Eating Disorders Disease: Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is a serious mental health condition. It is an eating disorder where people try to keep their body weight as low as possible. DSM5 outlines the key diagnostic features for anorexia. Firstly, people with anorexia will restrict behaviours that promote healthy body weight. This could mean that they are consequentially underweight and this can be due to dieting, exercising and purging. There will also be a significant fear of weight gain, but this fear will not be relieved by weight loss. There will be a persistent fear that interferes with weight gain. Lastly, there will be a disturbed perception of ones weight and/or shape and denial of underweight status and its seriousness. Anorexia accounts for 10% of eating disorders in the UK and has

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder and a mental health condition that could potentially be life-threatening. People with anorexia try to keep their weight as low as possible by restricting the amount of food they eat. They often have a distorted image of themselves, thinking that they're fat when they're not.  Some people with the condition also exercise excessively, and some eat a lot of food in a short space of time (binge eating) and then make themselves sick. People affected by anorexia often go to great attempts to hide their behaviour from their family and friends by lying about eating and what they have eaten. Anorexia is linked to

According to the Mayo Clinic (2016), eating disorders are “conditions related to persistent eating behaviors that negatively impact your health, your emotions, and your ability to function in important areas of life.” One such eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. Not to be confused with anorexia, which is simply a general loss of appetite that can be attributed to many medical ailments, anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder and mental illness (Nordqvist, 2015). Anorexia nervosa is estimated to affect about .9% of women and .3% of men in their lifetime (“Eating Disorder Statistics & Research,” n.d.). In general, the disorder is commonly characterized by a distorted body image or self-concept, critically low weight (with respect to the patient’s height and age), and an irrational fear of becoming fat or an intense desire to be thin. There are two subtypes to this eating disorder: restrictive and binge/purge. In the restrictive type, the individual limits caloric intake and may compulsively over-exercise. In the binge/purge type, the individual consumes a considerable amount of food in a short period of time (binging) and then deliberately vomits (purging), takes laxatives, or fasts intensely in order to compensate for the food eaten (“General Information: Anorexia Nervosa,” n.d.). In either case, anorexia nervosa is undoubtedly a dangerous and alarming illness.

Oftentimes, Anorexia Nervosa is classified as a psychological disorder and is not viewed as an instigator of communication disorders. Besides the obvious negative consequences of eating disorders, anorexia can cause an onset of dysphagia. Anorexia is a terrible disease and the annual death rate is approximately 12 times higher than the death rate of all causes of death among females ages 15 to 24 (Holmes, Gudridge, Gaudiani, & Mehler, 2012). Severe anorexia Nervosa encompasses a plethora of medical complications that affects each body system and causes severe weakness (Holmes, Gudridge, Gaudiani, & Mehler, 2012). At this time, Speech Language Pathology (SLP) is not well versed in treatment and management of anorexia conditions. Veldee

To be diagnosed with eating disorder, someone must meet certain criteria. The criterion for diagnosis slightly varies depending on if you are referring to people who (A) fear gaining weight, and have significant weight loss,(B) eating a huge amount of food , then use laxative to remove the binged food, (C) the use of excessive exercise and fasting in order to remove or to reduce the amount of calories consumed, and (D) distorted body image, no matter how thin they become, they still see themselves as fat, or not thin enough. The onset of of symptoms begins usually in early adolescence with the diagnostic of disturbed Body image.

Anorexia is an emotional and physical disorder characterized by the obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. People diagnosed with this order are known to be very obsessive and compulsive over how they look and their overall weight. Anorexia is a disorder that a lot of different factors play into. Factors such as Genetics, personality traits, and the environment are all things that could potentially lead up to the development of the disorder. Depending on the person and the background of their family, eating disorders tend to run in certain families which make it more likely for someone to develop it.

It is important to note that while a person can develop an eating disorder from an underlying medical condition, such as chemotherapy induced anorexia, this essay will look at eating disorders developed outside of such an illness and will refer to the following eating disorders and their definitions.

Although the exact cause of anorexia isn't known, studies show that it is possibly a combination of biological, psychological, and/or environmental factors ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014). Scientists have yet to figure out exactly which gene(s) are involved in causing anorexia, but it can be acquired genetically, and surprisingly enough, it is seen more in twins than individual people ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014). Young women can who have an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) personality can have an extreme obsession of perfectionism toward their body, which can make them become anorexic due to the fact that they don't think they are thin enough ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014). By having OCD, young women are more vulnerable to being anorexic because it makes it easy for them to "...stick to strict diets and forgo food despite being hungry.." ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014). Young women with OCD and anorexia nervosa usually have high anxiety levels and "...engage in restrictive eating to reduce it" ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014). "Modern Western culture emphasizes thinness. Success and worth are often equated with being thin" ("Diseases and Conditions: Anorexia Nervosa, 2014).

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

A good number of people have "strange" eating habits. Some show extremely picky behavior when it comes to food and some eat particular foods at particular times ("Eating Disorders," 2006). However, serious eating disorders can be categorized as follows:

Anorexia is a disease that affects both the mind and the body. The disease commonly affects young women during puberty, but may occur sooner. There are two components to anorexia nervosa, one being food restriction and the second occurs when there is binging and purging. It is possibly for the individual to have both types. Anorexia is commonly associated with personality disorders, as well as having medical complications related to the disease. If left untreated the disease can be fatal.

Anyone can have an eating disorder. Eating disorders can affect all walks of lives, women, men and even children, no longer is it the stereotypical girl that is affected. The person next to you that seems to have everything together, may be fighting for perfection and may be living with an eating disorder. The more knowledge society has, the more we can help those who battle this disease.

An eating disorder is characterized as an illness that causes serious interferences to your everyday diet, which includes eating extremely small portions of food or severely overeating (National Institute of Health , 2014). An individual with an eating disorder majority of the time begin eating smaller or larger amounts of food, but the urge to eat less or more can spiral out of control. Severe distress or concerns about weight and body image can also be characterize as an eating disorder (National Institute of Health , 2014). Eating disorders usually appear during teen years or young adulthood, but can also develop during childhood or later in life. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Self image seems to be a high factor in women and teenage girls. Appearances seem to be everything to some people, especially for women or teenage girls. By believing this, people do not even realize that for some girls go through great lengths to have those looks or self image. The measures women take to do so most likely results in making risky decisions. Anorexia is usually the result of low self-esteem, or self body image of the individual. Women do not seem to understand this leads to a mental disease. This disorder is called Anorexia, this affects mostly women, but in some cases men. Anorexia is a type of medical condition that causes an individual to obsess over the desire to lose weight

In an article called “Kristina's story”, kristina develops anorexia nervosa at the age of ten years old. The weight loss was quick and drastic, which increased the curiosity of her parents’ friends as they asked if she had a terminal disease. Taking into consideration Kristina’s health, her parents quickly got on the phone to make an appointment with the nearest specialist. At the beginning of her fifth-grade year, Kristina was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and despite all the fighting and crying,still, weekly she was seeing three treatment providers. Kristina is fortunate to have such a supporting and fast reacting family. Eating disorders are a very severe illness and should not be taken lightly. You may be asking yourself, How do eating