Kontakt 2006, 8(2):301-304 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2006.049

Disorders of food ingestion - mental anorexia (anorexia nervosa)Health and Social Sciences

Dagmar Adámková Korbuthová

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra sociální práce a sociální politiky

The present contribution deals with the problem of the food ingestion. Mental anorexia and bulimia present in their manifestations limit points of the eating behaviour, from the life threatening intake of the food to excess eating with subsequent cleansing or starvation. Due to unsuitable eating habits and use of dangerous methods of controlling the body mass and physical discontent, also generalized to other areas of the personal life, obese people suffer from the same mental and somatic problems as those with bulimia and anorexia. However, the clinical pattern and social problems in these two categories of disorders of the food ingestion are considerably different. There are also different patterns in the constitution, anamnesis, but also in the personality structure and thus, the health consequences are also quite different. The reason for the growing number of disorders of the food ingestion is considered by most authors as the varying culture, which uncritically celebrates the slenderness and one-sided self-control. The trendy industry, films, journals and TV propagate opinions that the skinny slenderness is the most important aspect of the physical attractiveness. Roots of every fear and thus also of the fear of the fatness are present in the everyday life and in the world surrounding people. There is so-called multi-factorial concept, which is becoming a generally accepted standard for the description, interpretation and therapy of disorders of the food ingestion in recent years. The problem of the control of the body mass, obesity and disorders of the food ingestion has many levels pervading and conditioning each other. The multi-factorial concept includes social-cultural and family effects, chronic problems and adverse events and, last but not least, also biological factors.

Keywords: mental anorexia; bulimia; obesity; body mass

Published: December 15, 2006  Show citation