Tag: eating disorder

Prozac for Bipolar Disorder, Bulimia, and Anxiety

Prozac is a medication often prescribed for bipolar disorder, bulimia, and anxiety disorders. The medication is highly effective because it acts as a serotonin inhibitor, which means that it helps balance serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin levels are responsible for mood stability, depressive states, and control of anxiety, fears, or phobias.

Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a mental illness that is caused by a combination of biological, neurological, emotional, and situational factors. The true causes of bipolar disorder are not yet fully understood. However, it is understood that imbalances in the neurotransmitters of the brain, such as serotonin, are partially responsible for the predisposition of bipolar disorder in some patients.

Bulimia is an eating disorder in which the patient eats excessively then purges themselves of the food they have eaten through either vomiting or induced bowel movements. Bulimia is caused by a combination of psychological and emotional factors, and in some cases environmental factors. The emotional factors relating to bulimia are very similar if not identical to factors involved with depression and low self worth issues, which are connected to serotonin levels in the brain.

Anxiety disorders are thought to be caused by erratic fluctuations in brain chemistry. Anxiety is defined as the intense somewhat debilitating feeling that something horrible is going to happen. Everyone feels anxiety at some point, but typically the normal person has a logical reason to feel anxious. With anxiety disorders, the reason for the anxiety may not be known, or it may not be logical if it is known.

Prozac is an effective treatment for bipolar disorder, bulimia, and anxiety because it controls and balances the serotonin levels in the brain. In bipolar patients, it is often prescribed in conjunction with other medications. Prozac is an effective treatment for depression, but may cause manic episodes to worsen. For this reason, Prozac is generally prescribed along with an anti-psychotic drug that helps tone down manic episodes. Therapy sessions or counseling is also generally a part of treatment.

In bulimia patients, Prozac is often the only prescription given. However, it is combined with treatment of symptoms via counseling and therapy. The idea behind this counseling is to identify why the patient has developed a sense of self-worth, and to allow the patient to learn that what they perceive is not necessarily reality. This is very helpful in bulimia patients who binge and purge as a result of how they perceive their bodies.

Anxiety patients are often prescribed Prozac with great success. Counseling may also be a part of treatment. In therapy sessions, patients may learn techniques to control their anxiety through rationalization of situations that may not at first appear rational. For example, if a patient feels anxiety over a cigarette burning in an ashtray, they can learn techniques to allow their mind to rationalize the situation and understand that there is no real danger of fire, and therefore no reason for the anxiety. These techniques are very successful in conjunction with Prozac for treating anxiety.

Overall, Prozac is an effective treatment for many mood disorders. Along with Lithium, it is often considered a miracle drug, helping patients gain stability and normal lives while living with an unstable, unrealistic view of themselves or their surroundings.

The Horrors Of Eating Disorders

You cant seem to make up your mind, you eat and eat and then you hide a purge or you starve yourself for weeks until you are at the lowest weight that you have ever been in your life. Anorexia and bulimia used to be considered the health problems of some confused young girls with troubled lives real or perceived. Lately doctors have found that more and more women are being diagnosed with an eating disorder of some kind. Other misconceptions about eating disorders are that people think that they are psychological problems that can be treated with medication easily and then the person is cured for life. Neither is true. In fact, this disorder is not easily treated and the person is left to deal with it affects throughout their lives. Doctors believe that hormonal variations occurring near the menopause of a woman may be the reason the eating disorder developed such late in life.

These women see themselves as being overweight despite the fact that they are extremely thin. These women developing strange eating rituals or eat and regurgitating over and over again. Body dissatisfaction is the main focus of these women. For unknown reasons they cant seem to become comfortable in their own skin. They often believe that their behaviors are secret and no one notices or cares enough to pay attention. The idea that middle-aged women are having this problem is troubling to physicians as they work hard to try and prevent the disorder in young women. However, doctors cant be sure if the middle aged women that are receiving treatment are new to the disorder. The thought is that they had these problems when they were very young and as they got older realized that they should seek treatment. Complicating things is that these women are finding it difficult to locate proper treatment because for so long the focus was put on the younger woman. The women that are suffering from anorexia and/or bulimia many times suffer from perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety. Substance abuse issues also many times play a role in many cases of both younger and older women. The most memorable and recent case occurred with a South American woman, a 24 year old teacher weighting only 77 pounds at 5 foot 2 inch tall when she passed away.

You or someone close to you might be suffering from this condition. It is a very harmful thing to suffer from, and if you suspect that someone is having trouble with an eating disorder then you should immediately take action to intervene. Do it in a graceful way so that the victim knows that you are looking out for her best interests. But dont let it go on for any longer than it has to. Therapists are the most common way to deal with eating disorders, but there are also entire camps and seminars devoted to getting the victims back to regular eating habits.

The treatments include therapy, medication, and counseling and more counseling. Some others treatments tried are yoga. Studies have tried to link the two yoga and anorexia but studies were inconclusive and did not produce any significant changes in behavior or eating habits. Dissonance based therapy which works as therapy and counseling aimed at the persons competing ideas. There are group meetings and other more intensive therapies for those with severely dangerous cases of anorexia and/or bulimia. Many women have been able to make positive life changes to battle their self inflicted disorder and go on to live healthier lives. It has been reported that these women will have to battle the urges and cravings to purge or starve themselves for the rest of their lives. Since no cures exist for this disorder it is the hope of therapist and people suffering anorexia and/or bulimia, that some kind of definitive preventive measures can be developed or found.

Eating Disorders in Adolescents

Since the adolescence is the age where bones are sprout and grow rapidly, well nourished food must be given to the adolescent to facilitate normal growth & development. The nutritional intake must be monitored regularly and modified depending upon the growing needs. Teenagers tend to develop eating disorders which affect their nutritional health. The eating behavior must be corrected as early as possible as it can lead to the development of complex illnesses. Eating disorder is the third common chronic illness, especially in adolescent females and the number has been increasing rapidly from the past thirty years.

There are two subcategories of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is the restrictive form, where the intake of food is limited severely. In bulimia nervosa is the eating disorder where the adolescent binges on food and then tries to minimize the effects by forcibly vomiting, fasting, and catharsis or over exercising. When handling adolescence eating disorders, they must be handled differently from adult eating disorders. Adolescents face problems such as growth retardation, suppressed height, abnormal weight, pubertal delay, menstrual periods absence, and menses unpredictability. When the adolescent is growing there will be critical tissue components loss like loss of body fat, muscle mass and bone mineral.

Nutritional imbalance is also caused which reflect abnormalities in the levels of vitamins, mineral and other trace elements. The problem is that these abnormalities cannot be recognized clinically. But since protein and calories are essential to the growth of the adolescent, it is important to trace their abnormalities. Because of the problems, healthy adulthood is not a possible thing. Because of all these reasons, it is important to diagnose adolescence eating disorders as early as possible. Eating disorders give rise to peak bone mass impaired acquisition in case of adolescents. When they turn into adults, this problem aggravates to osteoporosis. Even internal organs get affected due to eating disorders. All this can be prevented by early intervention so as to limit, prevent and ameliorate medical complications, which can turn become life threatening.

Adolescents who practice unhealthy weight control practices and are obsessive about figure, weight, food or exercise should be treated clinically. Not only should the symptoms be checked, but their duration, intensity and frequency should also be checked. Although most of the physical complications caused due to eating disorders get solved with the help of nutritional rehabilitation some of the conditions become irreversible and the long term consequences of this are very dangerous. It is best if the eating disorders are recognized in the early stages as it wont result in irreparable damage. The medical monitoring should be pursued till the adolescent returns back to appropriate psychological and medical health.

Eating disorders not only result in physical abnormalities, but also psychological abnormalities. Adolescents with eating disorders take onto social isolation, low self esteem, affective disorders, low self concept, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. Usually adolescents switch to unhealthy eating habits because of depression and lack of knowledge about affective techniques to lose weight. So the patients who are being treated for eating disorders must also be treated for psychiatric illness, if they have any. Even if the habits doesnt fit the strict criteria, adolescents who limit food intake, binge, vomit or purge accompanied with or without harsh weight loss, should be monitored because of the involvement of risk of even death. Early treatment will have an improved outcome. But the level of intervention in adolescents should be less when compared to adults.

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Nocturnal Eating Syndrome – A Food Related Sleep Disorder

Nocturnal eating syndrome is a sleep disorder that is more common in women than men. It is one of two eating disorders that are related to sleep. The other is called sleep-related food disorder. Nocturnal eating syndrome and sleep-related food disorder are parasomnias

Nocturnal eating syndrome is a sleep disorder that is characterized by compulsive raids on the refrigerator at night. Usually people with this sleep disorder are very light sleepers. When they awake during the night they have an overly compulsive feeling that they will not be able to fall back to sleep unless they eat something. Once out of bed and at the refrigerator, the compulsion to eat makes them gobble down food. People with nocturnal eating syndrome are fully awake and remember eating the food the next day. This syndrome is a combination of a sleep disorder and an eating disorder. Insomnia is also a factor in nocturnal eating syndrome. Treatment for this disorder is usually received from a mental health professional that specializes in people with eating disorders. Improving sleep hygiene can also help with this disorder.

Sleep-related eating disorder also affects more women then men and is a variation of sleepwalking. During an episode of this sleep disorder, a person will eat during partial arousal form a deep sleep. Often they will eat very unhealthy or strange foods that they normally would not eat when awake. During an episode of sleep-related eating disorder, a person might eat frozen pizza, raw cookie dough, peanut butter on fish and even dog food.

Often they are very careless and sloppy and may get burns or cuts while preparing the food. It is very difficult to wake a person during an episode and they have no memory of it in the morning. There does not seem to be a correlation to hunger during a sleep-related eating disorder episode, even if the person has eaten just before bed, an episode can still occur.

Although the cause of food related sleep disorder is not known, several triggers have been identified. Medications such as lithium, a mood stabilizer, and the benzodiazepine receptor zolpidem are two of those triggers. People with mood and personality disorders or psychological problems such as bulimia are at higher risk of developing one of these food related sleep disorders. People suffering from other sleep disorders including insomnia, sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder or narcolepsy are also at higher risk

People with sleep-related eating disorder usually have a history of sleepwalking. Because of this, people suffering from this parasomnina are considered having more of a sleep disorder then an eating disorder. Treatment with prescription medication is often very effective. Antidepressants, dopimine agents, anticonvulsants and opiates are often prescribed. Once sleepwalking is stopped so are the trips to the refrigerator.

Sleep eaters often are overweight because of the high caloric intake at night. The weight gain can lead to other sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea. Seeking treatment, either from a medical or mental health professional is essential for good health in the treatment of sleep eating disorders.