Biological Causes Of Anorexia

Since anorexia takes a drastic and dangerous toll on your physical appearance, it is easy to classify it as a disease and not a mental illness, but the illness is all in your mind. There isn’t a virus you can catch or a cancer you develop that causes you to think you need to lose a ton of weight or that you will never be valued until you are a certain size. Anorexia is one of the deadliest and most dangerous mental illnesses. The definition of psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and the way it functions. Anorexia definitely fits into the “psychology category” when it come to categorizing illnesses. That’s why it is so hard to cure anorexia; you can’t force the patient to gain weight, and even if she does gain weight it doesn’t mean her anorexia is gone. It is one of the hardest illnesses that doctors and therapists have to

According to National Institute of Mental Health "Treatment plans are tailored to each individual and may include one of the following: Psychotherapy, medical care and monitoring, nutritional counseling, and medications. Also some patients may need to be hospitalized if they a severely malnourished." Eating disorders are nothing to mess with and should be dealt with caution, care and compassion.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder driven mainly by the fear of gaining weight. People with Anorexia severely limit the amount of food they eat and can become extremely skinny. Anorexia has dangerous effects on the body and the mind. It has the highest rate of death of any mental illness.

Nicole Adkins Informative Speech How many of you have ever battled an eating disorder or known someone with an eating disorder? One or two of every 100 students will struggle or have struggled with an eating disorder. An anonymous quote from someone who struggled an eating disorder once said “Nothing matters when

A Look Into the World of Anorexia Nicole R. King Georgia Perimeter College Author Note Nicole R. King, Criminal Justice Major, Georgia Perimeter College Abstract Eating disorders have become an increasing public health problem once thought to be an affliction amongst young women, now an epidemic across culture and gender boundaries. Anorexia gives rise to serious socio-economic and bio-psychological circumstances of our ever vast, growing society. Awareness of eating disorders have increased but perhaps only in proportion to its advancement of its research and treatment. That which still leaves us in a position for a much greater demand for education and heightened awareness of this perplexing disease.

The Mayo Clinic-- a world-renowned medical facility in Minnesota-- put it well: “Anorexia isn’t about food. It’s an unhealthy way to cope with emotional problems.” According to Brousseau, there are over 6,000 girls a year dying from this emotionally induced disorder. One would think that there would be a more concentrated effort to at the very least discourage it. Examples such as her own, however, prove that there clearly is still a misconception; moreover, Anorexia is still looked at by many as a silly phase among teenaged girls rather than the reality of it being a life-threatening

People with anorexia see themselves as overweight even though they are dangerously thin. The process of eating becomes an obsession to them. Anorexia is a psychiatric disorder, which usually co-exist with other disorder such as, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. There are many biological and environmental factors that play a major role in developing anorexia. Genetics is one of the biological factors that may play a role. The tie between anorexia and one’s genes is still being heavily researched. Nutritional deficiencies and irregular hormone functions can as while. Some environmentally factors could be like a family or childhood traumas such as sexual abuse. Peer pressure among friends and co-workers to be thin and careers that promote being thin and weight loss such as, ballet and modeling can also play an important

Anorexia nervosa is a harrowing mental illness for those affected by it. Those diagnosed with anorexia experience a relentless fear of weight gain and distorted body image, accompanied by disturbed patterns of eating in order to lose as much weight as possible. These individuals maintain a dangerously low body weight,

To begin with, we need to know about the different types of eating disorders and why people develop them in order to find a solution. Anorexia is a type of eating disorder that involves people refusing to eat or eating extremely tiny amounts of food and exercise vigorously. Researchers hypothesize that anorexia may be caused by biological, psychological, and social factors (Ross-Flanigan 1329). One possible cause is that the parents of the people that develop anorexia are too overprotective and have set impractically high expectations from them (Ross-Flanigan 1329). A reason why this may cause people to develop an eating disorder, is that they are under such immense pressure to fulfill their parents’ ideals. Because of this pressure that they feel, they could start to think that not eating is

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.

In fact, the victims are mostly under or below weight according to the body mass index scale. (Anorexics).However, “Someone with anorexia may also have a distorted body image, shown by thinking she or he is fat” (Anorexia Nervosa). Viewing themselves as fat causes them to purge (forcive vomit). Many of the victims are aware of the health effects caused by purging. However, victims of anorexia only consider what they believe is what is truly seen. These victims will do anything to make sure their issue of being “fat” is resolved. The terrible fact about this mentality is that the victim’s mind will not allow them to see anything other than “fat”. So, telling a victim repeatedly that they are not fat will not be an effective solution to their problem. Thus, making anorexia not only a physical disorder but a mental disorder as well.

“Anorexia isn't really about food. It's an unhealthy way to try to cope with emotional problems. When you have anorexia, you often equate thinness with self-worth.” (Mayo clinic). They are usually in denial of their illness and have a psychological problem in which they think of themselves as overweight and obese but they believe this because they think they are perfectionist and need to have the perfect image or if they don’t they are worthless, never being satisfied with their weight (Helpguide.org). In addition, it is believed that causes of anorexia nervosa are correlated with “family and social pressures” (Helpguide.org). In addition, they are blind by this illness and are unable to see their true self, blinding them to see the problem that has emerged, in which leads to denial of there being an eating disorder. “Thoughts about dieting, food, and your body may take up most of your day—leaving little time for friends, family, and other activities you used to enjoy. Life becomes a relentless pursuit of thinness and going to extremes to lose weight.” (Helpguide.org).They are forced to withdraw from friends, family, and normal activities, which also leads to depression. Some of their thoughts come from society that focuses on the perfect image and the way someone should look that contributes to their illness and their obsession of being a certain

Clarify Concepts The major eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. There are also many other eating disorders that are not always specified for people that do not fall into the other categories. When treating these illnesses along with any other, medical staff work to protect a patient’s autonomy which is their right to make decisions about their own care. The problem is that eating disorders are one of the hardest conditions to treat (Treasure, 2015). It has also been shown that over half of all cases develop into severe illness for the patient and profoundly impact their physical and mental health (Treasure, 2015).

Anorexia has biological and psychological causes that contribute to the disorder. Anorexia is not simple it is complex and can develop multiple factors. Examples of psychological causes: family and childhood traumas, peer pressure amongst people, some professions and careers that promote weight loss, and media. Examples of biological causes: irregular hormone functions, genetics, and nutritional deficiencies.

Anorexia Nervosa 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