A Girl

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Recommended: Biopsychosocialaspect of eating disorders

With regards to not having control over anorexia, there continue to be discoveries of the brain with anorexia and the change brought to the brain after a prolonged eating disorder. The author, Rosen discovered new findings about anorexia and can explain brain’s involvement which sheds light towards the study of eating disorders. The recent research done with brain imaging of people with eating disorders is leading to many changes in the way we look at mental illnesses. The author introduces Walter Kaye, a director of an eating disorders program at University of California, San Diego. Kelsey Heenan was mentioned, a 20 year old anorexic woman, who thought she was to blame for all her life for her mental illness. Brain scans show that there are differences between a healthy and an anorexic brain. The study consisted of unexpected receiving of rewards and omissions of rewards, by receiving a small amount of sugar as the reward. In the brain of a person with anorexia, the brain activity between receiving and omission was not different. There was however a lot more brain activity compared to a healthy person’s brain and an obese person’s brain. Anorexics are wired differently; some areas of their brain are nub to taste and even pain. Kaye knows that starvation causes brain change so further testing needs to be done to see if the brain change causes the mental illnesses or the other way around. (Rosen 22) These discoveries through brain-imaging can relieve a lot of self-doubt in the patients, which is created by society. It is not their fault that they have this disorder and that it is not going away, but getting worse, it is all because the brain functions have been damaged. Dr. Carrie E. Landa and Jane A. Bybee’s research focused on di...

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...e brain, and the brain is controlled by this language which in turn degrades a female’s self-esteem especially during puberty. During adolescent development the brain is still developing and is affected my words deeply, dieting starts around this time as a social norm, and depending on the girls exposure to society during that time, it can be impacted to continue dieting, which then can lead to more serious problems such as anorexia. There are not many therapies that work on resolving these girls health problems, the ones in use focus on mental health and understanding of emotions, but these treatments do not give the girl her life back, she will never fully recover through them. More medical research and treatment options should be developed to influence the brain alternations to the way they were before anorexia so that eating disorders can be eliminated for good.

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