Anorexia Nervosa

Thesis Statement: Anorexia Nervosa effects a person both physically and mentally.

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).

Approximately one percent of adolescent girls develops Anorexia Nervosa, a dangerous condition in which they can literally starve themselves to death. People who starve intentionally starve themselves suffer from an eating disorder. The disorder, which usually begins in the young people around the time of puberty, involves extreme weight loss. At least fifteen percent below the individuals normal body weight. Many people with the disorder look emaciated, but are convinced they are over weight (Matthew 5).

Anorexia Nervosa has three Diagnostic Criteria. One is refusal to maintain body weight at or above normal. The other is, intense fear of becoming fat, even though under average weight. The last one is, Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self- evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight (Long 15).

Anorexia Nervosa has two specific types, one is Restricting type and the other is Binge-Eating/Purging type. Restricting type during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge- eating or purging behavior. In Binge- Eating /Purging type, during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating/purging behavior (Rockwell 10).

Anorexia may not be noticed in early stages. The Anorexic usually chooses to wear layered and baggy clothes to hide the “ugly fat body” .An Anorexic may have ritualistic eating patterns such as cutting food into little tiny pieces and weighing themselves. These can be found in people who are on a healthy diet, but in Anorexics these behaviors are extremely exaggerated. Other warnings are deliberate self-starvation with weight loss, fear of gaining weight, refusal to eat, denial of hunger, constant exercising, sensitivity to cold, absent or irregular periods, loss of scalp perception of being fat when the person is really to this. Some other associated features are depressed mood, somatic sexual dysfunction, and ...

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...l with in society. Two developed Anorexia after seeing a “ movie of the week” where the main character was Anorexic. Mike’s ten year old daughter developed Anorexia after seeing “The Body Trap”, a program on Nickelodeon. These findings seem to exemplify along standing debate, if educational programs prevent eating disorders or contribute to them. This is not a scientific study , just a dad with some very disturbing news: Television programs dealing with Anorexia and / or eating disorder are triggering Anorexia in some of our children (Long 15).

Works Cited

Cottrell, Randall R. "Anorexia Nervosa." Grolier Wellness Encyclopedia: Weight Control. Ed. Robert E. Kline. Vol. 15. Guilford, CT: Duskin, 1992. 117.

Long, Phillip W. "Anorexia Nervosa." Internet Mental Health. Jan. 1997. St. Joseph Medical Center. 19 Aug. 1998 .

Matthews, John R. Library in a Book: Eating Disorders. New York: Facts on File Inc. 1991

O’Dwyer, Michael P. Student Eating Disorders : Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 2005.

Rockwell, L., Understanding Eating Disorders. Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Francis. 2004