飲食失調(diào)在焦慮的時(shí)代很容易滋生，并構(gòu)成致命的威脅

飲食失調(diào)在焦慮的時(shí)代很容易滋生，并構(gòu)成致命的威脅

A recent survey found 62% of people in the U.S. with anorexia experienced a worsening of symptoms after the pandemic hit. And nearly a third of Americans with binge-eating disorder, which is far more common, reported an increase in episodes.

最近的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，美國62%的厭食癥患者在疫情爆發(fā)后癥狀惡化。近三分之一的美國暴食癥患者(暴食癥要常見得多)的發(fā)作次數(shù)有所增加。

For most of her 34 years, Stephanie Parker didn't recognize she had an eating disorder.

在她34年的大部分時(shí)間里，斯蒂芬妮·帕克都沒有意識到自己有飲食失調(diào)。

At age 6, she recalls, she stopped eating and drinking at school — behavior that won her mother's praise. "It could have started sooner; I just don't have the memory," says Parker. In middle school, she ate abnormally large quantities, then starved herself again in the years after.

她回憶說，6歲時(shí)，她就不再在學(xué)校吃東西、喝東西了——這種行為贏得了她母親的贊揚(yáng)。“這種行為可能更早開始，我不記得了，”帕克說。在中學(xué)時(shí)，她吃得異常的多，在之后的幾年里再次挨餓。

This spring, it all came to a head: She was confined and alone in her New York City studio apartment, as COVID-19 ripped through the city. The pandemic fomented fear and, for Parker, called up past trauma and aggravated the obsessive compulsive disorder that had started to become apparent years earlier. She realized then her relationship with food was life-threatening.

今年春天，這一切都達(dá)到了高潮:當(dāng)COVID-19在紐約市肆虐時(shí)，她獨(dú)自一人被限制在她的單間公寓里。對帕克來說，流行病引發(fā)了恐懼，喚起了過去的創(chuàng)傷，加劇了幾年前就開始顯現(xiàn)的強(qiáng)迫癥(簡稱OCD)。她意識到她和食物的關(guān)系危及生命。

"The OCD and anxiety ... just made my eating disorder more intense, and for me that meant I would become obsessed with cleaning everything and then checking in with myself to see if I deserve to eat," says Parker. It wasn't just that cleaning frenzies on an empty stomach left her with no energy to pick up a fork. "I would become scared of food — I got scared that food would make me sick because it wasn't clean enough."

“強(qiáng)迫癥和焦慮……這只會(huì)讓我的飲食失調(diào)更加嚴(yán)重，對我來說，這意味著我會(huì)沉迷于清洗一切事物，然后檢查自己是否值得吃東西，”帕克說。這不僅僅是因?yàn)樗I著肚子狂亂地打掃，以至于沒有力氣拿起叉子。“我開始害怕食物——我害怕食物會(huì)讓我生病，因?yàn)樗鼈儾粔蚋蓛簟?rdquo;

Eating disorders are thriving during the pandemic. Hotline calls to the National Eating Disorders Association are up 70-80% in recent months. For many, eating is a form of control — a coping mechanism tied to stress. Food scarcity and stockpiling behavior can trigger anxieties about eating, or overeating among some.

在流行病期間，飲食失調(diào)現(xiàn)象日益嚴(yán)重。最近幾個(gè)月，全國飲食失調(diào)協(xié)會(huì)(簡稱NEDA)的熱線電話增加了70-80%。對許多人來說，吃東西是一種控制方式，是一種應(yīng)對壓力的機(jī)制。食物短缺和囤積行為會(huì)引發(fā)一些人對飲食或暴飲暴食的焦慮。

"We know that eating disorders have a strong link to trauma," says Claire Mysko is CEO of NEDA. "Many people with eating disorders have past experiences with trauma, and this [pandemic era] is a collective trauma."

“我們知道飲食失調(diào)和創(chuàng)傷有很大的聯(lián)系，”克萊爾·米什科是NEDA的首席執(zhí)行官。“許多飲食失調(diào)的人都有過創(chuàng)傷的經(jīng)歷，而這個(gè)(流行病的時(shí)代)是一個(gè)集體創(chuàng)傷。”

It's also a lethal threat. Eating disorders have the second-highest mortality rate of any psychiatric diagnosis — outranked only by opioid use disorder.

這也是一個(gè)致命的威脅。飲食障礙的死亡率是所有精神病診斷中第二高的，僅次于阿片類藥物使用障礙。

A survey in International Journal of Eating Disorders in July found 62% of people in the U.S. with anorexia experienced a worsening of symptoms as the pandemic hit. And nearly a third of Americans with binge-eating disorder, which is far more common, reported an increase in episodes.

《國際飲食失調(diào)雜志》7月份的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著流行病的爆發(fā)，62%的美國厭食癥患者的癥狀有所惡化。近三分之一的美國暴食癥患者(暴食癥要常見得多)的發(fā)作次數(shù)有所增加。

A boom in teletherapy, Peat says, has helped some people continue to receive care, but it has left many people behind — 45% of respondents — without care.

皮特說，遠(yuǎn)程治療的蓬勃發(fā)展幫助一些人繼續(xù)接受治療，但也讓很多人(45%的調(diào)查對象)沒有得到治療。

Besides, Parker was athletic, and she appeared healthy. So for decades, she ignored her own compulsive anxieties and behavior as just some version of normal. "For me, in my head, I felt like ... I don't fit into any of those categories — so therefore, this is not affecting me."

而且，帕克很健壯，看上去很健康。因此，幾十年來，她忽視了自己強(qiáng)迫性的焦慮和行為，把它們視為一種正常的表現(xiàn)。“對我來說，在我的腦海里，我覺得……我不屬于這些類型，所以這對我沒有影響。”

"For me, part of the reason I kept myself in hiding about this was that I didn't feel like I was connected to the people I was seeing," she says, "because they didn't look like me."

她說：“對我來說，我隱瞞這件事的部分原因是，我覺得我和我看到的人沒有聯(lián)系，因?yàn)樗麄兛雌饋聿幌裎摇?rdquo;

Nonetheless, she adds, the therapy she's getting has really helped: "I can actually feel emotions and talk about them. I feel great — I just went out to dinner last night."

盡管如此，她補(bǔ)充道，她正在接受的治療確實(shí)很有幫助:“我真的能感覺到情緒并談?wù)撍鼈?。我感覺很好，我昨晚剛出去吃飯。”

Even for those further along in their recovery, pandemic life has made it difficult to retain balance.

即使對那些正在恢復(fù)的人來說，流行病的生活也使他們很難保持平衡。