THE’anorexia mental disorder, an eating disorder that hit nearly 0.5% of 18-year-old girls in France is not based solely on negative emotions. According to a team of researchers from the American university Rutgers, the sick, mostly female, “are often in a complex emotional turmoil. This is why it is important to understand the positive things they got from this experience.”
Scientists conducted a study, published by the scientific journal Clinical Psychological Science, out of 118 women aged 18 to 58, suffering from anorexia. During two weeks of follow-up, they observed unhealthy positive feelings related to pride in weight loss. The sites pro-anorexia, “where it is not unusual to see people with anorexia applauded for their extreme weight loss”, are singled out by the researchers.
The link between positive emotions and weight loss can turn into a vicious cycle for some people with eating disorders, who continue to lose weight even after reaching their goals. “Since only a third of women with anorexia recover from the disease after treatment, we need to understand why these positive emotions are so strongly linked to weight loss instead of being associated with family, school or relationships, ”says Edward Selby, one of the study’s authors.
