Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of anorexia
Anorexia nervosa effects on the body
Biological causes of anorexia nervosa
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of anorexia
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder typically shown in the media as a teenage girl whose bones show through her skin, picking and prodding at her body in the mirror. This is the image that comes to mind for most people when they think of anorexia. However, this image only scratches the surface of a disorder as complex as anorexia. Anorexia can be understood by looking at a few different things: its definition, its causes and prevalence, its resulting complications, and its treatment. Anorexia is a serious disorder that involves compulsive dieting and excessive weight loss. According to The National Institute of Mental Health, anorexia is characterized by emaciation, a relentless pursuit of thinness, and extremely disturbed eating behaviors (Parks, 2009). The “disturbed eating behaviors” associated with anorexia include unhealthy weight loss and weight control methods, behaviors such as abusing or self-induced vomiting, and a distorted view of one’s personal appearance (Shepphird, 2010). Anorexics in general survive on 500 calories or less per day, and they count every calorie they consume (Parks, 2009). Symptoms often also include the inability or refusal to maintain a healthy weight and a great fear of gaining weight (Shepphird, 2010). A disorder very often related to anorexia is bulimia nervosa, which is very similar but has a distinct difference. In Eating Disorders, Tedra Coakley defines anorexia a “psychological disease that is characterized by a distorted body image and an obsessive fear of weight gain” and bulimia as “characterized by compulsive eating followed by deliberate purging, the use of laxatives or excessive exercise in order to prevent weight gain” (Espejo, 2012, p. 36). With this in mind, it is clear that one pers... ... middle of paper ... ...g treatment, and feeling she should leave because she came too soon (Greenfield, 2006). Another patient, Shelly, expressed concerns that seeing her family causes her to revert back to old habits, and that every time she returns home she relapses as a result (Greenfield, 2006). A patient named Polly describes her trouble being okay with her body as it gets bigger through patient, especially because she only came to treatment with the intention of ceasing her vomiting – not gaining weight (Greenfield, 2006). Anorexia is a disorder that goes much deeper than the trite image pushed by the media. Anorexia occurs most often in young, adolescent females, can be caused by biological, socio-cultural, and psycho-developmental factors, causes considerable damage to the body and the heart, and treatment is not often attained and is long and difficult for the patient when it is.
Jody is a 19-year-old female who has been through a lot of change: she has completed her freshman year of college miles away from home and her parents recently became divorced. Due to high conflict throughout the divorce Jody’s anxiety levels have heightened, especially when thinking about or talking to her parents and Jody’s grades also began to decline. She has been seeking help from the school-counseling center and with her free time plays club volleyball. Jody started going to the gym more to get into shape and started liking the results, which escalated into working out more than necessary, and restricting her diet.
Anorexia is a condition that goes beyond out-of-control dieting. This psychological disorder initially begins with dieting to lose weight. The excessive drive to lose weight becomes secondary to the concerns about control and fear of one’s own body. An adolescent continues an endless cycle of controlled eating which is then often accompanied by other psychological and emotional behaviors. In an FDA consumer special report, Dixie Farley states, “the anorectic becomes obsessed with a fear of fat and losing weight[…] she sees normal folds of flesh as fat that must be eliminated[…] Anorectics are described as having low self-esteem and feeling that others are controlling their lives. Some may be overactive and her obsession increasingly controls her life. It’s an addiction.” A teenage girl with anorexia often restricts her dieting, sometimes to a point of starvation in order to feel control over her body. As she keeps dieting, a domino of emotional and psychological stress begins to affect her body and the endless cycle of restrictive eating and over exercising begins to lead to depression. In the end, this depression ultimately leads to a cycle that becomes an obsession and an addiction.
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
AN was first described by Sir William Withey Gull in 1873, and is a serious and potentially life-threatening mental illness. Other essential features of this disorder include a distress for gaining weight, a inaccurate body image, denial of the seriousness of the illness, and amenorrhea, for at least three consecutive menstrual cycles, in females, when they are otherwise expected to occur [2].
Anorexia is a disorder where a person deprives their body of food to abstain the fear of becoming fat, leading to excessive and unhealthy weight loss. Anorexia not only produces weight loss but many internal problems such as hair loss, fatigue, weakness osteoporosis, amenorrhea (the loss of menstrual periods) and can even cause heart attacks.
Anorexia is an obsessive desire to control ones bodily appearance. It often starts with the refusal to obtain a healthy body weight. “This disorder is associated with under nutrition of varying severity with resulting secondary endocrine and metabolic changes and disruptions of bodily functions” (Kontic et al. 2013). An Anorexic person has a distorted view of themselves which can lead to devastating measures of self-starvation due to an immense fear of weight gain. In the same way, an individual suffering with Bulimia has a fear of weight gain, but goes about their technique in a different manner. Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating or, consuming a large amount of food in a short time followed by guilt. This guilt is the leading factor to the purging stage where the individual will rid themselves of the physical and emotional discomfort. The ridding stage can invo...
Anorexia nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain fifteen percent of a normal body weight through self-starvation (NAMI 1). Ninety-five percent of anorexics are women between the ages of twelve and eighteen, however, “…in the past twenty years, this disorder has become a growing threat to high school and college students”(Maloney and Kranz 60). Anorexia produces a multitude of symptoms, and if not treated, anorexia can lead to permanent physical damage or death.
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.
Binge-eating disorder is defined as an eating disorder in which a person frequently consumes large amounts of food while feeling out of control and unable to stop. Almost everyone overeats every once in a while but for some people overeating crosses the line to binge-eating disorder and it becomes a regular occurrence. Many people who have this disorder may feel embarrassed about eating large amounts of food in front of others however the urge and compulsiveness of this disorder continues to affect their eating habits. Binge-eating disorder is estimated to affect approximately 1-5% of the general population and also tends to affect women slightly more often than men. Binge-eating disorder is often associated with symptoms of depression and people diagnosed with this may often express distress, shame, and guilt over their eating behaviors.
Anorexia nervosa, more commonly known as anorexia- an emotional and medical disorder, generally is the lack of food consumption due to a constant fear of gaining weight, an objection to preserve or control a healthy body weight, and a mentally distorted body image. This primarily begins with ones misery with their body. You start to block out everything in your life (school, work, friends, and hobbies) and mainly focus on meals and what should or shouldn’t be consumed. The thing that mainly diagnoses one as anorexic is the simple fact that "... No matter how skinny you become, it's never enough." People diagnosed with this eating order are often in denial and see no wrong doings when they could potentially reach a state of health the body cannot maintain and die.
Anorexia Nervosa – the belief one is fat, despite being very thin. Most women have heard the word “anorexia”, and in all probability associate it with models, celebrities, and never think it could happen to them. However the word, “anorexia” has much more meaning and facts behind it to prove that it isn’t as farfetched of an idea as people may think. Anorexia Nervosa is an extremely dangerous eating disorder that is much more than celebrities and models, and not eating enough.
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).
Although anorexia and bulimia are related to eating disorders, anorexia nervosa has more background than bulimia. This essay states what anorexia nervosa is and for how long the disease has been around in society. There is more tan one definition of anorexia nervosa; however, all describe the same problem. Here are some of the definitions: Anorexia nervosa is an eating problem that occurs when a person is unrealistically concerned about being overweight and therefore eat as little as possible. This condition is both a physical illness and a psychiatric illness.
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).
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 ...