Actors, models, athletes, bodybuilders, singers, all of them, are at the pinnacle of marketing. Their images are engraved into the brains of the unacquainted consumers of the media, subconsciously becoming the number one focus. Consequently, a want is seeded in the brains of the fans, later becoming powerful enough to become a need. Diet, exercise, self identity, so many factors come into hand when looking for change, and many will take extremes measures to achieve their goals. Millions of people of which thousands have and have had years of traditions and customs influence their lives, have developed a psychological phenomenon. This disease, as it is referred medically, has come to be known as Anorexia. How far is a person willing to go to succeed? However, this succeed must not be misinterpreted. The success of becoming like an idol can come at a cost, and a very high one. Although specifically, Anorexia is what is being perceived greatly in the world at the given moment, and at that, it doesn’t stop there. Bulimia, the opposite stand point has been seen through various generation, and has continued to grow exponentially. It is a term that is not brought up regularly, although it is to be taken into equal consideration as anorexia. Seemingly, the causes of these illnesses are strongly attached to how much influence globalization, media and arguably, genetic inheritance. Globalization has been blamed by several scientists, psychologists, doctors, and so on, where what is blamed is the Westerns culture, America to be precise Expansion of a culture can bring forth many things to place where it is reached. A share of cultural knowledge is expected to be found, where both cultures will adopt customs from each other, althou... ... middle of paper ... ...g for, drastic measures are taken. Some people begin to stop eating completely, others resort to self-induced vomiting, thus entering the world of Eating Disorders. Eating disorders can be broken up into many categories. The main two that concern doctors are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is developed when an individual reaches the extreme of not eating completely. Bulimia Nervosa is when those who are on a strict diet begin to develop cravings that become so intense that they are forced to eat. However, when they eat, it is an immense amount of calories in a short period of time (binge eating), followed by repentance and self induce vomiting, and a cycle begins to appear frequently. What captivates scholars, is the possibility of these illnesses not being developed by cause of social influences directly, but rather it being a genetic factor.
The authors explain that a “fear of fatness” and desire to be thin in order to appear normal in our society can cause anorexia nervosa, where a person purposely starves themselves, losing considerable weight. This is known as visual and behavioral deviation. Bulimic people binge eat and then force themselves to vomit. They usually don’t lose an alarming amount of
To begin, Rys proposes that one of the main psychological factors of anorexia is the unknown identity of oneself and the ideal image of a woman. In this present day, media is everywhere. Women are constantly trying to change themselves to become the image that the population as a whole...
Each year millions of people in the United States develop serious and often fatal eating disorders. More than ninety percent of those are adolescent and young women. The consequences of eating disorders are often severe--one in ten end in death from either starvation, cardiac arrest, or suicide. Due to the recent awareness of this topic, much time and money has been attributed to eating disorders. Many measures have been taken to discover leading causes and eventual treatment for those suffering from anorexia. (http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource ...er.html#Causes of Eating Disorders) )
In light of what is going on in the world today, eating disorders seem farfetched and frivolous. Anorexia Nervosa could be considered a classic example of a serious eating disorder as it is defined as having a fatal a...
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are two common eating disorders that seem to have evolved from societal pressures to be thin. The short video, “Dying to be thin and the two articles, Serpell 1999 Anorexia Nervosa and Serpell 2002 Bulimia Nervosa illustrate common themes that manifest from the disorder. These common themes have positive and negative reinforcers that led me to believe that the disorder has environmental, psychological and biological implication that impacts the individual core beliefs. I could also see that there is more to the disorder than just the desire to be thin.
Anorexic behavior is complex because it is all about the need for control. Someone suffering from anorexia has a distorted body image of himself or herself. He/she believes to be overweight, even though twenty percent of the time he/she is not (Yancey 59). The image of being overweight causes a low self-esteem. Symptoms of low self-esteem are loneliness, inadequacy in talents, a lack of trust in people and themselves, insecurity, identification with a specific peer group, and sadness. The media displays the ideal human body as thin and beautiful. Anorexic’s lives are full of confusion and lack of control. To the anorexic, to be thin is to be in control. The state of control to the anorexic is the ideal life without confusion and difficulties. In most cases, the anorexic is intelligent; popular among his/her peers, athletic, talented, and viewed as a role model to most people he/she comes in contact with. In reality, the issues in daily living are too difficult for the anorexic resulting in a lack of control in his/her life. The anorexic’s answer to a confusing life is to starve the body. The behavioral symptoms of the anorexia are counting calories, eating little food, baking treats for everyone and giving them away in hope of controlling not only the anorexic’s intake of his/her food, but also others. “Playing” with food at meal times is common behavior of the anorexic. When the meal is complete, the anorexic has disguised food intake by pushing the food around on the plate and hiding food in napkins. To dress in layers to hide the distinct weight loss and to avoid social activities where eating is involved are common behavioral symptoms. Behavioral symptoms of the anorexic can go unnoticed by most people. These symptoms are very secretive and oblivious to outsiders because the behavior is not out of the ordinary. Although the behavioral symptoms of the anore...
As the "ideal" women’s body has become progressively thinner over the past decades, the eating disorder anorexia has become progressively more prevalent. Anorexia is a disease in which a person eats nothing beyond minimal amounts of food so that her body weight drops dangerously. It is no wonder with all of the cultural messages of thinness being aimed at women, that 90-95% of anorexics are female, 25.7% of all female ballet dancers are anorexic, and that the percentages are similarly high for female models and athletes (Malson, 1998). Six to eight percent of young women have been diagnosed. For some the disease takes a devastating and irreversible course; 20% of anorexic patients will die and as many as half of those will be from suicide (Sullivan, 1995). It is an extremely painful disease with many emotional hardships for all involved. Anorexia, like many psychological disorders in the DSM-IV, has medical, biological, personality, and social components and implications.
The three most commonly known eating disorders of today are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Anorexia nervosa is a disease connected with abnormal eating; it is not brought on by excitement, delusions, overactivity or a bad habit, it is a mental illness. Development of anorexia usually starts in the early teenage years, however it can go undiagnosed for thirty to even forty plus years. Another eating disorder is bulimia, people who are bulimic have no time to think about daily life; all that is on there mind is their next meal. Someone who has bulimia often l...
intro- Ninety percent of teenage girls have been on a diet. Some take it too far and starve themselves to be thin. Over one million people in just the US are afflicted with anorexia. If what is on the inside matters, then why are does society and the media constantly promote being thin? The influence of society’s promotion of a thin body plays a significant role in the development of such eating disorders as anorexia.
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
Food. It is essential for survival. Without it, people die. However, oddly enough, many struggle to live without it to accomplish the standards that our culture has created for us. We are taught that being thin is perfection and will lead to a happier life. However, lurking are the health risks that one pays for obtaining the “perfect body”. Still, along with a distorted body image, others struggle with keeping weight down and fall into the diet fads that the world parades. From movies, magazines, and television, the media also sends us messages that being fat is bad and unhealthy while being thin and beautiful is acceptable. The impact of such influences has increased eating disorders in America. These disorders do not discriminate. Anyone regardless of age, sex, race, or background can develop one and without help it can lead to death.
Eating disorders are a group of conditions characterized by severe disturbances in eating behavior with either an extreme reduction or an extreme increase of food intake, which negatively affects the individual's mental and physical health. There are two main types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is a third category of eating disorders called “eating disorders not otherwise specified”. Binge eating disorder is categorized under this. Eating disorders mainly appear during adolescence and early adulthood and affect women and girls much more than males. Eating disorders are not self-inflicted diseases, but real illnesses with biological and psychological causes. They often co-exist with other disorders such as depression and substance abuse and can lead to a number of other health complications such as kidney failure, heart problems and even death.
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).
Eating disorders are quite serious and can often lead to extreme disruption of normal eating behaviors. It wasn’t considered an illness till 1980, when a singer named Karen Carpenter died from complications due to anorexia. If left untreated a person can put significant stress on their body; causing the body to begin to shut down. Often the organs will begin to fail, the persons hair will start to fall out and the person whom you once knew will become completely unrecognizable. Researchers have found many reasons that can be the cause of eating disorders. If we consider Demi Lovato a once happy go lucky Disney star who started acting different from her usual self. We can see that she was struggling from some kind of internal complex. When
In a society that discriminates against people, particularly women, who do not look slender, many people find they cannot - or think they cannot - meet society's standards through normal, healthy eating habits and often fall victim to eating disorders. Bulimia Nervosa, an example of an eating disorder that is characterized by a cycle of binge eating and purging, has become very common in our society. Although it generally affects women, men too are now coming to clinics with this kind of disease. This is not a new disorder. It can be brought on by a complex interplay of factors, which may include emotional, and personality disorders, family pressures, a possible genetic or biologic susceptibility, and a culture in which there is an overabundance of food and an obsession with thinness. Common signs of this problem are pre-occupation with the body, a need for control and perfection, difficult interpersonal relationships, and a low self-esteem. It seems that irrespective of the initial triggers, bulimia can become a rigid pattern, which is difficult to change. The purpose of this paper is to reason out why bulimia is detrimental to our society. It focuses on its bad effect to the health of an individual and to the society. Perhaps you do not have this kind of eating disorder but you are definitely affected by it.