HOW TO PREVENT ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA: THE 3 MAIN WAYS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

Preventing anorexia and bulimia is important to avoid the serious effects on psychological and physical health that it can cause in people who suffer from them. In addition to this, other fundamental measures are to know the early signs of these disorders and seek a treatment that prevents their complications.

In any case, remember that while several of these actions may work, there are no guaranteed ways to prevent these eating disorders.

It is important to try new forms of prevention when you look at these statistics:

• In Spain, the latest studies carried out have indicated a prevalence rate of cases of eating disorders in adolescents of 4.1 - 4.5%
• Specifically, anorexia is around 0.3%, bulimia in 0.8% and unspecified eating disorder around 3.1% of the female population aged 12-21 years
• According to the Red Cross, it is estimated that 1 in 100 adolescents suffer from anorexia nervosa and 4 out of 100 have bulimia nervosa
• Eating disorders increased 300% in Mexico during the last 20 years.
• In the United States, anorexia nervosa is the third most frequent chronic disease among adolescent women, after obesity and asthma
• Mortality from eating disorders is the highest among those detected by psychiatric disorders
• The age of onset in anorexia nervosa is between 13 and 18 years old, although more cases are being found in both young and adult girls.

Ways to prevent anorexia and bulimia

To prevent anorexia and bulimia, you can act on:

1-Primary prevention: avoid the appearance of the disorder.

2-Secondary prevention: detect quickly with the aim that the disorder does not become chronic or settle.

3-Tertiary prevention: reduce the disorder once it has appeared and its relapses

Primary prevention

So that you can intervene so that the disorder does not appear, it will be necessary that you know the factors that cause its appearance.

The main factors are:

• The current fashion for thinness in adolescents and young people transmitted by the mass media. In this case you can only act by preventing these means, diet products and fashion from refusing to promote extreme thinness.
• Establish educational programs on anorexia in schools, colleges, universities and the media. In addition, it is advisable to foster a critical attitude towards the messages released by the media.
• Provide information on diet and nutrition: diets can be precursors to anorexia, so it is essential that young people are informed about what a correct diet is based on and modify unhealthy eating behaviors
• Information to parents and relatives about anorexia and bulimia: it will be promoted that a pleasant climate is established in the family, avoid extreme demands and perfectionism
• Programs to avoid bullying in schools and institutes. In this article you can read more about bullying
• Promote self-esteem in children and see food and exercise with a positive attitude
• Avoid punishment or rewards related to food
• Be a role model regarding food and health
• Eliminate the idea that a particular diet, body, or weight will lead to happiness
• Avoid, on the part of parents, judging others by their physical appearance.

On the other hand, it is good that you know the factors that predispose a person to have anorexia or bulimia:

Precipitating factors

• Body image: bullying, body changes, teasing the affected person's body image
• Stressful events: divorce, change of school, breakup, rapid weight gain.

Predisposing factors

• Family members: psychopathologies in family members, family conflicts, parents overly concerned about the physical, obese parents
• Social: idealization of thinness, social pressure towards thinness
• Personal: being or having been overweight, being a teenager, being a woman, low self-esteem, perfectionism, idealization of thinness

Maintenance factors

• Decrease in the basal metabolic ritual: it facilitates the chronicity of the condition and the weight gain
• Reaction of people: there may be people who reinforce the behavior
• Frustration and hunger: lowers self-esteem and increases the level of personal hyperresponsiveness
• Restrictive diet: hunger generates anxiety that is reduced by restricting the diet to show that you are able to control your intake

Secondary prevention

Secondary prevention is intended to quickly detect the disorder and prevent it from progressing. It will be necessary that you know what signs are those that indicate that anorexia or bulimia has already appeared to treat them as soon as possible and prevent their settlement.

To make a better assessment, it is better that you look at the globality of the signs, since not all are present, nor do they all indicate the presence of anorexia or bulimia in isolation.

The most characteristic signs of anorexia are:

• Avoid social activities
• Not wanting to undress or wear a bathing suit
• Being closed, frustrated, or irritable
• Social isolation
• If he is very young, he does not grow at the same rate as others
• Always wear loose clothing, hot or cold
• Extreme thinness
• Avoid food intake
• Great self-demand and perfectionism
• Spending time at the doctor with complaints
• If some of these symptoms are detected, parents or teachers will have to visit a professional - psychologist or psychiatrist - to assess the case and dictate the treatment to be followed.

The most characteristic signs of bulimia are:

• Inducing vomiting, using laxatives, drugs that reduce appetite, or diuretics to counteract weight gain
• Restrictive diets, fasting for a long period of time
• Uncontrollable cravings to eat high-calorie foods; bingeing in short periods of time
• Do intense exercise
• Constipation, loss of tooth enamel, electrolyte imbalance, hand abrasions, limb edema, abdominal distention
• Irritability, sleep disturbances, apathy
• Decrease in school performance and neglect in personal care
• Locking yourself in the bathroom after eating to induce vomiting, use drugs, or laxatives
• Endocrine disorders and amenorrhea
• It often occurs in people who have suffered from anorexia nervosa before with an interval between the two disorders of several months or years
• Intense fear of gaining weight

A simple instrument with which to identify the signs of anorexia and bulimia early is the Eating Attitudes Test.

A specific instrument for anorexia nervosa is the Setting Conditions for Anorexia Nervosa Scale.

Tertiary prevention

The tertiary prevention of anorexia or bulimia has a great relationship with its effective treatments. It is intended to reduce relapses, morbidity and mortality in chronic cases.

And what are you doing to prevent anorexia and bulimia? I am interested in your opinion. Thank you!