Reflection Paper On Eating Disorders

Attention Getter: February 4, 1983 was the day that opened the eyes of America to the view of the damaging effects of eating disorders. This day marks the death of the very famous singer of the time, Karen Carpenter. Looking glamorous and confident on the outside, most did not know she was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa (B5). Throughout her teenage years, she was overweight. In 1967, weighing 140 pounds, Karen was put on a water diet by her doctor. This brought her down to 120 pounds (B6). Even though she was now at a healthy weight, she was still insecure due to her large amount of celebrity peers who were the ideal, perfect weight. Taking dozens of thyroid pills a day and throwing up the little food she ate, by

Real beauty is found in a person's heart, not in their appearance, but the media rarely portrays this though. Most magazines and television shows feature only excessively thin people. Unfortunately, this causes teenagers whose bodies don't match those same proportions to look at their selves with hatred. Every lump and bulge becomes despised, and soon, they have a full-blown eating disorder.

There are many things that people think of when the words eating disorders are said. Many people do not know what an eating disorder actually is and what actually happenes when you have an eating disorder or how to detect a eating disorder. There are many types of eating disorders but they all have one thing in common, phsycological disorders. The main types of eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and Bindge eating but are not limited to these. The main focus in theses eating disorders are food. Many eating disorder patients have problems with self body issues and/or self confidence. There are many problems with these eating disorders and it is a huge problem in the country today. This paper will tell you what a eating

Media success has always been based on the exploitation of the rare or controversial. Magazines, television, and documentaries always seem to focus on unusual situations or the belittling of an individual’s habits. No one is to blame, however exploiting people and their unhealthy choices should be frowned upon, but society thrives off of the “unknown” and “lesser-seen”. Eating abnormalities seem to have become the newest trend, putting teen pregnancy and drug abuse on the backburner. Shows seem to focus solely on health implications caused by overeating, not eating, or eating foreign objects. Has the media's constant infatuation with the irregular led society to become desensitized to these outlandish topics, or has society begun to

Family systems have long been explored as a framework to understand and treat eating disorders. Many existing explanations surmise that dysfunctional familial processes, most often involving mothers and daughters, are associated with eating disturbance (Ringer & Crittenden, 2 007; Pollack & Keaschuk, 2008). These family systems appear to be impaired by both oedipal and preoedipal pathologies (Sours, 1980; Schulman, 2002). The purpose of this paper is to offer an explanation for the role of identification in bulimia nervosa within both oedipal and preoedipal clients. Two cases are presented to illustrate ways in which two women’s identification with the maternal object prevented expression of rage towards her, and instead turned against the self as the body was attacked via bingeing and self-induced vomiting.

Eating disorders have become and extreme issue among women. However, the ignorance to this subjects’ prevalence is common and it is essential that this is compressed immediately. The impact eating disorders currently holds on society is monumental and is defining the current image of beauty. Definitions of beauty have fluctuated extremely throughout time and the unhealthy processes women have put themselves through in order to conform to societies current definition of beauty has remained consistent. From the corset to extremely high heels to severe thinness, achieving the ideal image of beauty is regularly detrimental to woman’s health. Fashion models continue to struggle with eating disorders due to the fashion industry building a pedestal

Eating Disorders: disorders characterized by abnormal eating habits (ex: anorexia nervosa and bulimia). Anorexia is “an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat (cnn.com).” Bulimia is an eating disorder in which a lot of food is consumed in a short amount of time, and is often followed by feelings of guilt or shame. This leads to those people to throw up the food. Today, so many girls believe that they need to be perfect so that they fit into society. This is wrong. Perfect is not real. Sure, some models seem like they are perfect and happy, but the truth is they aren’t. Sometimes, they starve themselves and some have even died because of this. However, this isn’t

Over the last few generation, society has fabricated an existence where the influence of media on young adolescents and children is inexorable. Children are now broadcast by their parents on every social media platform, establishing a need for acceptance based on how “cute” the child is long before they are mature enough to voice their own thoughts. While traditionally media has been know to promote a specific body standard—proven to contribute to the development of eating disorders among young adults and pre-adolescents—a new trend in media has introduced the “body positivity” movement which has begun to successfully influence people of all generations and body types.

In todays’ society, there are more than thirty million people suffer from an eating disorder in the United States, Binge Eating Disorder is one of them. Binge Eating Disorder (BED), also known as Compulsive Eating Disorder, affects more than 2.8% of adults in their lifetime. Statistics show that BED is genetic for some, while others tend to have comorbid mood, anxiety or substance abuse disorders. Even something so small, such as a malfunction in the brain insulin can cause a brain disorder that causes the addiction to food. Our society plays a significant role in eating disorders across the state. Images of men and women are plastered in books, magazines, social media and the television of being fit, lean and very thin. According to pop cultures,

One of the most dangerous experiences I have ever went through was having an eating disorder such as anorexia it eats you up without you realizing it. I was so ambitious to lose weight that it became an obsession full time.

Eating disorders is a mental disorder of eating habits that affect a person’s mental and physical health. There are different kinds of disorders, such as, binge eating is when you eat large amounts of food. Anorexia Nervosa is lost if appetite, while Bulimia you eat all the time. Pica is when you are hungry for stuff that is largely non-nutritive. Rumination disorder which usually happens as a child, but brings up food and re-chews the digested food that has already been eaten. Finally the Avoidant/Restrictive food intake disorder is the struggling of eating food.

In today's world, education is not the only necessary survival skill needed in the work force, beauty has also become part of the package. The media created a perfect body image that has caused a new worldwide epidemic. The United States has fourteen million Americans that struggle with an eating disorder. “Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful.” (Germaine Greer)

Thousands of people in this world struggle with eating disorders. “Gina battled bulimia for seven years—struggling on her own in secret—before she finally opened up to her mother. Gina wrote her a long letter explaining her shame and embarrassment, and gave her mother a book about how to deal with someone with an eating disorder,” (“Eating Disorder Treatment and Recovery”). This is a big problem all around the world, but it can be solved. To help people with eating disorders around the world people need to work together to educate people, motivate them to change, and to create a healthy body image.

Western society tells girls they should be slim and petite whereas boys are supposed to be muscular and fit. While there are those who luckily could not care less about societal expectations, there are those who feel dangerous amounts of pressure to conform and fit to these external standards. In order to be slim or fit, many take drastic measures such as starving themselves or purging which can lead to the development of eating disorders. Many wonder, however, who is more likely to form eating disorders: males or females. While it is proven that unfortunately high numbers of females form eating disorders, some question the statistics of males with eating disorders and wonder if the comparative statistics are not nearly as skewed as thought

The correlation between eating disorders and other psychological disorders is very important for our understanding of the causes and possible treatments for eating disorders. It is known that many people with eating disorders also fit the criteria for several DSM-IV psychological disorders. If researchers can find patterns of comorbidity between these two types of disorders they may be able to better diagnose and treat patients with both of these disorders. The question that I pose it what is the relationship between eating disorders and personality disorders(axis 11 disorders in DSM-IV)? It is important to look for comorbidity between the two disorders to determine the impact they have on each