First of all, it hardly seems possible that two such dissimilar conditions would both be alleviated by the same category of pharmaceutical. An article from the journal Eating Behaviors addressed…
[…] the existing evidence on stimulant medication in the management of patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) or anorexia nervosa (AN) with or without comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Medical journalists looked at 13 pertinent articles concerning mainly patients suffering from bulimia nervosa. All the patients in these studies were treated with various stimulant drugs, and many experienced improvement in their eating disorder symptoms.
At the same time, however, numerous adverse effects tended to occur. These included…
[…] weight loss, decreased appetite, tachycardia, dry mouth, fatigue, insomnia, restlessness, nausea, bruxism, headache, palpitations, blood pressure changes, irritability, anxiety, depressed mood, and diaphoresis…
The use of stimulants was seen to be effective (up to a point) in many cases, but unpredictable and often unacceptable because of all the side issues. This lack of satisfaction led to a recommendation to screen such patients for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The strange part is, other evidence shows that stimulant drugs can be quite surprisingly successful in alleviating ADHD. A connection, albeit far from clear, has been acknowledged.
What a paradox
A short time ago, we looked at the newly explored connection between ADHD and disordered eating. Namely, both conditions are amenable to improvement through the use of stimulant drugs (of which Ritalin and Adderall are two examples).
It seems weird how “uppers” can enable hyper kids to mellow out — but that capacity to develop a bit of calmness has helped a lot of them fit into society successfully enough to avoid juvenile hall. As it turns out, in many cases the same pharmaceuticals can help a different constituency of kids to avoid fat camp.
There is more to be said about both of those possibilities. One is to explore a universal truth. The desire to escape blame (or even its milder cousin, responsibility) is perfectly human. However, although parents tend to find inevitable reasons to explain why things happen to their children, that perfectly natural response is not the preferred scenario.
To look for an “out” is a bad habit that benefits no one, and is in fact a bit too close to pulling the wool over one’s own eyes. For instance, not all chubby kids inevitably settle into lifelong obesity — but their parents might too readily accept that possibility. A parent might say, “Oh don’t worry, I was a fat child, but then we got a pool and started to swim, and I turned out okay.”
Now the other case: A child who seems to experience attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity (also successfully addressed by those same drugs). A parent may tend to say, “Oh don’t worry, when I was a kid I had ants in my pants, could never sit still, and look at me, I turned out fine.” Then again, maybe not.
One way a parent can fail a child is by allotting too much credit and permission to genealogy. Maybe great grandpa Charles was a circus fat man, but none of his descendants need to follow in those ponderous footsteps. The physical traits of one’s ancestors make a big difference, sure, but rarely is a sentence of lifelong obesity carved in stone.
Whatever seems to be “wrong” with a child, please don’t take anything for granted. Maybe he or she does need meds of some kind. Or maybe the family needs an introduction to BrainWeighve.
Moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, don’t fall for the “easy out.” Take a clear-eyed look at where your ideas come from, because maybe it’s time to update. If a child is hooked on eating to the point where it looks like an addiction, please get a clue and communicate clearly with both your child and the other parent and your own inner self.
This stuff is too important to lie to ourselves about. Slide on over to this other Dr. Pretlow website, and check out this post about self-deception.
Find such wisdom as a reminder from the theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, one of the smartest humans who ever lived. He said, “You must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” As a parent, please don’t let your kids suffer from your inability to face up to the mistakes and omissions buried in your own past.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Stimulant medications in the management of bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa in patients with and without comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review,” ScienceDirect.com, August 2024
Image by qimono/Pixabay
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