Most of us have heard about people who starve theirself because they are convinced that they are fat. The literal translation of anorexia is “loss of appetite” and nervosa meaning “for reasons of the nerves”. Nearly one in 200 people suffer from anorexia. Anorexia nervosa is a dangerous illness that affects people mentally, emotionally, and physically which can lead to a tragic death. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that makes people lose more weight than is considered healthy for their age and height. According to Harvard Children’s Health: People may exercise excessively or go to extreme measures to lose weight. People with anorexia nervosa do not eat enough and have an intense fear of being fat. Most people with anorexia do feel hunger but will take extreme steps to ignore it and diet anyway, often to the point of starvation. (Anorexia Nervosa) There is two types of anorexia nervosa; restricting and binging and purging. The restricting type is where a person limits how much food he/she intakes. The binging and purging type is where a person will overeat and then force him/herself to throw up right after. The person may take laxatives to clear their body as well. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the main cause of anorexia nervosa is still unknown. The person’s hypothalamus in the brain improperly works. Often psychological, environmental, physiological factors develop the disorder in a person. Anorexia is most commonly diagnosed in white women who are high achievers and have a goal oriented family (Anorexia Nervosa). Psychologists theorize that the patients’ desire to control their own life manifests itself in the realm of eatingthe only area, in the patients mind, where she has... ... middle of paper ... ...permanent cure (Facts about Anorexia Nervosa). Patients suffer relapses even after successful hospital treatment and return to a normal weight. In recovery, exercise is complex since anorexics exercise excessively. Exercise shouldn’t be performed if severe medical problems still exist and if weight has not been gained (Eating Disorders). Anorexia has harsh long term complications. From severe damage to the endocrine system, hormonal changes may occur (Eating Disorders). A female may become infertile and may not have a menstruation cycle. A male may become sterile and may not gain muscle from low testosterone levels. Heart problems, electrolyte imbalance, bone density, anemia, and neurological damage are also complications from anorexia (Eating Disorders). The first victim is usually the bones. The most lifethreatening damage is heart multisystem disease (Feature).
Anorexia Nervosa may be described directly as an eating disease classified by a deficit in weight, not being able to maintain weight appropriate for one’s height. Anorexia means loss of appetite while Anorexia Nervosa means a lack of appetite from nervous causes. Before the 1970s, most people never heard of Anorexia Nervosa. It was identified and named in the 1870s, before then people lived with this mental illness, not knowing what it was, or that they were even sick. It is a mental disorder, which distorts an individual’s perception of how they look. Looking in the mirror, they may see someone overweight
There are two types of anorexia. The first type is restricting-type anorexia. The individual restricts food intake to a dangerous degree. The second type is binge-eating/purging type anorexia. The individual purposely regurgitates after eating uses laxatives and/or diuretics (Comer, 2013).
Anorexia nervosa is a psychosociological disease which affects young women. Anorexia is mainly a female's disease which has been evident for centuries-however, in the past twenty years, the incidence of this disorder has risen to horrifying proportions. It is characterized by the refusal to maintain body wight over a minimal normal weight for age and height; intense fear of gaining weight; a distorted body image; and, amenorrhea. (http://www.pgi.edu/hagopian.htm) This disorder becomes a disease when the mind starts to cause problems with one's physical well-being. A connection has been found between sociocultural pressures to achieve, familial characteristics, and individual personality traits.
There are many different characteristics associated with a person who has been diagnosed with anorexia. Anorectics have a distorted image of their bodies. In other words, they see themselves as fat even when they are emaciated. They also have an obsessive preoccupation with food and thinness. Anorectics suffer from depression, mood disturbance, chronic feelings of low self-esteem, and insomnia or other sleeping disorders. Another common symptom is amenorrhea. This is a loss of menses or not achieving menarche if the disorder begins before puberty. Anorectics also impose extreme dieting or exercise practices on themselves.
As defined by the National Eating Disorders Association, “Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.” (NEDA). The term “Anorexia Nervosa” literally means “neurotic loss of appetite”, and could be more generally defined as the result of a prolonged self-starvation and an unhealthy relationship regarding food and self-image. It is characterized by “resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height”, “intense fear of weight gain or being “fat”, even though underweight”, “disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight”, and “loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty.”(NEDA) Among women on a range of 15 to 24 years old, AN has been proved to have 12 times the annual mortality rate of all death causes, and from premature deaths of anorexic patients, 1 in every 5 is caused by suicide, which gives a rise of 20% for suicide probability. (EDV)
When an individual refuses to eat enough food to maintain a healthy body weight, he or she is dealing with a serious illness known as anorexia nervosa. People with this illness maintain strict control over food intake. About ninety percent of anorexia nervosa cases are women, particularly teenagers. (Alters & Schiff, 2003, p.37). For every one in one hundred that develops this illness, it most commonly evolves in their high school years. The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are:
Anorexia is a serious and life threatening condition. It can result in death due to starvation, heart failure, or electrolyte imbalance. The first step in helping someone suffering with anorexia is to diagnose the physical characteristics attributed with the disease...
Anorexia is a mental illness that can be identified by its victims starving themselves in order to drop weight to dangerous levels. Most often, anorexics will restrict their food or exercise excessively in order to decrease their body weight. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. This is mainly due to suicide and the complications that occur consequently from starvation. These complications include heart and kidney failure as well as osteoporosis and muscle atrophy. Females may also stop menstruating. The gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems may also be affected. Thus, Anorexia has detrimental effects on a person’s physical and mental health.
Anorexia has many negative effects as well. According to the University of Maryland Medical Centers article Eating Disorders, “Anorexia nervosa can increase the risk for serious health problems such as: hormonal changes including reproductive, thyroid, stress, and growth hormones, heart problems such as abnormal heart rhythm, electrolyte imbalance, fertility problems, bone density loss, anemia, and neurological problems.” Anorexia can severely affect a person internally. The continuous lack of nutrients can leave an anorexic person extremely frail. The heart in particular can grow so weak, that heart failure occurs. Eating disorders can lead too permanent health damages can stay with a person for the rest of their life.
Different forms of treatment are available such as in patient treatments, cell phone apps and therapy to teach how to overcome an eating disorder. Each eating disorder, anorexia nervous, binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa may respond better to different forms of treatment and each patient is different in what will work best for them to overcome. Support from family and friends is necessary in working with treatment and being strong enough to face an eating disorder once treatment is done. Eating disorders are easy to gain, but with the right treatment can be defeated.
Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight and they are preoccupied with the way that their bodies look. Anorexia sometimes involves use of laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Anorexics may show symptoms such as extreme weight loss for no medical reason. Also, many deny their hunger, chew excessively, choosing low calorie foods and exercising excessively (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health).
According to Laura Shapiro, a notable researcher on eating disorders, the medical condition of anorexia consists of several elements. By definition, anorexia nervosa is a condition characterized by intense fear of gaining weight or becoming obese, as well as a distorted body image, and a feeling of loss of control (Shapiro 69).
Psychotherapy or psychological counseling is an integral part of comprehensive eating disorder treatments. With a trained counselor, the patient can develop ways to cope with the issues that led to the disorder. This is especially important in anorexia nervosa treatments because of the overwhelming fear of becoming overweight. Hopefully a psychotherapist can get to the root of these fears and develop effective measures to take for recovery. Anorexia is considered to be a lifelong illness, and counseling may continue indefinitely. There are no medicines for anorexia, but antidepressants are often prescribed in conjunction with other treatments.
In 1978, Brunch called anorexia nervosa a 'new disease' and noted that the condition seemed to overtake ?the daughters of the well-to-do, educated and successful families.? Today it is acknowledged and accepted that anorexia affects more than just one gender or socio-economic class; however, much of the current research is focused on the female gender. ?Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme dieting, intense fear of gaining weight, and obsessive exercising. The weight loss eventually produces a variety of physical symptoms associated with starvation: sleep disturbance, cessation of menstruation, insensitivity to pain, loss of hair on the head, low blood pressure, a variety of cardiovascular problems and reduced body temperature. Between 10% and 15% of anorexics literally starve themselves to death; others die because of some type of cardiovascular dysfunction (Bee and Boyd, 2001).?
Anorexia represents one percent of most prevalent eating disorder diseases. The word anorexia itself means, “ lack of appetite”. Anorexia is an all-encompassing pursuit of thinness. The person effected by Anorexia has an absolute fear of becoming obese (Matthew 4).