Unfortunately, many family members, acquaintances, and celebrities have suffered from anorexia nervosa, or AN, a severe mental illness characterised by extreme concerns about weight, shape, and self-esteem.
What is Anorexia Nervosa?
People with anorexia nervosa experience weight loss that is more than is healthy for their age and height.
Even when they are underweight, those who suffer from this illness may have a severe dread of gaining weight. They could overeat, overwork out, or utilise other techniques to reduce weight.
Causes
The exact causes of anorexia nervosa are not known. Many factors probably are involved. Genes and hormones may play a role. Social attitudes that promote very thin body types may also be involved.
Family conflicts are no longer thought to contribute to this or other eating disorders.
What is the Risk Factor?
- Being more worried about, or paying more attention to, weight and shape
- Having an anxiety disorder as a child
- Having a negative self-image
- Having eating problems during infancy or early childhood
- Having certain social or cultural ideas about health and beauty
- Trying to be perfect or overly focused on rules
Anorexia typically starts in adolescence or early adulthood. Males may also experience it, although females experience it more frequently. White women with strong academic achievement and a goal-oriented family or disposition are more likely to experience the illness.
Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa
As a treatment for AN, mindfulness meditation is already widely utilised. On the other hand, its therapeutic applicability in the management of neurogenic emaciation has not yet been investigated.
According to a group of researchers from Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Medicine, mindfulness meditation does help to reduce these anxieties. The results of the study show changes in the activity of brain regions linked to anxiety.
Through the team’s mindfulness meditation practice, obsessive thoughts regarding the test subject’s self-image and brain activity linked to corresponding emotions have significantly decreased.
How does mindfulness meditation work in Anorexia Nervosa disease?
Meditation and mindfulness go hand in hand. The former instructs students to develop their present-moment awareness and their capacity to accept their situations without passing judgement. The latter is the method for approaching awareness.
Using tasks intended to cause anxiety related to weight, a 4-week mindfulness intervention programme assessed brain alterations. By assisting patients in accepting their present circumstances and experiences at face value rather than avoiding them, the researchers were able to control this anxiety.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging for Anorexia Nervosa
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging — or fMRI — to analyze attention regulation in relation to eating disorders. The study’s results support the subjective experiences of the researchers. However, it was unexpected to them that several global events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian war, were significant factors in patients’ anxieties.
