Drug Addiction Information and Recovery from Anorexia & Bulimia Nervosa
- Drug abuse refers to the use of drugs in an excessive or unsafe manner, usually with the intention of achieving a change in consciousness. Drug abuse is often a stepping stone to full-blown addiction and may lead to serious legal, financial and health consequences.
Drug addiction is believed to be caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. According to psychiatryonline.org, genetic influences account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person's total addiction risk.
Learning to recognize the warning signs of drug abuse is the first step in preventing addiction. Extreme or abrupt changes in weight, sleeping habits, mood or behavior may signal a drug abuse problem. - Anorexia Nervosa is a mental disorder characterized by distorted body image and extreme weight loss. Anorexics often report feeling fat in spite of being grossly underweight and may be in denial about the health consequences of their condition.
According to womenshealth.gov, 85 to 95 percent of all anorexic are female. Like drug addiction, anorexia is characterized by a pattern of addictive, destructive behaviors such as excessive exercising, crash dieting or complete starvation. - Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder involving dangerous weight loss tactics like purging food from the body. It is closely related to anorexia in that sufferers have a distorted self image and deny the pathological nature of their behavior.
Bulimics use many different tactics to lose weight, such as binging and purging (eating large amounts of food and inducing vomiting or excessive bowel movements) or depriving themselves of food and over-exercising. Vomiting may be induced by inserting fingers into the throat or ingesting ipecac syrup. Excessive use of laxatives and suppositories is another method used by bulimics to purge the body of food. As with anorexia, a vast majority of bulimics are female. - Like drug addiction, eating disorders usually warrant a stay in an inpatient treatment facility. In treatment, patients may attend group meetings and one-on-one psychotherapy sessions in which cognitive behavioral therapy, biofeedback and other intensive therapies are administered.
Patients are taught to use effective coping skills and positive affirmations while working through the events that lead up to their disorder. By giving the patient a sense of control and self-worth, eating disorder therapy seeks to correct the pathological patterns of thinking that lead to the destructive behaviors. - If you or someone you know is suffering with an eating disorder or addiction, seek help immediately. Close supervision and professional therapy are vital to recovery from addiction and eating disorders.
