Permarexia: symptoms, causes and treatment

Many people decide to follow diets to lose weight. There is a large number of diets available to anyone, whether through the Internet, social networks, health centers, etc.

In addition, these diets are of all kinds: to lose weight, to gain muscle, to get defined, to reduce sugar levels...

But what happens when an obsession with hypocaloric diets appears? That then we can be before a case of permarexia. What is this disorder? What are its symptoms, causes and treatments? We are going to answer all these questions through the following article.

• Related article: "The 10 most common eating disorders"

Permarexia: what is it?

We have mentioned the fact of going on a certain diet... A priori, going on a diet should not be something dangerous or pathological, but... what happens when the fact of carrying out certain diets becomes the central axis of our life and our main concern is to lose weight and control everything we eat? That then we are no longer talking about a more or less healthy habit, but about a psychological disorder called permarexia.

Thus, permarexia is an eating behavior disorder, which is characterized mainly by an obsession with following diets that lose weight and counting the calories ingested compulsive. Permarexia is classified as an "eating disorder not otherwise specified" within diagnostic reference manuals (such as the DSM-5).

This way, the diets followed by a person with permarexia are hypocaloric diets, that is, with low calorie content, in order to lose weight constantly. The patient compensates for this unhealthy fear of gaining weight by practicing this type of diet, which he follows to the letter and obsessively.

Following these diets is added to a constant scrutiny of the labels of the products that you are going to eat, due to that great fear of gaining an extra calorie, which you want to avoid at all costs.

Permarexia is actually a disorder that it can be the prelude to other even more serious eating disorders (EDs), such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa. To these last two disorders, other serious behaviors can also be added such as: intense physical exercise, compensatory behaviors (use of laxatives, self-induced vomiting...), etc.

Symptoms

There are key symptoms to detect permarexia; Thus, experts talk about some of them, and they assure that when a person changes their diet more than three times in a period of between two and four months, added to a constant preoccupation with weighing himself and writing down the results, and an obsession with counting the calories of what he buys and eats, that person is at risk of suffering permarexia.

But let's see the most typical symptoms of permarexia in a little more detail:

1. Obsession with the calories ingested

People with permarexia manifest an obsession with the calories they eat. This translates into that the patient compulsively counts how many calories she is eating with each food or product, and what kind. To do this, it is not that he looks at the labels, he directly scrutinizes them and analyzes them in detail.

2. miracle diet monitoring

Another symptom of people suffering from permarexia is a constant follow-up of miracle diets to lose weight.

3. Deprivation of certain types of food

By being constantly following diets, people who suffer from permarexia deprive themselves of certain foods necessary for a proper functioning of the body in all senses. These foods may contain essential vitamins or proteins that are being lost with these types of hypocaloric diets., which very negatively affects your health.

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4. Influence of weight on self-esteem and mood

Another primary symptom in permarexia is the fact that people who suffer from it have their mood and self-esteem subject to their weight and physical appearance. That is to say, they “measure” their well-being, their happiness and their self-esteem through how much they weigh and how their body shape is.

This, logically, on a psychological level is a great harm to the person, since they are feeding on external things to value something purely internal.

• You may be interested in: "Low selfsteem? When you become your own worst enemy"

5. swings in body weight

Another symptom of permarexia is the appearance of oscillations in body weight. Thus, even if they are people who try by all means to follow the strict diets to which they are subjected, they suffer variations in their weight, which negatively affects their mental and physical health, because if they have gained an "extra" kilo they feel very evil.

6. Consumption of slimming products

In addition to following hypocaloric diets, in order to lose weight and always stay thin, people with permarexia also consume products of different types to achieve its goal: slimming products, vitamins, diuretics...

Causes

Like most psychological disorders, permarexia also often has a multifactorial cause. That is to say, There are several factors that influence its appearance.. Some of the most frequent (which, in turn, configure the traits of a person suffering from permarexia) are.

1. Low self-esteem

Low self-esteem is at the base of many eating disorders. In turn, this low self-esteem can be caused by many other factors.

People with permarexia, as we have seen, tend to value themselves based on how much they weigh and how their body is/is physically, which ends up further undermining their self-esteem, turning this situation into a vicious circle.

2. body dissatisfaction

Another cause of permarexia is dissatisfaction with one's own body. This, in turn, may be influenced by the current beauty stereotype in society, which rewards thinness -in many cases extreme-, added to a general obsession with the cult of the body and its exhibition, etc.

3. emotional instability

The profile of a person with permarexia often consists of an emotionally unstable person who needs “control” this instability through actions such as: following a highly strict diet, analyzing the calories that consume etc emotional instability also often translated as "neuroticism".

• You may be interested in: "Neurotic people: the 8 characteristics that distinguish them"

4. obsessive traits

Obsessive traits are also one of the causes of people with permarexia (we insist, always added to other causes). In other words, the typical profile of these people is that of people who are also obsessive, who they need to control many aspects of their life to feel “at peace”.

5. Great importance attached to the opinion of others

Finally, another of the causes of permarexia is the fact of giving excessive importance to the opinions of others, when evaluating oneself.

This is directly related to the already mentioned low self-esteem. Thus, they are often insecure people, who constantly "need" to please, as well as the approval of others.

Treatment

In the treatment indicated to treat permarexia, logically, it must be assessed and adapted to each particular case. On a psychological level, irrational thoughts associated with the body and the importance of being thin should be worked on.

Thus, one of the objectives will be to increase the patient's self-esteem, as well as analyze their coping strategies when solving problems. Once the strategies have been analyzed, work will be done so that the patient acquires healthier and more adaptive coping strategies.

On the other hand, it will also be essential to work on his obsessive traits and, ultimately, all the more emotional sphere that is influencing the maintenance of the disorder.

For all this, we can opt for a cognitive-behavioral therapy, since it is one of the most effective when working on coping strategies, irrational thoughts, habits healthy etc However, other orientations can also be used, such as systemic therapy.

Finally, note that psychological treatment must always be carried out with the support of a doctor. nutrition specialist to help regulate and adapt the eating patterns and diets that the patient is following patient.