Eating disorders in middle-aged women

Anorexia and anorexia have been considered health problems that make teenage girls suffer. However, doctors found that more and more older women are also being diagnosed with some form of eating disorder.

Dr. Alexander Sackeyfio, an expert in psychiatry and eating disorder at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, said: 'Eating disorders can happen to anyone at any stage. in life. I think we are getting more and more aware of this and can diagnose it better. '

Doug Bunnell, clinical director of Renfrew Center in Wilton, Connecticut, said: People tend to make another mistake in their perception of eating disorders: they think they are Psychological but benign diseases can be treated easily and leave no long-term physical effects.

Mr. Bunnel is also a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Eating Disorders. He said: 'People are often surprised to learn that these eating disorders have the highest mortality, about 10-15% in mental illness diagnoses.'

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anorexia causes people to lose weight significantly due to over-forced or extreme diets. About 0.5-3.7% of women suffer from psychotic anorexia at some point in their lives.

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People with anorexia often assume that they are overweight even though they are too ill to be dangerous. Eating becomes a horrible obsession and forms unusual eating habits such as eating only a little food, and eating small pieces in a carefully weighed amount.

Anorexia is characterized by eating and drinking intolerantly so that it can then be removed by vomiting, using laxatives or excessive exercise. Approximately 1.1-4.2% of American women will suffer from psychological bulimia.

Due to the removal of food, people with anorexia often weigh within normal limits according to their age and height. However, they are also afraid of gaining weight like people with anorexia. As a result, they often have insecure eating behaviors, feel hate and shame when eating and drinking like that, but feel relieved after they get out.

Mr. Bunnel said he found more and more middle-aged or even older women come to treat eating disorders. However, he is not sure if all of these are new cases later.

He said: 'My experience is that almost all women in their 30s and 40s who have had symptoms of eating disorders have had some symptoms of this before when they often at the age of disease. It may not be diagnosed at the time, or not very serious. However, they once had to really endure the disease. We often do not see many cases of eating disorders that are just sick or unexpected in older women. '

Other doctors believe that hormonal changes near menopause as well as changes in middle age such as divorce or adult children who live separately may cause eating disorders. When families change, some women find that they still want to feel empowered and that is one of the needs that eating disorders can meet.

Sackeyfio said the problem is for older female patients who come to treat late-age illnesses as they may find it difficult to get the help they need . For decades, treatment has only been aimed at young women, and only recently has it begun to expand the field of treatment to treatment for both older women and men.

He said: 'No one meets their needs. Sometimes it is also a problem that men encounter. '

Mr. Bunnel said those who are anorexic tend to worry about their physique and weight, and they are often worried, perfectionist and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In contrast, rabies tends to be depressed and impulsive and often suffer from nutritional problems - abuse

Mr. Bunnel said: 'Anorexia is often overly controlled, stressful and rigid, and anorexia is less controlled, impulsive and uncontrollable.'

Dr. Sackeyfio said that the method of treating eating disorders also has a lot of progress and today doctors emphasize the direction of teamwork. He said: 'At first, people considered eating disorders a psychological problem, but it quickly became a physical problem. You need someone to understand these physical changes to work together if you're a therapist. '

Sackeyfio said: Ideally, someone with an eating disorder needs to work with a group of psychiatrists, nutritionists and general internal doctors.

He said that the most important thing is that people around people with eating disorders need to understand that patients are truly out of control and need help.

He said: 'They are not spoiled children trying to make it difficult for those around them. They have almost no control over the physical changes they cause in their bodies. "

Hong Linh