Anorexia Nervos A Psychological, Familial And Sociocultural Factors

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.

In “Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: The Development of Deviant Identities", which was published in 1987, the researchers utilized the labeling theory in their study on anorexics and bulimic victims. The current appearance norms in society demand thinness for women and muscularity in men. Social and Individual factors were considered in the studies which were conducted by the authors, Penelope A. McLorg and Diane E. Taub. Advertising has become the primary agent of socialization which promotes the slimness of both genders in our society. The researchers noted conformity in the behavior of the anorexics' and bulimics' families tend to conform to the norms by making close relations. In the study, the researchers found that parent’s opinions on

Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.

My name is Alex. I have anorexia nervosa. Since I was thirteen years old I have struggled with the crippling fear of gaining weight and a completely distorted view of myself. I was insecure and focused on weight at a very early age and continuously obsessed with body image throughout high school.

Adolescence is a developmental stage, which is not defined merely by age. Some may even argue that many young adults with eating disorders are still in the midst of addressing the challenges of adolescence and indeed adolescent developmental difficulties have been thought to underlie the etiology of anorexia nervosa in particular. The essential features of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are consistent across the age spectrum – in terms of characteristic behaviors (dieting, bingeing, purging), specific psycho- pathology (over-evaluation of the self in terms of weight and shape) and non-specific features (low self-esteem, perfectionism, poor interpersonal confidence) (American Psychological Association, 2000). Much of the literature reports combined adolescent and adult case series without separate analysis. This makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what differences are between children and adults as well as have an understanding of the developmental

Diagnosing potential Anorexia nervosa is not always easy, and Alicia’s case, based on information given and her representation, is not clear cut. Researchers argue that the diagnosis has to be done carefully and potential ambiguities have to be resolved (Baer & Blais, 2010). For example, some researchers have argued that one criterion, such as a fear of being fat, can decrease significantly when the person actually loses some weight (Surgenor & Maguire, 2013). For reasons like this, selecting the primary question, namely whether or not the patient has Anorexia

In this article “Fighting Anorexia: No One to Blame” it discusses the struggles and challenges children face as young as 8 years old and teens from 13 to 18 years of age when dealing with the eating disorder “Anorexia Nervosa.” Which is defined in our text as an “eating disorder characterized by self-starvation” (Bee, pg. 384). The staff of “Newsweek” also discuss who or what is to blame for anorexia nervosa in the past parents have been blamed when their children have shown signs in regards to this disorder. Research has shifted from blaming the parents to the possibility anorexia might have some links to mental disorder, genetics or even environmental factors which can influence the disorder. Lastly, the article discusses various

There are behavioral similarities among individuals suffering from Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa such as feeling they are in control where they may have lacked power or control in their lives, feeling more confident, and the ability to avoid uncomfortable emotions through disordered eating behavior. However, there are also significant differences. According to the articles, those who suffer from AN consistently communicate this disordered eating behavior makes them feel more attractive, increases confidence and elicits a feeling of superiority, where as those who suffer from BN more often communicate a negative self-image and feelings of shame and defectiveness. BN patients also conveyed their desire to keep their illness a secret whereas AN patients are generally more concerned with their thinness being obvious to others and gaining attention. BN is frequently accompanied by depression, and feelings of self-loathing indicating a high prevalence of comorbidity, and those suffering from this illness experience a disturbance in feeling satisfied with a

Linear and systems models of anorexia nervosa have been postulated to explain the development and treatment of this disorder. Systems concepts concerning anorexia nervosa have been most clearly outlined by Minuchin et al.(Minuchin, Rosman

Children who had to nurture themselves from a young age don’t trust adults because they weren’t shown affection, which causes the child to have no healthy dependence on their parents, which then causes them to rely on the media to get a sense of self-worth. This self-worth is found in their physical appearance and it causes them to feel the need to starve themselves so they can “measure up to society’s standards.” This example is one of the hundreds of ways that a dysfunctional family can cause a girl to become anorexic. Another possible cause of anorexia is a lack of a sense of femininity. Women seem to find their sense of femininity from men. We look to men to tell us if we are beautiful, ugly, fat, skinny, etc. We tend to base our sense of femininity on our physical appearance which causes us to diet, wear “fashionable clothing,” and it can even cause us to starve ourselves. Fathers play a huge role in their daughters sense of femininity. Our fathers tell us we are valued as women, we are beautiful, and we are cherished. If you grow up with a deceased, absent, or disengaged father, you grow up with a huge hole in your femininity, which causes low self-esteem. The other main focus of Anatomy of Anorexia

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

When one is young, they’re seen as explorative and free to do whatever they want but for some, they never see this version of childhood. Instead theirs is filled with rules, responsibilities and an overbearing parent with unrealistic expectations of utter and complete perfection. Beverly Engel, a 30 year physcotherapist specializing in the areas of abuse recovery, relationships, women’s issues and sexuality writes a novel published in 2007, titled, “Healing Your Emotional Self,” in which she helps highlight how an eating disorder manifests. As she writes in 2007, “if your parents were hard on you about small insignificant things then you are more likely to be harder on yourself in adulthood”

Furthermore, culture concept of beauty have negatively influenced on the development of anorexia on teen girls. Each culture has its concept of beauty and usually everyone wants to fit on, mainly women and girls. Young girls, being more vulnerable because of their age, they are more likely to feel inferior if they notice that do not fit the standards of beauty on their culture. For instance, according to the book Inside Anorexia: The Experiences of Girls and their Families, anorexia is becoming more and more popular and reaching different social and cultural groups due to the fact in the western societies, thinner female bodies are being considered the ideal ones. It asserts that the government and others, being concerned about the rising rate

Fairborn (2005) points out that there is a range of treatment options and a variety of treatment settings for anorexia nervosa, however there is inadequate empirical support for this abundance of options as what minimal research on the treatment has been inconclusive. One reasoning behind this is that anorexia nervosa has been an uncommon disorder and sample sizes for studies have been low. Furthermore, the lack of evidence based treatment research can be attributed to the individual’s avoidance of treatment and dropping out of treatment. Many individuals with anorexia nervosa are unwilling to change as their identity and self-worth are intertwined with their distorted body image; they tend to deny that anything is wrong with their weight and are ambivalent on changing (Abbate-Daga, Amianto, Delsedime, De-Bacco & Fassino,

A dysfunction family was defined as “the characteristics of anorexic families as being enmeshed, overprotective, rigid and conflict-avoidant” (Minuchin et al (1978). This has led to family therapists suggesting that adolescents may develop an ED to gain independence in their family life and hope that it will unite their family instead of conflict. Oppenheimer et al (1985) has suggested that the onset of an ED may be as a result of sexual abuse in an individual’s past. This model suggests that an ED develops as a result of a woman rejecting her new body shape in puberty, as she attempts to avoid the feminine shape. Although, sexual abuse for the onset of an ED doesn’t have strong evidence; although sexual abuse been disclosed by many sufferers.