Anorexia - Informative Speech Essay

Anorexia nervosa, otherwise stated as anorexia, is an eating disorder that occurs when an individual restricts themselves from necessary energy intake which leads to significantly low body weight. Other characteristics of this disorder include: intense fear of becoming fat or gaining weight, persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, and disturbances of perception and experience of their own body weight and shape (DSM V, 2013). Effective treatments are still trying to be researched for this disorder, as there is not a “one size fits all” for people of all age groups, living situations, etc. Since adolescents with anorexia are such a vulnerable population,

Most people with anorexia have a distorted image of their body. An anorexic will look into the mirror and see fat, even if they are sickly thin. Most commonly, anorexia begins in the teen years. This may be related to the common self-image problems that many teens suffer from. Anorexia tends to be more common in females than in males, and early intervention seems to be the key when dealing with this disorder. When left untreated, anorexia can lead to a whole slew of physical problems. Health problems related to anorexia include osteoporosis, kidney damage or failure, heart problems, and even death. Anorexia also affects the brain, as a person starves themself their metabolism changes. This change in the body causes a person not to think clearly or make good decisions. As anorexia progresses, a person will begin to have irrational behavior. For example, a person suffering from anorexia will often make rules about the amount of food they are “allowed” to consume. Others may start to purge themselves after eating even the tiniest bit of food, which is known as Bulimia. Anorexia can also bring on another psychological disorder; Depression. Depression is a mental illness that causes a person to feel sad and hopeless most of the time. People that suffer from depression will lose interest in things that they previously enjoyed, speak slower than normal, have trouble concentrating and remembering things, and be preoccupied by death

Anorexia is a serious mental health condition. It is an eating disorder where people try to keep their body weight as low as possible. DSM5 outlines the key diagnostic features for anorexia. Firstly, people with anorexia will restrict behaviours that promote healthy body weight. This could mean that they are consequentially underweight and this can be due to dieting, exercising and purging. There will also be a significant fear of weight gain, but this fear will not be relieved by weight loss. There will be a persistent fear that interferes with weight gain. Lastly, there will be a disturbed perception of ones weight and/or shape and denial of underweight status and its seriousness. Anorexia accounts for 10% of eating disorders in the UK and has

For many the term “Anorexia” conjures up memories of bone thin, weight obsessed teenage girls, models, and actresses. However, as the spotlight has been shined on Anorexia bringing this secretive and quiet disorder to a wider public perception, many still suffer in silence: either too ashamed to seek treatment, or because of an improper diagnosis.

Incidences of Anorexia Nervosa have appeared to increase sharply in the USA, UK and western European countries since the beginning of the 60s (Gordon, 2001). The increasing prevalence of the disease has led the World Health Organisation to declare eating disorders a global priority area within adolescent mental health (Becker et al. 2011). Anorexia has in many ways become a modern epidemic (Gordon, 2000) and with a mortality rate of 10% per decade (Gorwood et al. 2003), the highest of any mental disorder (Bulik et al. 2006), it is an epidemic that social and biological scientists have been working tirelessly to understand.

Nowadays, when people emphasis more and more on healthy lifestyles, both exercise and food intake have become a big part of the consideration. With the goals of being fit and losing weight, some people eat irregularly or do not eat at all. As a result, eating disorders seem more often on news and reports. However, some people still view it as a joke. With the increasing number of people diagnosed with eating disorders, people should raise awareness on the effects of eating disorders and treat them seriously.

It’s only human to wish you looked different or could fix something about yourself. But when a more serious notion with being thin takes over your eating habits, thoughts, and life, it’s a sign of an eating disorder. When you have anorexia, the desire to lose weight becomes more important than anything else. You may even lose the ability to see yourself as you truly are. Anorexia is a serious eating disorder that affects people of all ages. It can damage your health and threaten your life. But you are not alone. There’s help available when you’re ready to make a change. Everyone

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of self-regulated food restriction in which the person strives for thinness and also involves distortion of the way the person sees his or her own body. An anorexic person weighs less than 85% of their ideal body weight. The prevalence of eating disorders is between .5-1% of women aged 15-40 and about 1/20 of this number occurs in men. Anorexia affects all aspects of an affected person's life including emotional health, physical health, and relationships with others (Shekter-Wolfson et al 5-6). A study completed in 1996 showed that anorexics also tend to possess traits that are obsessive in nature and carry heavy emotional

Therapy is often used. And oftentimes patients are submitted into a psychiatric ward for people suffering with eating disorders.

Anorexia nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain fifteen percent of a normal body weight through self-starvation (Arnold, page26). 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 (Arnold, page 39)". Anorexia produces a multitude of symptoms, and if not treated, anorexia can lead to permanent physical damage or death.

Eating disorders are severe disturbances in eating behaviors, such as eating too little or eating too much. “Anorexia nervosa affects nearly one in 200 Americans in their lives (three-quarters of them female)” (Treating anorexia nervosa). Anorexia, when translated into Greek means “without appetite” which is not true for all suffering from anorexia most people with this disorder have not lost their appetite they simply have to ignore it. People with anorexia have an intense fear of gaining weight and have convinced themselves that they are overweight even if they are the opposite of overweight. Since the way that they view themselves is in a negative light they starve themselves and put their lives at risk. “In the most severe

Eating disorders rank among the 10 leading causes of disability among woman (Stiegel-Moore and Bulik, 2007, page 181), and is seen as a serve mental disorder (Garner and Garfinkel, 1980). Anorexia is the extreme fear of gaining weight or being fat, therefore leading to a period of starvation, and a particularly low body weight. There is significant research into anorexia nervosa that heavily focuses on its biological causes, and how an individual may be susceptible due to genetic predispositions or specific neurotransmitters in their bodies. Although this is simplifying the complex phenomena, such a reductionist approach is useful in terms of treating a patient, and takes the blame off the individual. However, social issues are disregarded

Self-esteem is reliant upon body shape and weight. Physical implications may include disruption of the menstrual cycle also known as amenorrhea, signs of starvation, thinning of hair or hair loss, bloated, yellowish palms/soles of feet, dry and pasty skin. The risks that people take while indulging in anorexia can also become physiologically and mentally damaging. There are several effective treatments. One of which is hospitalization, this occurs when the weight loss is greater than 30% in 3 months time. Some other effects to be taken into consideration when hospitalizing a patient are the risk of suicide and depression, severe binging and purging, and serious metabolic disturbance. Therapy and counseling is used to help the patients with depression and family complications that may have led to the state they’re in. Clinical studies have not yet identified a medication that could improve the core symptoms of anorexia.

They will try to hide it by wearing baggy clothing or just avoid going out all together. People with anorexia suffer from another thing be sides starving themselves it is called the anorexia personality. “People with the disorder are often shy, quiet, neat, conscientious, and hypersensitive to rejection. They are prey to irrational guilt, feelings of inferiority, and obsessive worrying. They have unrealistic hopes of perfection and feel as though they can never meet their own standards”. (How the mind starves the body, and what can be done to prevent it) People with anorexia will lose muscle because of how much they want to be skinny they will work out but not eat which is the worst thing for your body. The person will lose so much muscle there heart will shrink. Lastly and the most noticeable effect of anorexia is how skin the person with it will be. If they have had it for a while they will be severely underweight and look like a skeleton covered in

Did you know, girls as young as the age of 6 are concerned about their weight or becoming too fat? Anorexia causes a slow heart rate and low blood pressure, higher risks of heart failure, your bone density can lower, you can have muscle loss and muscle weakness, kidney failures and dehydration, your body can get really weak, dry hair and skin, hair loss, and a growth of a downy layer of hair can be anywhere on your body to keep your body warm. Did you know there are people in your school that has this disorder? Following will be talking about 2 people who has had anorexia, and how many people struggle with this disorder.