Pregorexia is the term used to describe anorexia nervosa in pregnant women. It is not a medical term, yet increasingly used by specialists nowadays. Probably this is because the cases of pregorexia they encounter in practice are increasing in number, affecting 1.5–5% of women. In addition, they emphasize the specificity of this eating disorder, which carries a double risk when the mother is expecting. However, the latest classification of mental disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5, does not include a separate name and criteria for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa occurring in pregnant women. The clinical picture of pregorexia, apart from some significant symptoms, is consistent with the picture of this disorder in other people. Women with this disorder show a strong fear of the natural consequence of pregnancy, which is weight gain. To this end, they reduce the amount of food consumed, reduce the caloric content of meals, and use fasts. They also often do intense exercise. Sometimes they have binge eating and purging episodes, provoke vomiting, and abuse laxatives. As a result, they lose weight, develop qualitative malnutrition and body exhaustion. This entails numerous negative effects on the health and sometimes life of both mother and child. Such a danger, however, is not a factor preventing the actions causing it. They are caused by the pathological mechanism of the disorder, related to the action of various factors. In this article, some selected ones seem to be peculiarly significant in relation to pregorexia.
Infantile anorexia is one form of feeding behavior disorder. The group of these disorders usually affects infants and young children whose food consumption in some way deviates from the norm. Their main feature is the difficulty in establishing a regular eating pattern. Which means that the infant does not regulate its eating rhythm according to the physiological feeling of hunger or satiety. In the case of infant anorexia, a characteristic symptom is a persistent reluctance to eat. A sick infant does not signal hunger and is not interested in eating. This leads to a height/weight deficiency and other negative consequences for the child’s development and health. The diagnosis excludes traumatic experiences or a physical illness that could better explain the infant’s reactions. The causes of the occurrence of infantile anorexia are mainly seen in the mental factors related to dysfunctional interactions in the family system, although an increasing amount of research also points to a large role of biological factors in its etiology. Above all, it’s believed to have a very strong genetic component. Infantile anorexia is a potentially curable disease, provided it is diagnosed and appropriate treatment measures are taken. The latter consist in psychotherapy and the introduction of eating patterns. Failure to take such steps may result in the persistence of symptoms and the increased risk of acute or chronic child malnutrition, and in extreme cases may jeopardize the child’s life.
Prenatal abuse, its causes and consequences, are an important focus of prenatal psychology, a discipline that since the 1920s has occupied scholars studying the earliest stage of human psychological development. The term is used to describe all behavior of the mother towards the child, i.e. her various actions or omissions that negatively affect the child’s health, physical and psychosocial development and life. They can be intentional and deliberate but can also result from unintentional actions. The sources of prenatal abuse are manifold, one of which may be the mother’s illness, for example pregorexia, which is anorexia nervosa in pregnant women. These mothers engage in a range of pathological behaviors that undermine the welfare of their developing children. This is evidenced by the numerous negative consequences, which are manifestations of actions that damage their health and, in some cases, even destroy their lives. Their presence prompts a search for solutions that can prevent or help reduce this phenomenon. There are certain possibilities in the dissemination of correct knowledge about pregorexia and its consequences, adequate social support for pregnant mothers, as well as teaching women parental responsibility and the appropriate attitude towards their prenatal children.
Anorexia nervosa, which is one of the forms of eating disorders, can be considered as a manifesta- tion of a long and very complex process of self-destruction. Although its genesis is usually associ- ated with puberty problems, it is rarely a rapid phenomenon. It should be treated rather as a kind of epilogue of one’s personal history. Malnutrition and weight control appearing in its context are in fact a manifestation of an attempt to cope with the hardships experienced by individual. Therefore, the anorexia nervosa is not just a problem of weight or eating habits, but it’s a way of manifesting the internal problem of the individual. Its form, defined by the otherwise valid canons of beauty or success, and consolidated by behaviours learned during the use of slimming diets, is revealed, however, in connection with specific personality traits. That is why the importance of people with this disorder, to a large extent, of tendencies to self-destructive behaviour, leading more or less con- sciously to self-destruction and in extreme cases to death, is emphasized. The article deals with the problem of anorexia nervosa as a manifestation of self-destructive ten- dencies and the issue of factors and mechanisms conditioning the occurrence of self-destructive behaviour from the perspective of selected psychodynamic concepts, indicating the importance of the issue for the care and educational processes.
Anorexia nervosa, which is one of the forms of eating disorders, can be considered as a manifestation of a long and very complex process of self-destruction. Although its genesis is usually associated with puberty problems, it is rarely a rapid phenomenon. It should be treated rather as a kind of epilogue of one’s personal history. Malnutrition and weight control appearing in its context are in fact a manifestation of an attempt to cope with the hardships experienced by individual. Therefore, the anorexia nervosa is not just a problem of weight or eating habits, but it’s a way of manifesting the internal problem of the individual. Its form, defined by the otherwise valid canons of beauty or success, and consolidated by behaviours learned during the use of slimming diets, is revealed, however, in connection with specific personality traits. That is why the importance of people with this disorder, to a large extent, of tendencies to self-destructive behaviour, leading more or less consciously to self-destruction and in extreme cases to death, is emphasized. The article deals with the problem of anorexia nervosa as a manifestation of self-destructive tendencies and the issue of factors and mechanisms conditioning the occurrence of self-destructive behaviour from the perspective of selected psychodynamic concepts, indicating the importance of the issue for the care and educational processes.
The correct, sonorous and clean human voice is the result of the interaction of many anatomical and functional structures, with the central nervous system playing a central role. Any deviations in the structure and function of these structures cause the voice to lose its normal properties, revealing pathology. Voice disorders can be divided into organic and functional. Functional disorders, unlike organic ones, are characterized by a lack of organic change in the voice organ. There are psychogenic dysphonias among the functional voice disorders. Functional, and especially psychogenic, voice disorders meet the criteria of disorders in the form of somatic and dissociative disorders. Dysphonia and psychogenic aphonia and spastic dysphonia are examples of voice disorders caused repeatedly by defense mechanisms which take the form of conversion and somatization. They share common attributes with many other disorders, which are referred to as psychosomatic, and as such are of interest to psychiatry and psychodynamic psychology. As part of this paradigm, psychosomatic disorders are considered in the context of trauma theory, alexithymia, and mentalization.
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Prawidłowy, dźwięczny i czysty głos człowieka to efekt współdziałania wielu struktur anatomiczno-czynnościowych, z nadrzędną rolą ośrodkowego układu nerwowego. Jakiekolwiek odstępstwa w budowie i funkcji tych struktur powodują, że głos traci swoje normalne właściwości, ujawniając patologię. Zaburzenia głosu można podzielić na organiczne i czynnościowe. Zaburzenia czynnościowe, w przeciwieństwie do organicznych, charakteryzują się brakiem uchwytnej zmiany organicznej w narządzie głosu. Wśród czynnościowych zaburzeń głosu wyróżnia się dysfonie psychogenne. Czynnościowe, a zwłaszcza psychogenne, zaburzenia głosu spełniają kryteria zaburzeń pod postacią somatyczną i zaburzeń dysocjacyjnych. Dysfonia i afonia psychogenna oraz dysfonia spastyczna to przykłady zaburzeń głosu, u podłoża których wielokrotnie znajdują się mechanizmy obronne w postaci konwersji i somatyzacji. Są one wspólne dla wielu innych zaburzeń, które określa się mianem psychosomatycznych, i jako takie stanowią przedmiot zainteresowania psychiatrii i psychologii pschodynamicznej. W ramach tego paradygmatu zaburzenia psychosomatyczne są rozważane w kontekście teorii traumy, zjawiska aleksytymii oraz mentalizacji.
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