How to manage anorexia nervosa at home?

If you are suffering from anorexia nervosa, it is understandable that you don’t know how to get better. you might not be eating enough food because you hope to attain perfection by losing weight and avoid eating food. The good news is that the behaviors you learned can also be unlearned. Just as you develop anorexia nervosa, so too, you can get better. However, treating anorexia nervosa is more than giving up unhealthy eating behaviors. The first step towards recovery from anorexia nervosa is to admit that you have a problem and then set up a treatment plan with your doctor. Being a health problem deeply rooted in psychology, Ayurveda corrects it from the root-cause by offering detailed psychological counselling along with Ayurvedic remedies, anorexia home remedy, and healthy diet and lifestyle recommendations.

It is also important to understand the difference between anorexia and anorexia nervosa. While anorexia (known as aruchi in Ayurveda) refers to the loss of appetite, anorexia nervosa refers to a serious psychological and physiological condition where an individual develops an aversion to eating and have a distorted body image and a fear of being obese. A person with anorexia nervosa often has severe and even life-threatening weight-loss.

According to Ayurveda, anorexia is caused by an aggravation of vata, pitta and kapha doshas, and a couple of psychological factors such as fear, anger and stress that tend to hamper your digestive processes. This leads to the formation of ama (toxins) in the digestive tract, which in turn might disturb the sense of taste and affect your appetite. Therefore, to revive your lost taste and increase your appetite, you can follow the below mentioned anorexia home remedy –

• Ginger can come to great help as it is loaded with health benefiting properties. A mixture prepared with ¼ teaspoon of ginger juice, ¼ teaspoon of lime juice and a pinch of rock salt taken 15 minutes before meals, twice a day, can help stimulate taste buds and aid digestion.
• Sip warm water whenever thirsty. This helps to digest
• To remove mucus and improve the functioning of taste receptors, clean your tongue after brushing the teeth. This removes the mucus and helps the taste receptors work properly.
• Mix the following in powdered form: 10g dried ginger root, 3g black pepper, 2g long pepper, 5g celery seeds, 10g cumin seeds and 10g rock salt. Store it in an airtight vessel. Take 1 teaspoon with the first bite of food during meals, twice a day.
• Drink 1 glassful of buttermilk in the afternoon prepared from toned milk with a pinch each of roasted cumin seed powder, black pepper powder, and rock salt.

Besides ayurvedic remedies and anorexia home remedy, you can do certain things to start feeling strong and in control again to manage anorexia nervosa –

Give your mind a rest – It is very common to feel conscious of your body image in today’s social media era, therefore, please take a break from the harmful or unrealistic messages you get from the internet. Please keep in mind that it is very important to love and accept yourself, and listen to your body. You can also calm your mind by lighting your favorite scented candles in the room. The aura of aromatic smells goes beyond simply creating a fragranced experience as they help you relax and relieve stress.

Make mealtimes fun - Try to eat together as a family as often as possible. Even if you don’t feel like eating, join your family at the table. Use this time together to enjoy and spend time in each other’s company. Spending time in the company of good friends and relatives help relieve stress and improve your digestive power. It will also help you build trust and ask for emotional support when needed.

Avoid ‘food and fat’ talk - Fill your life with activities that you enjoy or make you feel fulfilled. Try something you’ve always wanted to do, such as learning a skill or a hobby. When you are busy doing something worthwhile, you will focus less on food and weight. Also, avoid people that drain your energy, make you feel bad about yourself or encourage your symptoms. If you can’t avoid them, work out a way to protect yourself. Remember that recovery is possible. Believe in yourself – that you can and will get better and stay well.

Practice yoga and pranayama – Yoga and Pranayama can be effective tools to restore the imbalances in both your body and the mind that occur with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa. They have a profound ability to balance the emotions and have been shown to help relieve stress, depression, anger and anxiety and to promote equanimity, a calm, clear focused mind. Yoga postures such as Pawanmuktasan and Bhramari Pranayama are especially beneficial for people with anorexia.

While these tips and ayurvedic remedies mentioned above can help you manage the condition, your primary goal is to stick with the treatment plan suggested by the Ayurvedic doctor. Better relief depends a lot on getting early treatment for anorexia nervosa and not mistaking ayurvedic remedies or any anorexia home remedy as an alternative for proper root cause treatment.