how anorexia causes changes in the brain that reflect a changed reward system. But is that all?

People with this disorder also have common psychological traits, some of which are more pronounced in some people with anorexia. However, not everyone has all of these symptoms:

• Low self-esteem associated with body image and inability to recognize reinforcing reactions.
• The need to control everything. They exercise this control over their bodies and food, which to their knowledge is the only thing they can control.
• The search for an identity that makes them anxious and nervous.
• Constant mood swings that can range from euphoria to depression.

These are some of the traits that may be noticeable in people with anorexia, but there are many others. As you can see, self-esteem plays a significant role. It is related to other latent problems that make a person want to stop eating.

By trying to intervene without the help of a professional or with just one approach, such as trying to pat a person to eat, without the help of other factors (such as reinforcing a positive reaction), you are likely to end up in a situation where the other person only becomes more skilled at hiding and tricking you.

It could be a cry for an emergency or a manifestation of a deeper problem. It’s not just about appearance, eating or not eating. Behind anorexia is a person who is drowning and has deep internal problems that need to be treated. Lack of nutrition can, of course, kill them, but that doesn’t mean you should only consider this. Instead, try to find out the source of the pain that causes this disease.

Anorexia does not mean leanness in order to look better; it means problems, uncertainties, pain and sadness. Not eating is just one way, not to feel better but to feel less bad. The confirmation of this behavior comes from avoiding suffering, that they feel weak, or that they are not worth anything.

In this way, people with anorexia will be afraid of food as if someone were afraid of a lion or a snake, as they see it as the worst enemy in the world they are trying to control. In a world where they hope to have one gray day among blacks.