Anorexia Nervosa Essay

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Description of Problem
Overall, eating disorders are considered the third common illness for adolescent girls (Weber, Davis & McPhie, 2006). Anorexia Nervosa, anorexia, is an eating disorder that affects the way a person sees themselves and results in a person having a powerful fear of gaining weight (Scott, Hanstock & Patterson-Kane, Individuals that typically suffer from anorexia limits the amount of food that they eat and view themselves as overweight. Anorexia is characterized by emaciation, distorted body image and no menses. Despite their constant thoughts about food, an individual with anorexia has a small body weight for their height. People with anorexia have a tendency to believe that they are fat and develop bad eating habits. For example, some people with anorexia skip meals, do not eat in front of others or abuse laxatives to lose weight. Significant weight loss over a short period of time causes horrendous health conditions. Damage to vital organs can lead to death. According to Womenshealth.gov, the average length of someone with anorexia nervosa is five to seven years (2009). In a world that is obsessed to be thin, toxic environments and thoughts must be examined and challenged.
Demographics
According to Womenshealth.gov, anorexia affects 85-95 percent of females and one in ten males (2009). Women in the Western industrialized countries are typically associated with anorexia (Scott, Hanstock, Patterson-Kane, 2013).There is not a single specific factor that contributes to anorexia, but it can be influenced by culture, societal pressures, and family or life changes. Anorexia is predominant in adolescent girls but can seriously run rampant around the ages of 20-45 (Duckworth & Freedman, 2013). Anorexia also affe...

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...r own realities. If a social worker is not familiar with a reality that their client and family presents, it creates a deficit in the services that should be provided to the client. Narrative therapy highly discourages the use of labels because it is viewed as a form of oppression. Being aware of label is helpful in providing appropriate treatment for a client. When working with an anorexic client, in order to ensure that damage is not done to the therapist and client relationship. Knowledge of a client’s diagnose, helps the practitioner to pick interventions that are best suited for that individual. Narrative therapy lacks structure and that may not be productive for some clients. Narrative therapy actively critizes and frees people from assumptions placed on them and works towards reducing totalizing views that can lead to the problem (Brown, Weber & Ali, 2008).

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