Anorexic asks for support for a therapy in a video

Anorexic asks for support for a therapy
Rachael Farrokh suffers from an extreme form of anorexia. Meanwhile, the 37-year-old weighs only about 18 kilos. After she was not admitted to any hospital and the cost of therapy is very high, she posted a video with a call for help on the net, asking for help.

Anorexia can be fatal
According to the representative study on Adult Health in Germany (DEGS1), 1.1 percent of women and 0.3 percent of men are affected by anorexia (anorexia nervosa) in Germany. The disease manifests itself by refusing to eat enough food. Many sufferers do not even realize how thin and emaciated they look. Without treatment, anorexia can be fatal. It is the disease with the highest mortality rate. Without therapy, about five out of 100 patients - mostly young women - die within ten years.

Let's hope that Rachael Farrokh, who weighs only 18 kilos with a height of 1.70 meters, receives a timely therapy. Because it threatens organ failure and other complications.

Psychotherapy can help patients with anorexia in a sustainable way
According to a study from 2013, psychotherapy is, in most cases, a suitable form of treatment for the lasting control of anorexia. As reported by the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy (DGPM), two new procedures were compared to conventional psychotherapy for the first time during the investigation.

242 sick women took part in the study. The lot decided who took part in which of the three psychotherapy procedures. In the first procedure, the women received intensive care. The family doctor selected a psychotherapist for the patient and looked after her as a supplement to psychotherapy. The second procedure involved cognitive-behavioral therapy where women learned special techniques to achieve normal eating habits. The third method was based on a modified form of psychoanalysis. The women searched for the cause of their conflicts and emotional triggers of anorexia.

Not every anorexic can be cured by psychotherapy
The therapies were performed over a period of ten months. During this time, the patients, who averaged only 46.5 kilograms, slowly but steadily increased. For all three procedures it could be observed that the recovery of women continued after the end of treatment. However not all patients benefited from psychotherapies. About one quarter of the year, one year after the end of treatment, there was still a full anorexia. (Ag)