Petra Uhlíková: The Rational Mind Cannot Do It Alone (On Risks and Prevention of Eatin ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Between March 3 and March 5, 2011, the Charles University 1st Faculty of Medicine and the of the General Teaching Hospital will host the 8th International and Interdisciplinary Con Disorders. The conference is organized in collaboration with INTACT, an Marie Curie intern that brings together nine Centers of Excellence from EU countries. The project supports po students of medicine and psychology focusing on eating disorders. The objective of the con international exchange of experience and knowledge in postgraduate research and presentati projects that develop innovation programmes in treatment and prevention of eating disorder zleva: Prof. MUDr. Jiří Raboch, DrSc., přednosta Psychiatrické kliniky VFN a 1. LF UK, Pro Papežová, CSc., vedoucí Centra pro poruchy příjmu potravy Psychiatrické kliniky VFN a 1. L Bříza, CSc., MBA, zástupce ředitelky VFN, MUDr. Petra Uhlíková, vedoucí denního stacionáře 8. Mezinárodní a mezioborová konference o poruchách příjmu potravy a obezitě-tisková zpráv "IFORUMENG-137-version1-TZ_PPP_01_03_11.doc"] What about university students? MUDr. Petra Uhlíková, head oOne would think that there is nothing easier to eat when you a care centre for adolescents true. Why is it so complicated? If we’re speaking of a disorder, it is because the patients fe they will gain weight, look less attractive, change for worse adolescents may fear physical changes similar to gaining weigh fat reserves. Then their anxiety prevents them from eating. How many of your patients are university students suffering fr I don’t have a precise number right here, but there is certain as much as to work stress or ambition. Perfectionism is one of medicine, who have a huge workload, are at risk. What are the most frequent symptoms of psychological breakdown resulting from school-relat Among such symptoms are lifestyle changes, mood disorders, such as anxieties and depressio of personal interests in favour of excessive schoolwork. I might be exaggerating a little, focus on performance at school accompanied by some form of anxiety is already pathologic, the person in his or her everyday life. For example, someone does not take an exam, althou studying hard, and then the stress is mounting. Then the end of the exam term comes, they any exams yet and they are falling even deeper into depression. In the better cases, they they might quit school or find other ways of dealing with the stress, including even suici What is the way out of the vicious circle of various symptoms of eating disorders? Mainly prevention through healthy self-evaluation, self-esteem and sufficient self-confide reasonable expectations of a young person by himself or herself and by the people around h the early stages of life, these are parents and teachers. Of course, all parents want thei best, but if it’s above the abilities of the child, it is in fact a traumatizing expectati will never be able to fulfill. Then the child becomes chronically frustrated and continuou failure of meeting these expectations. What I recommend to parents is to positively praise fully and unconditionally, which is very important. Only a few parents can tell their chil best in the world”. They tend to say “It’s OK, but you could do a little more, put more ef so on. That’s in fact criticism, not praise. You said that eating disorders do not relate to education. When a university student reali wrong, does it help to learn about the disorder on his or her own and try to approach it r motivate himself or herself by realizing this? That’s not very helpful. I think it can make it even worse. Then the cause of an eating disorder is something deep inside the unconscious, or how to p Anxiety is a mechanism that cannot be controlled by intellect – it is difficult to process rational thing one can do is to seek a specialist and get some advice. To rationally grasp state is difficult even for adults. In adolescents it’s even harder, because some of them mature emotionally, especially the very intelligent ones. They might develop fast in the r their emotional intelligence takes more time. And if there is a disproportion between the understand their own emotional states, their experience of life – they don’t know what’s h and why. The rational mind cannot do it alone. (Marie Kohoutová) Translation: Jaroslav Švelch