Since the start of the health crisis and the first confinement, specialists have observed a sharp increase in the number of patients with eating disorders.

This situation particularly affects women under 30. 

This is one of the lesser known consequences of the health crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.

Eating disorders are on the rise, especially among women under 30.

A worrying situation, according to specialists, who note a 30% increase in consultations.

Especially since the specialized services are already full and must manage the influx of patients by adapting to try to follow each one as best as possible. 

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Last year, during the first confinement, Marie, a 19-year-old first year geography student, lost all her bearings.

And it triggered bulimia.

“Before confinement, I had a routine, a schedule. I would get up in the morning, go to high school, eat at noon in town with friends. But confinement kept me from doing all that and has given way to all this stress and anxiety that sometimes reach me ", she testifies at the microphone of Europe 1. 

"The situation deteriorated for months at home"

"There is a period when I ate a meal and I vomited it within an hour," remembers Marie, whose weight has dropped to below 45 kilos.

"The fact of vomiting relieved me", confides the young woman.  

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And Marie is far from being an isolated case.

"It is a fact, eating disorders increased enormously from the start of the first confinement. And at the end of the second wave, we saw situations that had deteriorated for months at home," confirms Marie-Rose Moro, child psychiatrist and head of department at the Maison de Solenn, the adolescent center at Cochin hospital.

According to her, this situation mainly affects "older adolescents and young adults". 

Many people on the waiting list 

Since the start of the crisis, the specialized services have faced an influx of patients.

Thus, at the Institut Montsouris in Paris, in the adolescent and young adult psychiatry department, the 30 beds are occupied, while around 20 people are on a waiting list. 

Maurice Corcos, who heads the service, is forced to adapt the care of patients.

"We are seeing more and more requests from patients who are much leaner and who would require hospitalizations. However, as we have no room, we manage them in consultation with our colleagues such as general practitioners", indicates he does.

And to warn: "It holds, but it should not last too long."

Anorexia, bulimia ... "both are equally worrying"

This increase in eating disorders is explained by a lack of benchmarks, social relations but also, according to Valentin Flaudias, a specialized psychologist in Clermont-Ferrand, by a feeling of powerlessness in the face of the health crisis. “In a period where we have little control, food remains something that we can control, which is reassuring,” he explains. "In some people, diet helps manage stress and therefore can potentially trigger an eating disorder."

"As soon as there is stress, as soon as there is something worrying, one of the ways to react to this question is to control your food," says Marie-Rose Moro.

"We feel that everything is slipping away from us, that nothing is as it was before, and we try to relate to what we have left: the body and the relationship to food. Either we control and there is anorexia , either we cannot control our impulses and there, they are bulimic behaviors. Both are also worrying. "

According to Valentin Flaudias, the end of the crisis will not necessarily bring a respite.

Because deconfinement is the resumption of social life and therefore, for some, the return of the gaze of others, which can be a source of fear and stress.