Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa, AN, is an eating disorder that affects mostly females in their teenage years. The number of people that suffer from this disorder has increase in the recent decades making it a disorder that causes more deaths compare to any other psychological disorder. AN can have an effect on someone’s social life as well as physically and psychologically. It’s a disorder that can be treated with proper treatment, but identifying the symptoms is the first step.
According to the present clinical literature, anorexia nervosa entails refusal to uphold health weight range as well as body image distortion. The most common symptoms of AN that can be identified include fear of gaining weight or/and becoming fat; refusing
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All those constant ideas created by society and media gives a drive to individuals to diet constantly, use diet pills and to develop unhealthy eating patterns that could develop into an eating disorder .(Gay,2003 pg 86) Individual characteristics such as perfectionism, poor self-image are more at risk of developing AN. People that suffer from AN don’t see their body as perfect and feel ashamed or embarrass of their body which can lead them to isolation and fear of eating in public. They might focus and exaggerate on certain parts of their body that show imperfections to the point where they become obsess. Their self-esteem is very dependent in their weight. When weight loss is reached it gives the person a sense of achievement and pride giving boosting up their self-esteem, but when no weight is loss the feelings of guilt and failure lowers their self-esteem. . (DSM –IV-TR,2000).
While AN normally starts to be noticeable in early adolescence, it could also be seen in adults and young children. AN is likely to affect people in industrial societies like the U.S., Canada, and Europe. More often, Caucasians in upper and middle socioeconomic groups have a higher tendency to be affected by AN than individuals of other ethnic and economic backgrounds. Roughly, 95% of those affected are female, most commonly teenage girls. It is estimate that about one in every one hundred teenage girls has this eating disorder
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves extreme weight loss, restricted food intake, and an intense fear of becoming fat. The American Psychiatric Association outlines four diagnostic criteria for anorexia. The first is refusal to maintain body weight. The second is intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight. The third is denial of the seriousness of low body weight. The
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.
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
Anorexia has dangerous effects on the body and the mind. It has the highest rate of death of any mental illness. Between 5% and 20% of people who develop the disease eventually die from it (Lee, 2008). It may start as simple dieting, but can quickly roller coaster out of control such as not eating at all. The person’s main focus is food, dieting, and the fear of weight gain. Others see them as being very thin but they themselves see a distorted fat image when they look in the mirror.
Anorexia nervosa is a deadly disease in which any one, at any age or any time in their life can develop. Mayo clinic says “it is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight.” This compulsive disorder brings symptoms that are developed and can be minor to even death
Eating disorders is a big and serious problem in our society, unfortunately society give us a wrong idea of how our body should be, every day every person is exposed to have a wrong idea of beauty because advertisements and magazines .According to national institute of mental health, problem whit eating disorders most of the time include issues whit their behavior, their thinking , feelings and of course with food because they have an extremely fear to gain weight .Eating disorder is a psychological problem that can bring to our life’s an unending threatening costs. People who suffer of Anorexia nervosa usually had a distorted body image, extremely weight loss and low self-teem. Also, this physiological
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by weight loss (or the lack of appropriate weight gain in growing children). There can be difficulties maintaining an appropriate body weight for height, age, and stature and in many individuals, distorted body image. People with anorexia usually restrict the number of calories and the types of food they eat. Some people with the disorder also exercise compulsively, make themselves vomit and take laxatives, and/or binge eat. Anorexia can affect people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, races, and ethnicities. Psychologists and historians have found evidence of people showing symptoms of anorexia for hundreds or thousands of years. Although the disorder most frequently begins during adolescence years, an increasing number of children and older adults are also being diagnosed with anorexia. Majority of the time you cannot tell if a person is struggling with anorexia by looking at them. A person does not need to be underweight to be dealing with this condition. Studies have found
“Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder that affects women and men of all ages. It’s characterized by three key features: refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, a distorted body image” (Smith & Segal, 2016). Individuals with this disorder do not have healthy eating habits, most often not eating at all. They will starve themselves, excessively exercise, eat very little, purge at random times, and/or throw up their food following their “meal”. Anorexia can arise from a multitude of reasons from biological to environmental factors, depending on the individual. Although, almost all of the people who acquire it share a common issue of having low self-esteem. Having anorexia affects your whole body. Normal bodily functions will stop and everything will start shutting down slowly.
Anorexia nervosa is labelled as a psychiatric disorder seeing that it all starts in your head and is rising frequently. Early symptoms of anorexia nervosa are actions such as skipping what starts out as one meal and increases as your weight drops, randomly becoming antisocial, refusing to eat in public, constantly complaining about your body image. The person may become defensive very easily when it comes to people talking about their eating habits or simply encouraging them to eat. A diagnosis can be confirmed when the person has reached less than 85% of the average weight for someone his/her age, when the person starts to refuse that being underweight is dangerous for their health,
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder often found in young adolescent women, that has been characterized by a distorted attitude towards weight and body image, a set of behaviors calculated to produce weight loss and other physiological and psychological symptoms. Physiological symptoms include (according to the DSM III- R criteria) starvation, amenorrhoea, and a refusal to maintain weight above 85% of their ideal weight. Psychological symptoms include an obsessive pursuit of thinness, along with obvious body preoccupation, and an incessant rumination about food. In addition, they are also engaged in compulsive calorie counting and excessive physical exercise. The
Anorexia Nervosa is a mental disorder and while the cause can not been completely identified some of the effects are a decreased self-esteem, negative body image issues, and societal pressures per peer group. Anorexia affects females more than males but is most commonly found in teenager girls. Anorexia Nervosa is one of the most common types of eating disorders. It’s an eating disorder that is more than just concerns about obesity or out of control dieting, it decreases a person’s self-esteem. Over time, the weight loss becomes more than a sign of mastery and self-control but also a way of judging oneself. The thoughts of losing more weight becomes a secondary to concern and is more about control and/or fears about one’s body and not
Anorexia nervosa is an extremely serious, life-threatening eating disorder characterised by self-starvation and excessive weight loss, effecting 0.3% of adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (male and female). Signs of this disorder can include Inadequate food intake, Self-esteem overly related to body image, frequent comments about feeling overweight despite being thin, consistent excuses to avoid situations involving food, development of food routines (e.g. eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing, rearranging food on a plate), and the obvious dramatic weight loss in a short period of time due to very minimal food intake. Approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are girls and women, although there are the few
Among the most common anorexia symptoms, includes a low body mass index, obsession with counting calories and monitoring fat contents on food and evidence or habits of self-harming. In contrast, obesity is easier diagnosed, simply when the body mass index is over 30 being 25 a perfect weight-height ratio. Regarding effects on health, we can mention anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychological disorder, the mortality rate is between 11 to 12 times greater than the average population and the suicide risk is 56 times higher. Less serious implications are growth retardation, alterations in the female reproductive system, psychological stress, and neurological disorder also may occur as seizures and tremors. On the contrary, excessive body weight is associated particularly with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus type 2, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, osteoarthritis, and asthma reducing life expectancy. Certainly, both diseases have several serious complications, yet the high mortality rate and suicide risk made anorexia nervosa a life-threatening
There are three most common eating disorders that will be discussed in this essay, the first one being discussed is anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is defined as an eating disorder in which people suffer an obsession over their weight and body image, resulting in self-starvation and exaggerated weight loss. Many suffering with anorexia severely restricted the types and amount of food they eat, and often view their underweight bodies as overweight. There are many causes of anorexia as a result of both
The article, "Anorexia Nervosa," examines the background information, symptoms, and treatment of anorexia. Anorexia is defined as a disease in which a person starves themselves and exercises excessively in order to lose weight. In addition, as the person continues to lose weight, they have a distorted body image and perceives themselves as fat. In other words, the person is literally blind to the physical condition of their own body. The treatment process includes the help of a counselor, a dietitian, and a psychologist as they work to improve both the physical and mental well-being of the patient.