Looking for the origins of anorexia nervosa in adolescence - A new treatment approach

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder, which affects particularly adolescents. The media coverage of feminine thinness is demonstrated as a token of beauty, with diet as a tool to achieve this. However, diets are not enough to explain the numerous cases. This disease is the symptom of a psychological disorder and looking for the origin must coincide with psychotherapeutic treatment. Multifactorial explanations seem dominate within our female patients. For most female patients, family problems and past experience with sexual assault explain this transition to anorexia. It is demonstrated throughout this paper how and why anorexia nervosa is used as a tool for identification and personalization in the assumption of autonomy and independence, and how and why anorexia becomes a defensive response to aggression. We give a clinical confirmation of the diverse origins of anorexia nervosa and of the impact of sexual abuse. This paper proposes a new therapeutic approach to patients with anorexia nervosa, in which the eating disorder is a symptom of an emotional disorder, often triggered by sexual assault or emotional deprivation.