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“once Upon a time a young man who wanted to be a princess, the princess more beautiful in the place. Each day she asked her mirror magical: “mirror, mirror, who is the most beautiful? , ” And each day the mirror showed it. To do this, he counted with the help of their fairy godmothers: Ana and Mia. Your tips were clear and the adolescents practiced regularly: “Spit out the food in a napkin, tell your parents that you eat out so you do not suspect, open the faucet so that you do not listen to puke”. Until, finally, came the long-awaited day… The day you became a princess.”

The efforts of the young man, who sought to achieve “beauty”, took her to the hospital and put in serious risk your life. This is the story of a young girl either, you can choose your name, unfortunately in reality it has many. is Around 400,000 people suffer in Spain some disorder of eating behavior (TCA), of which 300.000 are boys and girls aged between 12 and 24 years, being the third leading cause of chronic illness in adolescence, according to data from the Foundation Institute Eating Disorders (FITA) and the Spanish Association for the study of these alterations.

In the present, and according to another Report of the Agency of Internet Quality, developed for the Foundation Image and self-Esteem (FIA), there are two and a half million internet posts are tagged as #anorexia, and nearly four million behind the “hashtags” #ana (anorexia) and #mia (bulimia). In addition, the contents in social networks that promote these disorders have increased 470% in the last five years.

“The ATT are a public health problem , and its frequency, far down in the last few years, has increased”, explains Professor Dr. Pedro Manuel Ruiz-Lázaro, head of section of Psychiatry, Infant-Youth of the University Clinical Hospital of Zaragoza. Some data show the huge need to focus attention on the different aspects that have led to this situation.

technologies, a double-edged sword

85% of the patients began to inquire in the internet about this problem when we have not yet reached the age of majority, and one in four continues to do so today. However, e n 87% of the cases, the family not known these habits harmful and in only 40% becomes aware of the problem.

” work with the parents is complicated because there is a lot more information, but always tends to think that “I’m not going to spend” it”, explains Maria del Carmen Galindo Ortiz de Landazuri, president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Help and Struggle against Anorexia and Bulimia (FEACAB). “When it is suspected, as it is known that it is a mental illness, people resist. And is reluctant to go see even a specialist: the primary care doctor well, the psychologist also… But what about the psychiatrist? The fear that I see in that waiting room is common and shared”.

But at the end, and in his words, the family is the engine of change. “It’s always hard to accept the illness of a child. Always. But with a type of illness such as this, that neither plaster nor is opera, it is even more difficult,” he adds. She advises parents to assume that the young person is not going to heal by giving him a pill, which is aware that it is a long process and you have a lot of patience, firmness, endurance, and affection.

Galindo remembers hearing about the web pages Ana and Mia back in the year 2005, a problem that still has not managed to tackle more than a decade later. Today, 60% of people with an eating disorder looking in the social networks content that can put your health at risk, and they are precisely the young people that move in this environment. In them, the victims of this problem are interdependent , offering bad advice, “tricks” and challenges dangerous.

According to confirmed by the experts, the use of these platforms by the digital natives shows that there is an effect to increase the thoughts associated with the TCA, diets… all of them, Instagram stands out as “the realm of the image” and the place where it reflects the growing concern of the society for the same. One aspect that many parents are escapes from the hands, because the new generations are handled better than they are in this field, and that the difficulty lies in the large number of sites that reaches them all this information.

Greater involvement with the anorexia and the bulimia, the pending issue of social networks. So says Dr. Ruiz-Lázaro, who notes that today’s digital platforms censor immediately, for example, certain parts of the female body but do not act the same way with all those contents which are about the TCA. “Although there is a good predisposition to collaborate in that sense and are a good opportunity to decrease the symptoms among the population most at risk, still have a lot to move forward on this issue,” he concludes.

Combination of efforts for a common goal

The experts agree: prevention is key in this serious problem. Montserrat Graell, Phd of Medicine and President of the Association for the Study of feeding Behavior (AEETCA), ensures that the TCA is a serious problem that has a prevalence important. “Serious because generate physical complications very important . We have the poor honor of being the psychiatric illness that has more mortality and all that we can do to prevention it is worth”.

Family, friends, health professionals and the education, government, business and the media; experts say that the fight against eating disorders should be a common . So, it is the task of all the show the younger people that the picture is diverse, that there are other values much more valuable and that being critical is the best weapon with which you can count on in situations like these.

In its new campaign #PorunusoLovedelatecnología , Orange is encouraging the dialogue necessary in families, giving visibility to the ACT, and thus be able to address them in its initial phases. An initiative that provides information on the enormous impact that the social networks in the development of this type of disorders, tips for identifying the problem and recommendations to follow.

According to Isabel Alonso, Director of Brand of the multinational telecommunications company, with this new campaign seeking to respond to the concerns of many families about an issue as troubling as the TCA, where they play a very relevant role in social networks and on websites. “Against this misuse of technology, we want to show how it can also be converted into a tool to help young people and their parents in a very complex situation, which requires a family commitment and also social,” he concludes.

But you are not alone, to carry out this work are in collaboration with FEACAB and AEETCA. is A sum of efforts seeks to achieve a common goal: to win the battle to eating disorders.

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