Causes of anorexia nervosa

 Eating Disorder characterized by a profound distortion of body image with a tireless quest for becoming slim and thin, the anorexia nervosa often leads the person to starvation
 

Regarding its etymology, the primary cause is still unknown by medicine. Genetically, for example, there is some evidence that suggests a greater concordance in monozygotic twins (who come from the same fertilization), when they are compared with the dizygotic (which come from different fertilizations). However, to date, no specific gene has been identified. From the biological point of view, it is suggested that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine has a diminished activity in anorexic patients. Moreover, it is perceived an action of endogenous opioids, an increase of cortisol in the blood, a decrease in thyroid activity and a decrease in levels of hormones that are related to the normal menstruation. Anyway, these alterations (hormone and metabolism) do not seem to be the real causes, but consequences and aggravating of the state of starvation observed in the pathology. In contrast, computed tomography showed sulcus and ventricles of the brain structure increased. On the other hand, the issuance of positrons tomography (PET) showed a high metabolism of the caudate nucleus (a large mass of gray matter, located in the epencephalic hemispheres, which are connected, in all its extension, with the lateral ventricles, it is one of the nucleus of the base, that constitute, together with the lentiliforme core the striatum body which has essentially a motor function). However, these findings were reversed with re feeding and / or with weight gain.

Three spiritual aspects can be listed in the etiologic elucidation and pathophysiology of this disease

Beside these findings, however, there are important psychosocial factors. The repeated appeals, for example, by the narcissistic culture in general, exalting the thinness, from the exorbitant exercises and the elegance as synonyms of health, undoubtedly mean this narcissistic culture make that the patients of this disorder find support for their actions and to for their thoughts. Typically, also, the patients have a problematic relationship with their parents. Sometimes, the disease is a way of trying to distract the attention of the tense marital relationships existing in their homes. Some young women replace their normal adolescent concerns for one related to food and weight gain. According to psychoanalytic explanations, although, in general, the mother is dominating and controlling and the father is very distant. Consequently the patients often have so little notion of autonomy and individuality to the point of experiencing their bodies as being controlled by their parents. This phenomenon causes the young people to be unable to separate psychologically, especially from their mothers. Thus, the structural defects of the ego, being the disorders that involve perceptual distortion of the own body image; appear to be related to the initial failure in the tasks of separation and individuation. Thus, the attitude of self induced starvation by the patient would be an effort to achieve independence and autonomy, seeking to destroy the part of their mother of their body, and also, validated as a person unique and special.

Beside all this, however, taking into account the immortal Spirit, it appears that, in the view of anorexia nervosa, equally, it is in the Spirit that we can find the greatest wealth of evidence on the issue. So, three spiritual aspects, if we can express this way, may be listed in the etiologic elucidation and pathophysiology of this disease: the complexes are acquired in past lives and not only in the childhood, the dense energy stored in the perispirit, the soul’s energetic envelope that binds it to the body structure, that unstructured it, and the obsessive spiritual influences, both of "fortuitous," character and related to the past.

In anorexia nervosa, the patient, influenced by the arbitrary aesthetic standards, see herself different from what she really is

As to the first mechanism, the noble Joanna de Angelis explains that the power of love is food for life, since it acts on the person, aligning and balancing the perispirit and the body. Thus, every time, she explains, that "the individual feels unloved, she/he unconsciously, regress themselves and they discover that they were not necessarily nourished (fuelled by love), so they start experiencing a feeling of reaction by inappetence or anorexia nervosa”. According to her, however, this lack of love can come from both, this reincarnation or from a previous one as happens frequently. As can be seen, therefore, this explanation, rather than contradict the psychoanalytic explanations, confirms it. However, it considers also experiences from before the cradle.

Regarding the perispiritual the causes, it is essential to understand, that one of the properties of the perispirit, is its plasticity, as the classification of the didactic respectable Prof. Zalmino Zimmermann. This is about the ability of the perispirit to receive the impressions of the thinking of being, shaping it according to the energy levels of its emanation. The teacher clarifies that "the perispirit, the extension of the soul is the eternal mirror of the mind, shaping it according to its plasticization command. Sometimes, these changes, which may also be consequences of disease processes of past lives, most often in the case of this specific disease, or this current life, may be responsible for the appearance of distortions of the ego of their body image. The individual, feeling the vibrations of their spiritual envelope, and even seeing their deformations in sleep, creates in themselves, or rather worse their low self-esteem and the perceptual disturb of the body image, which although is often perfect, it masks complex plastifications of the spiritual body. This may be the genesis of other psychiatric disorders, which leads to the change of the own image (body dysmorphic disorder). In the case of anorexia nervosa, the patient, influenced by the arbitrary aesthetic standards see themselves differently from what they really are, and, despite of that she/he tries to modify that invisible but perceptible structure, transforming the body through dietary restriction.

It is through the patient's acquiescence, conscious or unconscious that the obsessions are established and continued

With regards to the obsessions, they can be causes or aggravating issues to of the sick picture, and, moreover, the obsessions have their origin in disagreements of the past or in symbiosis called “fortuitous “with spirits interested in the evil. Manoel Philomeno de Miranda explains that "the same way as organic diseases arise where there is shortage, the obsessive field moves the mind to the department where the somatic moral flaws of the past have left deep perispiritual scars. Thus, in the case of the disease in question, and eating disorders in general, in the tract digestive area, from the nerve centres responsible for hunger and metabolic mechanisms that are linked to nutrition. As noted, however, is by consent, conscious or unconscious, that the patient's obsessions are established and continued.

Certainly, in complex cases of anorexia nervosa, elements of all these points suggested, so far, should be involved in the etiology, linking up in some way. And, therefore, in the therapy, it must be kept in mind a comprehensive approach, taking into account, not only the contributions of the Doctrine codified by Allan Kardec, but, likewise the contributions of psychiatry and psychotherapy.

References:

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