Typical Anorexic

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Mental disorders not only manifest themselves in real life, but also successfully take root in social networks. Skinny ribs, sunken bellies and bruises under the eyes: "Afisha" plunged into the world of girls who are starving and cheer each other up with huskies.

There are not so many real photographs of the owners: they hide behind pictures of bony beauties found on the Internet. Because, as it seems to them, "something is wrong" with their bodies. They call themselves "butterflies", wish each other "plumb lines" - that is, weight loss - and are afraid of "gagging". These girls, in groups and one by one, throw themselves into starvation, support each other with likes ("how many likes - so many days of hunger"), stories of successfully losing weight and singing praises of asceticism and suffering in every possible way.

Dissatisfaction with her body, which was previously customary to be buried under the pillow along with a girl's diary, burst out in all its frenzy, becoming for high school girls a unifying ideology with its own slang, quality standards and ways to achieve them. In their midst, the fight with weight has ceased to be perceived as something shameful and at the same time - as something difficult. The diets shared by the subscribers of "Typical Anorexic" are as simple as possible, frighteningly simple: water and chocolate.

Why are they doing that

Katya N. 16 years old, 40 kg, did not name her height, Moscow

“At school I was told that I was ugly because of my excess weight. But for me it all started in May, when I just got on the scale and got scared. I decided to pull myself together and start losing weight. But every time I was frustrated. I used to eat and vomit - it didn't help. Only then did she start to seriously starve. For the whole day on hunger - I drink only water. I think you can hold on for two weeks. How to get out of this diet - I think you can have an apple for breakfast, soup for lunch, fruit for dinner, and kefir or yogurt before bedtime. I thought that such diets could be dangerous to health, but I don't care anymore, because I really want to be thin. For what? To be happy. Maybe overweight people can be happy, but I can't."

Bozena K. 14 years old, 58 kg, 169 cm, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

“In November I was 169 cm and 75 kg in weight. My classmate - she is 10 kg more - called me fat. It hurt me. I went to the public "Typical Anorexic" and immediately stumbled upon a drinking diet. A drinking diet is the elimination of solid foods. You can only use yoghurts, broths, smoothies on it. I drank without restrictions, but in order to lose weight, many drink up to 500 kcal. Usually they sit on it for a month, and the same amount is an exit, but I served 24 days - and then an exit. Gradually I introduced liquid porridge, then just porridge / curd, then vegetables and fruits, and by the end you can already sit on the right diet. Later I was still on diets, and now I also lose weight, I eat to a minimum. On drinking and going out 11 kg was gone, and in total today I have lost 17 kg.

My mom was all for it, because I was too big, and dad doesn’t understand any such things at all. Now my mother says that I am great, but does not want me to lose weight beyond 57 kg: she thinks I will become bony. They won't be able to force me anyway, and besides, my mother herself for proper nutrition and will not force feed me. Until I like myself. And my goal is to please myself. To achieve the ideal - by my standards - figure. My ideal looks like this, this and that.

After I started losing weight, I began to look at the world differently. There used to be some kind of food cult, but now I notice that the world is beautiful without it. I began to devote more time to my development, I made good friends, and communication with people became easier. Yes, and life has become easier: now you do not have to look for the biggest clothes and walk like a sack of potatoes. I started reading a lot of motivating stories about those who lost weight; model Inna Fisun sunk into the soul, from the diaries video blog Felice Fawn.

I do not know the meaning of the word "anorexia", but I know about this disease: it is difficult to get rid of it. The girl seems to be recovering, gaining weight, but this snake - anorexia - sits in her head and pushes her on the way back. Girls who sit in the public "TA" and put tags #typical anorexic, one might say, deify it. But they confuse anorexia and thinness. After all, a girl under 100 kg can also be ill with anorexia, and a very thin one can weigh 38 and be absolutely healthy. It is difficult to understand what is the difference between sick and healthy … Sick girls usually look sick. But the thin ones usually live happily, full-fledged lives."

Typical motivator in "Typical Anorexic"

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

Diana R. 17 years old, 56 kg, 176 cm, Zaporozhye, Ukraine

“Now I am on hunger for a week, I drink a lot: tea, water, compotes. I started losing weight at the age of 15, when I was such a "whipped" girl: I weighed 64 kg with a height of 173 cm, I had big problems in the waist and legs. I decided to lose weight when my classmate told me in my face that I had thick legs. This classmate is incredibly thin, she is on a diet to gain weight. I did not have many friends, I was not perceived as a person, I was an empty place. And I swore to myself that when I move to 10th grade I will become a new person. That summer I took care of myself seriously. You have to understand that in most cases, just a diet does not help: you need sports. At first, I just began to eat little, in the morning - bends and abs, in the evening I squatted. Then I started googling diets not to lose weight, but to lose volume. And she found my favorite - "shoko": drinking days alternate with chocolate days. You can eat 100 grams of chocolate a day. Drinking allows all liquids - someone drinks only water, I only allowed myself low-fat kefir.

I am losing weight intermittently, now my weight is 56 kg. I learned to love myself and now I don't depend on the numbers on the scales, I orient myself differently: I look at myself in the mirror. And if it seems to me that I have some places that do not satisfy me, then I look for exercises and start practicing. During the time that I have been losing weight, my life has changed dramatically. I began to love myself. And I don't let people mock me. My last two years at school have been perfect. I was somewhat like these queens from typical American films: I became sexier, I had a personal life, guys began to take an interest in me. Before that, they were just friends: I am an atypical girl - very cheerful and reckless. Yes, the guys were interested in me, but I was like a Kent to them."

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

Anya Sh. 19 years old, 50 kg, 158 cm, Krasnoyarsk

“Now I am trying to get out of a long hunger, reduce my stomach and the amount of food, then I just want to have breakfast - that's all. In general, so that there are no misunderstandings, I am not like the girls sitting in public about anorexia. I don’t punish myself, I don’t cut myself, I don’t consider “anu” to be some kind of deity - this is idiocy. Those who try to imitate stereotypes cut themselves: if they fell through, they punished themselves. Legs are most often cut. I, fortunately, do not communicate with such people, but I know one girl who says that she has anorexia - she is small, she is 14 - I think she invented a lot of things.

Although, you know, there were moments when I went crazy, wrote all sorts of quotes in my notebook, I had bulimia, I drank fluoxetine, an antidepressant. When faced with this, you seem to try to behave appropriately and not succumb to this delirium, but then you catch yourself that you are close to madness.

I had a minimum weight of 39 kg with a height of 160 cm - then I refused to eat. But then, when the menstrual cycle disappeared for six months and the doctors said that if I did not start eating and gain weight, I would never have children, then I began to realize what I was doing. After that, bulimia began: 2 fingers in my mouth, I drank potassium permanganate, so that everything came out better. Now I am 55 kg - I was 60 during bulimia, but I found the strength in myself and for more than a month I have not shoved my fingers into myself.

A year ago, when I was still in school and lived with my parents, I was thin, my weight was no more than 45 kg, although I still did not like my figure and tried to go on diets. I entered a university and moved to another city, suddenly began to get fat, I could not throw it off, and after the New Year it was already 58. The weight did not go away - even though I ate, although I did not eat. And then in one of the publics on proper nutrition they wrote an article about anorexic girls with the names of the groups in which they sit. They wrote that this is not possible, but for the sake of interest I went to the "Typical Anorexic", and I was addicted. In general, all these publics are like a sect, such a swamp that drags on, and you seem to understand everything, but for some reason it's still in it."

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

Anya A. 15 years old, 63 kg, 168 cm, Lisichansk, Ukraine

“I am far from the butterfly, but I am confidently moving towards my goal. I thought about losing weight last winter. I began to grow up and, accordingly, get better. Everyone noticed this, since I had never weighed more than 45 kg before, with my height of 165 cm at that time. In the summer of 2014, I weighed 61 kg - it seemed to me something disgusting, but I did nothing. Then we had to move because of the situation in the country: my mother and I left, but my brother stayed in the ATO zone. We settled in a rented apartment, where there was no TV or computer; I simply had nothing to do. Mom is at work all day, and my task was to prepare food for her arrival. Out of boredom, I just started doing elementary squats, then rocked the press 200 times a day, ran 3 times a week in the evenings.

I weighed 57 kg when we returned home, but everything went back to normal there. I didn't eat all day, and then I came and in the evening ate everything I saw, so I got an ulcer and a couple of gastritis: abdominal pain, then internal bleeding, little pleasant. The ulcer was treated in a hospital; with me in the ward was a "butterfly", which weighed 40 kg with a height of 170 cm - she had anorexia nervosa and chronic gastritis. We became friends, it turned out that we have many common interests: we draw, write poetry, both are suicidal persons. We also study in the same school and live on the same street.

In the public "Typical Anorexic" I was impressed by the fragile figures, determination and independence of the girls, their enormous willpower. I began to try to eat less: hunger, drinking, "shock" … Only I could not stand the day - and in the evening I swept away everything that was in the refrigerator. She promised to lose weight by March 8, by April, by May, by the summer. And my weight gradually grew beyond 60 kg. Now I have changed my mind, realized that I have been losing weight for more than a year - and only gaining more weight. Now my goal is to be 57 kg by autumn, and then to achieve the coveted figure - 47”.

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

Maria S. 16 years old, 42 kg, 165 cm, Kamchatka

“Before, I never thought about what my figure is and whether it fits into the standards of beauty invented by someone. I didn’t deny myself anything: I ate what I wanted, when I wanted and in any quantity. Nobody told me that I was fat. Quite the opposite: I often heard from others that I was slim. But one day, after returning from vacation and getting on the scales, I was horrified: 59 kg! In the mirror now I saw a fat monster scaring everyone away with its massiveness. It was then that I began to lose weight up to 50 kg.

I was in the clinic with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa - I was sent to the hospital by my parents, who accidentally saw me induce vomiting after eating. There, in addition to various examinations, I talked with a psychologist and a psychotherapist. The psychologist worked on the problem of panic attacks, the psychotherapist on the eating disorder. I myself, to the last, denied the disease. For all the time of diligent self-examination, I came to the conclusion that I am too dependent on someone else's opinion. It is important for me what people think of me. I would like to leave only a good impression, starting with knowledge and ending with a figure. Someone once said that if a person studies with only A's, then he is smart (with which, by the way, I will not agree). So I became an excellent student. The society said that 90-60-90 is beauty, so I took the principle “the thinner the better” as an ideal.

Now I try to eat intuitively - I try as much as possible to listen to the needs of my body and eat exactly what it requires. In theory, even if these are cookies, then they need to be eaten. But, I think, in my case, my conscience will get involved in this matter much earlier than I allow myself to realize that I really want it."

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

Alisa H. 13 years old, 43 kg, 157 cm, Ufa

“I've always been chubby. I remember that in the 3rd grade we were dragged to weigh in, and I was the fattest in the class. A year ago, I began to lose weight with my mother - she also has weight problems - but I still remained fat. At that time I was 157/47. My best friend looked better than me and all the guys I loved fell in love with her. I gave up meat, fried - in general, from everything except water and vegetables. As a result, it became 157/45, but I really did not like my thighs, especially when I sat down. And then summer came, I went to the camp for the first time - and there I lost 2 kg. Then I went to a sanatorium - and there I ate 3 kg! I was shocked and when I returned, I started dieting again. First, on proper nutrition, then I got to "shoko" - 1 chocolate bar a day, with it you need to drink a glass of tea or coffee without sugar. For 3 days - minus 2 kg. Now my weight is 43-44 kg, but I do not stop until I reach 40!"

Specialist comment: "Anorexia is the deadliest disease of all mental disorders"

Svetlana Bronnikova, clinical psychologist, candidate of psychological sciences, director of the IntuEat Center, author of the book "Intuitive Nutrition"

“If a girl is obsessed with losing weight and finds herself, in addition, in a community that supports her and does all the same, then this is the path to an eating disorder. “TA”, unfortunately, is not the only community on VKontakte, there are pro-anorexic, probulimistic sites, where the idea is promoted that being extremely thin is the only possible option for beauty that you should strive for.

Statistics show that children who were on a diet in adolescence subsequently begin to overeat paroxysm. Oddly enough, the most correct thing to do for a teenager is to wait until he grows up, because with the modern standards of pediatric nutrition, it is impossible to say anything about child weight before the body stops growing. There are children who, according to official weight criteria (for example, body mass index) fall into the category of obesity, but as they go through adolescence, they begin to stretch intensively, and by the age of 18–20 they are beautiful slender girls with shapes. In other words, if the weight is not touched in adolescence, then it will reach the level at which your mother and your grandmother maintain their weight. If mom and grandmothers are dense, then you cannot fix this with diets. This is called the set point theory - our weight is genetically programmed, and if you do not touch it, then it will be kept at about the same level throughout adulthood. The birth of each child adds 1–2 kg to the set point, and weight also increases at a later age - this is of great evolutionary importance, since fat protects older people from the effects of some serious diseases. Oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even type 2 diabetes, which is considered a disease of the fat, are better tolerated by older people with some fat reserves: they survive better, live longer and are more likely to recover. In other words, while the fat one dries, the thin one dies.

"TA" diets are well-known combinations of anorexic techniques that are used to suppress hunger. In the case of, for example, a drinking diet, this is a mechanical method, when the volume of the stomach is filled and a feeling of satiety arises for a while, and the nutritional value of the consumed is minimal. In the case of the chocolate diet, a bar of chocolate a day and persistent black coffee are a combination of tricks that greatly dampen the feeling of hunger. All these systems violate the basic rule of modern dietetics, which says that you should never go hungry. As soon as a person refuses food, he causes physiological and mental damage to the body. Of course, the body suffers from a deficiency of macro- and micronutrients, from a deficiency of nutrients, from the fact that a maximum calorie deficit is created. By creating an intense deficit, he first loses water: the first 2–5 kg is always liquid, then he loses muscle mass due to protein deficiency, and thus the girls move towards the desired emaciated figure. The physiological harm from a seven-day depleting diet is obvious: fatigue, irritability. If you repeat it regularly enough, then these are breaking nails, falling hair, dry, flaky skin. In fact, the mental consequences are much more destructive: if nutrition is restored to normal, then the condition of the skin, hair and nails quickly returns to normal, but the damaged psyche does not.

There are people who are genetically susceptible to eating disorders, and in a situation where 100 standard girls go on a diet, 99 of them forget about it after a while, because it is uncomfortable for a normal person to starve, but one girl suddenly finds out that she it became psychologically better. So she gets rid of congenital dysphoria, and dysphoria is a mood disorder, such a constant, gloomy, anxious dissatisfaction. In fact, hunger is a kind of medicine for her. When a genetically vulnerable girl enters the community, she is guaranteed to become anorexic.

Photo: vk.com/ianorexic

The body mass index is below the healthy limit of 18, 5 - those boundaries that anorectics strive for are severe exhaustion, the disappearance of menstruation, social isolation from everyone who does not share her beauty ideals, enormous learning difficulties and a frequent scenario - cachexia, then there is depletion to a body mass index below 15. This is the same notorious 45 kg, which girls strive for when they are 168-175 cm tall. There is a colossal risk of cardiovascular crises, from which such girls often die.

Anorexia is the most deadly disease of all mental disorders; about 10% of the sick girls die. Due to the fact that the immune system drops significantly, all the body's defenses fail, and the flu or seasonal adenovirus infection can kill the patient. For example, the famous French model Isabelle Caro, who suffered from anorexia all her life and starred in a very popular series of posters against anorexia, died from the flu. The problem is not that the girl got carried away with nonsense about fashion and beauty, but that, having received the first satisfaction from exhaustion, at some point a person realizes that something is wrong with him, but starting to eat is so unbearable and painful it’s scary that he prefers to die.

The treatment of anorexia is a very complex and long history, it is always a combination of intensive psychotherapy with medications, but they play a lesser role, because this disease cannot be cured with pills. Family therapy is very important. It is important, of course, that parents do not miss the moment of the onset of the disease. If a girl went on a diet for a week, threw off a couple of kilograms, began to like herself more, and then went with her friends to eat pizza, I would not worry. But when protective eating behavior lasts 2-3 months, the body mass index falls below 18, 5 - these are already medical indicators. When they noticed that the child stops eating with everyone, says that she ate at school or in a cafe, critically examines her body, spends a lot of time in the toilet (in the case of bulimoanorexia), after which she smells like toothpaste (many girls thoroughly brush their teeth to hide the smell of vomit) - you have several warning signs on your hands and a reason to ask the girl what is happening to her. And here, of course, it is precisely those parents who have a trusting relationship with the child that win in many ways, because then there are more chances to get out and convince them to start treatment."