From anorexia to anti-insulin 'diabulimia': 5 million affected in Italia but 'you can cure it'

Silvia Rossi 'came out of it', as they say, and is keen to testify: that one can be cured of anorexia (and not only). But, also, that one's own personal story can be made to blossom by being prepared to engage and help the very young thanks to 'special antennae', as she defines them, which - after years of treatment and psychotherapy - allow her to intercept, in the pupils of the Umbrian 'middle' school where she teaches mathematics, the alerts of possible discomfort. "The key,' she explains, 'lies in early intervention, which, even starting from the smallest signs such as listlessness at the table, reluctance to confront and relate to family members or a sudden change in mood, can prevent the first symptoms of an eating disorder from developing into a pathology. The kind whereby you throw yourself into the tightest of sports and perfectionism in all areas. She waited a long time for an adequate response: at the first visit to a nutritionist her malaise had not been detected, then months of attending an outpatient clinic in the area had been sporadic and unable to resolve it. Accomplice also,' she explains, 'was the difficulty in my parents taking note of my need to translate that great pain that I had been carrying inside since childhood into a disease capable of making me finally visible in their eyes. Here,' Silvia declares, 'in this sense anorexia saved me'. But Silvia came within a whisker of the irreparable: at the age of 21 she weighed 38 kg and was bradycardic when, thanks to the insistence of an aunt, she was hospitalised in Umbria, in the Palazzo Francisci residence in Todi, which is one of the beacons of care in Italy. From there, the slow ascent that took nine months of hospitalisation, supported by the team of professionals 'including my angel,' she recounts, 'the nutritionist who continued to follow me even once I was discharged. But when can you say you are 'cured'? "It is impossible to fix a date,' Silvia replies. 'For me, healing came from a set of changes, when I finally shifted my focus on life rather than on pain, food obsession and hyperactivity.

Silvia Rossi's case proves once again that eating disorders can be cured. "The good news,' explains Laura Dalla Ragione, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, director of the Eating Disorders Network of the Umbria Region as well as director of the National DCA toll-free number of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, 'is that total remissions are many: 80% for anorexia nervosa, 70% for bulimia. And so,' he continues, 'it is infuriating that so many young people still fail to reach this goal and that there are over 3,500 deaths. Dan', or 'Dca', is the leading cause of death in Italy among adolescents, after road accidents. The reality is that too many remain excluded from services, in the face of an emergency that, between the 3 million cases 'put in the clear' in 2025 by a Cineca survey and the estimated submerged number of at least 2 million people throughout Italy, presents a hefty bill of 5 million young and very young people affected'. While many overcome the disease, there are 30% of those who, also because they have not found appropriate answers close to home, refuse treatment or risk relapses or - again - a change of pathology in another direction. This is why it is essential that an adequate network of care be structured everywhere.

The map of services does not make any concessions: the regions with a complete network of care even in the territory 'can be counted on the fingers of one hand,' the expert warns, 'and they are Tuscany, Umbria, Emilia Romagna and Veneto, while in others, such as Lombardy, which also has good hospital and residential facilities, there is a shortage of public clinics. In the whole country, to have a complete network we would need at least 300 centres,' Dalla Ragione continues, 'while today, despite the growing numbers, we are only halfway through. As a result, mobility is very high: those who can afford it move to seek answers, at their own expense'.

The latest data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (February 2026) speak of 232 facilities throughout the country, including 56 associations that do voluntary work, prevention and counselling, and 176 treatment centres (141 public and 35 private). These centres are more present in the North (85), less so in the Centre (36) and the South and Islands (55). Only half are qualified to take charge of the 7 to 12 age group, and this is a further problem.

In fact, the age of onset of nutrition disorders continues to fall and is also affected by 'novelties' that should be taken care of very early, such as Arfid (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder): the avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder that - as the Society of Neuropsychiatry of Childhood and Adolescence (Sinpia) reminds us - affects 5-14% of children, most often boys, and manifests itself between the ages of 6 and 10 years with "the avoidance of specific foods due to sensory characteristics such as appearance, smell, consistency and temperature and the fear of choking or vomiting". On the other hand, also widespread among males, there is compulsive binge eating disorder or binge eating introduced in 2022 by the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Dsm 5) of the American Psychiatric Association.
The need for greater attention to the peculiarities of the male audience is among the urges coming from the Italian Society of Paediatrics: 'It is essential that paediatricians, parents and teachers learn to intercept even less typical signs such as obsession with muscle mass or excessive exercise,' stresses President Rino Agostiniani.