Taking a Look at Anorexia Nervosa

Food. It is essential for survival. Without it, people die. However, oddly enough, many struggle to live without it to accomplish the standards that our culture has created for us. We are taught that being thin is perfection and will lead to a happier life. However, lurking are the health risks that one pays for obtaining the “perfect body”. Still, along with a distorted body image, others struggle with keeping weight down and fall into the diet fads that the world parades. From movies, magazines, and television, the media also sends us messages that being fat is bad and unhealthy while being thin and beautiful is acceptable. The impact of such influences has increased eating disorders in America. These disorders do not

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.

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, with more than 10% of those that suffer from it will die.

The study conducted had a sample size of 90 Polish women with AN and the control group was 120 females without any signs of an eating disorder. These females were studied to identify any substantial differences in behavior. The result of the study was that females with AN exhibited less control over cognitive function and emotional behavior. The conclusion reached was that being able to identify the symptoms typical of an eating disorder in females could help in improving treatments and could also prevent any dangerous habits developed by those with

Anorexia is an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. Anorexia is caused by low self-esteem, extreme drive for perfectionism, a distorted body image, and genetics.

Anorexia Nervosa Eating illnesses such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating sickness; contain life-threatening feelings, attitudes, and actions surrounding heaviness and diet problems. Eating ailments are severe expressive and physical difficulties that can have lethal penalties for females and males. Anorexia nervosa comprise of insufficient food consumption leading to a heaviness that is evidently too little, Strong terror of weight expansion, fixation with weight and determined performance to stop weight gain, Confidence excessively connected to body appearance, and incapability to appreciate the harshness of the condition.

Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness that is characterized by an unrealistic fear of weight gain, self-starvation, and conspicuous distortion of body image. The individual with the disorder becomes obsessed with becoming increasingly thinner and will limits food intake to the point where their health is compromised (Butcher, Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, 2013).

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of self-regulated food restriction in which the person strives for thinness and also involves distortion of the way the person sees his or her own body. An anorexic person weighs less than 85% of their ideal body weight. The prevalence of eating disorders is between .5-1% of women aged 15-40 and about 1/20 of this number occurs in men. Anorexia affects all aspects of an affected person's life including emotional health, physical health, and relationships with others (Shekter-Wolfson et al 5-6). A study completed in 1996 showed that anorexics also tend to possess traits that are obsessive in nature and carry heavy emotional

Anorexia Nervosa or more commonly called Anorexia is a disease that is caused by any number of things including stress, self-esteem issues, and the words of other people. These things can cause someone to feel ashamed or self conscious of their weight and lead them to start dieting which in extreme cases leads to anorexia due to the intense fear of gaining weight. For anorexics, the line between dieting and malnourishment becomes blurred and most reject offers for

A person who tends to have a constant battle with an eating disorder can have unrealistic self-critical thoughts about body image, and your eating habits may begin to disrupt typical body functions and affect daily activities. Eating disorders are not just about food and weight. People begin to apply food as a coping mechanism to deal with abnormal or painful emotions or to help them feel more in control when feelings or situations seem over-whelming. If you have an eating disorder, you are very concerned about your body image, and you use food to control your emotions. You want very much to be thin and are afraid of becoming fat. The life threatening diseases, anorexia and bulimia come from an unknown cause but have been known to run in families. Young women with a family member who has an eating disorder are more likely to develop a disorder themselves. Then there are psychological, environmental, and social factors that may contribute to the development of anorexia. “Psychological effects include: low self-esteem, mood swings or clinical depression, refusal to accept that one’s weight is dangerously low despite warnings from friends or health professors” (eatingdisorders.org.all). When you have anorexia, you unreasonably limit calories or use other methods to lose weight, such as excessive exercise, using laxatives or diet

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

Body dissatisfaction, the desire for thinness, binge eating, and weight preoccupation all heritable. Having a job that requires you to focus on your weigh for example ballet and modeling or playing sports where body size is important like gymnastic. The standard onset of anorexia is early to middle teens and usually starts because of stress and dieting. Between men and women, women are ten times more likely to develop this

Hudson, Hirripi, Pope and Kessler’s (2007) research indicates that the average onset of anorexia nervosa is 19 years old, but can develop as young as 14 years old, and women are more likely to develop anorexia nervosa than men. Some studies indicate that anorexia affects whites more than Hispanics, African Americans and Asians; however it crosses cultures and socially diverse populations (APA, 2013). According to the DSM 5, Anorexia nervosa predominantly occurs in developed, high-income countries such as in the United States, as well as in many European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Individuals who present with weight concerns that develop eating and feeding disorders varies substantially across cultural contexts. One study indicated that that “the ‘spread’ of Western values regarding slimness (fat phobia) is primarily responsible for the development of anorexia nervosa in non-Western societies” (Rieger et al., 2001). Rieger et al (2001) also looked at the medical records of Asian women and found the absence of fat phobia; the rationale for dietary restriction was commonly related to other external factors. The WHO (2004) also reports that female athletes, ballet students, fashion models and culinary students are at risk of developing anorexia nervosa; unhealthy dieting and society’s

There are many risk factors for anorexia nervosa. Simply being female makes for a higher risk, although males can also be anorexic. Age is a factor, being younger, especially a teenager, brings a higher risk of this eating disorder. It is less common among adults. Having a negative self image, or being focused on perfection. Family history also plays a part. Someone who has a close relative with anorexia nervosa is more