Anorexia vs. Bulimia
In our culture today, people concerned with the way they look to a high extent, how much they weight, their physical appearances and how to change a body part they do not like. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders that affect a person’s weight to an extreme due to wanting to be thinner when in reality they are already thin to the bone. Both disorders have their similarities and differences from their main obsession of body weight to how they try to lose it.
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder discovered by the English doctor Richard Martin. Anorexia is a distortion of one’s body image and intense fear of gaining weight. There is a lack of menstruation for at least three months among females. People
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The basic metabolic response to starvation is to conserve body tissues and energy. However, the body will also start to use its own tissue, including muscle and organs, for energy since the body has no food to use. The liver and intestines will usually lose the highest percentage of their own weight during starvation, followed by the heart and the kidneys; they both lose a descent amount of weight. Further effects of anorexia nervosa may include kidneys stones and even kidney failure.
Treatment for anorexia can include both medical treatment and/or psychological counseling. A person with anorexia may be treated in an outpatient setting, or hospitalization might also be necessary. When someone has had a great amount of weight loss that has impaired organ function, hospital treatment must primarily focus on malnutrition; tube feeding that goes past the mouth may be required. One to three pounds per week is reasonable weight gain when nutrition must be improved. For individuals who have suffered from anorexia for several years, the goals of treatment may need to be achieved more slowly in order to prevent the anorexia sufferer from relapsing as a result of being overwhelmed by treatment.
Bulimia was discovered by Prof. Gerald Russell in the year 1979, when he was serving at the Royal Free Hospital in London. His discovery gained official recognition as a serious disorder by the American Psychiatric
Both are eating disorders and individuals with the disorder both have a fear of weight gain. Patients self worth and evaluation is mainly based on weight and appearance. There is no official cause but both disorders can be related to culture, family, life/history, stressful situations and/or biology. There are concerns about weight and body image. There is a poor body image because of cultures emphasis on thinness. Causes could also involve major stressful life changes or could be because of participation in activities that are appearance orientated such as ballet or modelling. There are also many similarities in behaviour, effects on health, treatment and statistics. Behaviour for individuals with either disorder can include excessive exercise, mood swings, self harm etc. There can be many effects on health whether these are physical (hair loss, dry skin,) psychological (depression, mood swings) and social (isolation/withdrawal.) Patients with anorexia and bulimia will also resist treatment, due to the fear of gaining weight. Statistics show that both disorders can be developed at any age for both males and
slim), or a learned responses to physical or emotional pain, or a way to deal with stress. Each possible cause of the disorders is as unique as the disorder itself, each cause is as complex as the disorder is itself and every single individual who suffers from anorexia or bulimia are unique, as pointed out by Sacker and Zimmer (1987) ‘Every single person suffering from bulimia and anorexia nervosa is unique’. Due to the uniqueness and the complexness of each disorder and the difference in each individual’s personality, it is paramount to look deeper in order to devise the best possible treatment for anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as currently most eating disorders are treated in a similar manner.
The first step in the treatment of anorexia is to aid the client in adapting a more standardized eating pattern. A dietitian may intervene at this point to assist the affected person to adopt more healthy eating behaviors. The counselor's role is to gradually help the client begin to adopt a more normal eating style (Shekter-Wolfson et al 13). In all cases, however, there are six goals of any treatment process:
Anorexia is most effectively treated by nutrient therapy. Physical health is the top priority in anorexic patients because the disorder takes a large toll on the body. Critical conditions pushes care to a near-emergency level because the body can easily shutdown due to extreme weight-loss. Afterwards, programs such as behavioral modification can be later implemented to address the psychological symptoms.
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating and psychological disorder. This condition goes beyond weight control; the patient starts a diet to lose weight until it becomes a symbol of power and control. Thus, the individual comes to the brink of starvation in order to feel control over their own body. This obsession is similar to an addiction to any drug or substance. According to the Doctors Lemberg and Cohn (1999), eating disorders contribute to the increase of mortality rate; “Aggregate annual mortality rates associated
There are a few ways to try and treat this disorder. Because it is a mental disorder the first approach a lot of parents take with their child is to get them into some sort of counseling. A counselor can talk to the child or adult suffering from this disease and see if they can try to talk to them and get through to them. They might be able to figure it is deeply rooted from something in their past. They have to try to talk the sick person into trying to want to eat a healthy amount of food and love his or her body again. There are some drugs that can be prescribed to try and help with this which include “Olanzapine (Zyprexa), Citalopram (Celexa), Fluoxetine (Prozac)” ("Overview - Anorexia nervosa - Mayo Clinic", 2016). If a person is refusing help and is getting to a dangerously low weight, they can be hospitalized and force fed from a feeding tube. I did watch a show from the UK that had a program for girls with eating disorders. They were sent away from their parents to live in a home with other girls with eating disorders and were monitored very closely. They were required to eat a certain amount of calories per day and watched extremely closely. They were not allowed to use the restroom until three hours after finishing a meal in fear that they might be hiding food in their mouths and spit it out or some girls would make themselves throw up what they had just eaten. Exercise was limited and any type
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” claimed model Kate Moss, in her 2009 interview with Women’s Wear Daily Magazine. Being one of the most famous models in the industry in the early 2000’s, Kate Moss had a younger fan base, ranging from high school girls to college women. For this very reason, many people thought it was wrong of Kate to say such a thing and claimed she was promoting eating disorders. This phrase, although years old, still has influence on young women in today’s society where whether someone eats too much or too little, they are judged. This being said it is no surprise that the leading mental illnesses in America are Anorexia and Bulimia. Both Anorexia and Bulimia are similar in the fact that they are highly popular in today’s world where it seems that physical appearance is always a topic of discussion; however, the two illnesses are different in the effects they have to a person’s body.
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
Thirty million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder (eatingdisordercenter.org). The two most common are bulimia and anorexia. These diseases are frequently confused due to their similarities. Although they are alike, they have a few significant differences. The similarities are both diseases are about control and strength, they cause serious health risk, affect the same group of people and have no known cause. Their differences are the way the individuals gain control and the physical characteristics of the people with these diseases.
Finally, we will look at possible treatments for anorexia. People that suffer can get better and gradually learn to eat normally again. Anorexia involves both mind and body. Therapy or counseling is a critical part of treating eating disorders. In many cases family therapy is one of the keys to eating healthily again. Parents and other family members are important in helping the person see that his or her
People with anorexia go into semi-starvation state, which the body is unable to absorb the
There are many forms of eating disorders in the world; however, the two most common disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia and Bulimia are found mostly in teens and young adult women (Amjad). Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person will starve them self in order to loose weight. (Amjad) Bulimia Nervosa is another common form of an eating disorder. In this case a person will go through periods of binge eating and then self-induce themselves to purge or vomit. (Amjad) Although we know many things about the physical aspects of these disorders, scientists still ponder on why people may develop one or both of these two eating disorders. Through much research, scientists may have found three possible
Eating disorders are extremely harmful and rising in prevalence. . The two most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. In this essay, I will compare and contrast these two disorders. This essay will also assess the symptoms, causes, health affects and the most prevalent characteristics of people diagnosed with these two eating disorders.
The syndromes differ, but are related in various ways. Anorexia Nervosa is the case where people have an endless fear of being fat. Victims starve themselves, refuse to eat, and continuously are dieting. Somebody also take part in extreme exercise and their calorie intake is as light as possible. Direct effects of Anorexia include extreme weight loss, a halt in their growth , and even a risk of developing heart disease. Bulimia Nervosa is a disorder in which people participate in binge eating instead of starving themselves. During a time period, these people uncontrollably consume large amounts of foods. Afterwards, sufferers secretly remove any of the previous nourishment taken in. This is done in numerous ways, such as vomiting, fasting, using laxatives, or excessive exercise. Teens and young adults with bulimia usually have an average weight for their age and height even though a person may consume as many as twenty thousand calories in one session of binge eating (Cengage). These people can consume this enormous
Eating disorders are a growing epidemic. The most commonplace eating disorders in the world are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. According to Mayo Clinic, Anorexia Nervosa often simply called anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight. Bulimia Nervosa is a mental illness in which an individual has bouts of overeating followed by overwhelming guilt and depression. Anorexia and bulimia are both serious eating disorders with differences and similarities in their symptoms, diagnosis, causes, treatments and prognosis.