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Anorexia Nervosa Essay

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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 …show more content…

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

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