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Anorexia nervosa
The problem with eating disorders
Anorexia nervosa
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In the United States, up to 30 million people of different ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder. Anorexia Nervosa affects a great figure of people, particularly young women, in today 's modern societies. Anorexia Nervosa usually occurs when a person will refuse to eat or experiences an extreme fear of gaining weight. Just one-third of people struggling with Anorexia Nervosa in the United States obtains treatment. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest fatality rate of any mental sickness. It is an eating disorder that involves a large population, particularly adult females. Anorexia Nervosa serious symptoms and can be caused by outside forces, genetic predisposition or a combination of both. The feature of Anorexia Nervosa is a physical and psychological harmful eating pattern. …show more content…
The precise reason is unidentified, however, research on the disease may prove that genes are a factor in getting Anorexia Nervosa. It could be caused by family and cultural pressures to the trapped person suffering from the disease this could be their only way of controlling their life. A behavioral therapist would read that positive reinforcement can create the problem. Friends and family complimenting a person on their weight-loss causes that person to feel great and continue to lose weight. Peers have an immense pressure, in fact sometimes more than the parents. For example, if a friend or a group of friends is on a diet a person may conform and follow the same pattern. There is also a biological approach to eating disorders, looking at the genetic factors. Studies using twins show some evidence of Anorexia Nervosa being genetically inherited, even so, there was not adequate evidence to conclude that Anorexia Nervosa is genetic. Further research is looking for a specific cause of the disorder. Besides genetic factors and peer pressure media plays a large role by endorsing the idea that thin is
The book Stick Figure: A Diary Of My Former Self is a personal journal written by Lori Gottlieb when she was 11 years old suffering from anorexia nervosa. “Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat.” (mayclinic.com) Most eating disorders are physiological due to friends and family, stress, and the social media. Anorexia nervosa, like all other eating disorders, is extremely dangerous and unhealthy for the human body to endure. Although eating disorders are destructive to one's life, is there an explainable reasoning behind why a person may have one?
One possible factor is biology. A person might inherit a gene from their parents that predisposes them to a susceptibility to eating disorders. While that may not be enough on its own, it certainly starts that person off on the wrong foot and if combined with other factors it can lead to an eating disorder. For example, an individual could inherit a slow metabolism causing them to put on weight faster than others, which in turn could cause them to develop an eating disorder to counteract the weight gain.
Anorexia nervosa is a psychosociological disease which affects young women. Anorexia is mainly a female's disease which has been evident for centuries-however, in the past twenty years, the incidence of this disorder has risen to horrifying proportions. It is characterized by the refusal to maintain body wight over a minimal normal weight for age and height; intense fear of gaining weight; a distorted body image; and, amenorrhea. (http://www.pgi.edu/hagopian.htm) This disorder becomes a disease when the mind starts to cause problems with one's physical well-being. A connection has been found between sociocultural pressures to achieve, familial characteristics, and individual personality traits.
To begin with, Anorexia Nervosa is an on going problem around the world. People with Anorexia need to get treatment because symptoms are bad for their health. Anorexia is mainly seen in women in their late teens to early twenties. According to Mayo Clinic Staff, a group of physicians, scientists, and other medical experts from Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, "...symptoms of anorexia nervosa are related to starvation, but the disorder also includes emotional and behavior issues related to an unrealistic perception of body weight and an extremely strong fear of gaining weight or becoming fat". Physical symptoms are not the only symptoms or damages done to the body. When thinking of anorexia, one typically thinks that physical symptoms are the only symptoms, such as a person so skinny you can see their bones. That is not the case with Anorexia Nervosa. One does not only suffer from, "...Extreme weight loss...Thin appearance...Dehydration...Swelling of arms or legs" but also suffer from emotional and behavioral issues such as, "...Refusal to eat...Fear of
When an individual refuses to eat enough food to maintain a healthy body weight, he or she is dealing with a serious illness known as anorexia nervosa. People with this illness maintain strict control over food intake. About ninety percent of anorexia nervosa cases are women, particularly teenagers. (Alters & Schiff, 2003, p.37). For every one in one hundred that develops this illness, it most commonly evolves in their high school years. The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are:
Over the years the rise in body image dissatisfaction has grown as both male and female progress to adulthood. This factor can be contributed to societal standards that the media presents to the public daily. These standards continue to rise making the body image more difficult to attain. With these standards comes the push to seek the “perfect body”. This myth of true beauty commonly found in today’s society, is the price that adolescents buy into often sacrificing their health. The perfect body can often present a distorted view of one-self leading to unhealthy methods of weight reduction. The most common methods for weight reduction are the diseases Anorexia and Bulimia. The similarities and differences between Anorexia and Bulimia will be used to prove that the society’s pressure to fit a certain mold contribute to the onset of the disease.
Bizarre, devastating, and baffling are three words that describe the anorexia nervosa disease. By definition, anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person diets and becomes significantly underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continue to starve themselves. The term "anorexia nervosa" literally means nervous lose of appetite. People with the disorder are suppressing a strong desire to eat, because they are afraid of becoming fat. Anorexia is characterized by extreme starvation that leads to a disastrous loss of weight. Anorexia nervosa affects a large number of people today in the world, and does not discriminate against anybody. Its victims can be overweight, thin, young, old, or either sex although, its primary victims are young girls between the age of thirteen and nineteen. This disorder has become more and more common around the world today. It has populated many college campuses, and it is spreading. Recent studies show that almost 20% of college women suffer from anorexia or bulimia (bulimia is a eating disorder similar to anorexia), and the statistic increases to about 50% when so called "fad" bulimics and anorexics are included (Baker 9). This disease takes ordinary, often very beautiful people and drives them to starvation for no apparent reason whatsoever. They do not even seem to realize the extreme danger that comes with not eating a balanced diet. These young people lose so much
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 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.
In civilized societies, there are continuous prizing of thinness than ever before. Occasionally, almost everyone is watchful of their weight. Individuals with an eating disorder take extreme measures to concern where they ultimately shift their mode of eating, this abnormal eating pattern threatens their lives and their well-being. According to Reel (2013), eating disorders are continually misapprehended as all about food and eating. However, there is more to that as the dysfunction bears from emotion concealing a flawed relationship with food, physical exercise and oneself. Persons with eating disorders convey fault-finding, poor self- esteem and intense body discontent. This can lead to extreme distress of gaining weight,
There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention.
Another reason that an eating disorder can develop is that of other opinions. People can give an opinion thinking that it won’t affect that person. Some people might even say it to make someone feel bad about themselves. People with a low self-esteem feel obliged to listen to people with this mean opinions. For example, your coach
There are many reasons that can contribute to the cause of eating disorders. One of the main reasons seems to be the obsession over every little pound a person is wearing. Sometimes low self-esteem or depression from any number of causes can usher in the eating disorder. Other times compulsive exercising can help shed the pounds but leave the enthused unhealthy looking.
Anorexia is a type of eating disorder who has an intense fear of gaining weight. They severely limit the amount of food they eat and can become dangerously thin (1). Anorexia affects both the mind and body and can even become deadly. Anorexia usually starts in the teen years and can go into adult hood. Untreated anorexia can lead to starvation and serious health problems, such as osteoporosis, kidney damage, and heart problems. Some people die from these problems (1). The cause of anorexia is not fully understood. It is thought to be from a mix of physical, emotional,, and social triggers (2). Extreme dieting changes how the brain and metabolism work, and it stresses the body. Genetics play a big part in anorexia. A combination of certain personality traits such as low self-confidence along with perfectionism and cultural and social pressures can play a big part in anorexia. For some teens, anorexia can be a way of coping with stressful events, such as moving, divorce, or the death of a love one (2).
While there are many types of eating disorders Anorexia Nervosa is the most commonly known disorder than can range from any gender or age. In the U.S. alone at least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder. This deadly, but treatable, eating disorder can not only affect one's physical state, but also mental.