The Eating Disorder And Anorexia Nervosa

Incidences of Anorexia Nervosa have appeared to increase sharply in the USA, UK and western European countries since the beginning of the 60s (Gordon, 2001). The increasing prevalence of the disease has led the World Health Organisation to declare eating disorders a global priority area within adolescent mental health (Becker et al. 2011). Anorexia has in many ways become a modern epidemic (Gordon, 2000) and with a mortality rate of 10% per decade (Gorwood et al. 2003), the highest of any mental disorder (Bulik et al. 2006), it is an epidemic that social and biological scientists have been working tirelessly to understand.

Dr. Levenkron talks about Anorexia Nervosa as a pathological distortion of today’s society of being “Fashion-model thin.” This source is reliable because it is told from a doctor's/psychotherapists perspective of the disease. It informs and broadens my research on the pathological aspect of the disease. Dr. Steven Levenkron uses case studies and specific strategies to explain and help cure the disease.

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

Anorexia Nervosa is an emotional disorder that causes its victims to have an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. It is known to be the third most common eating disorder among adolescents. Many who suffer from the disorder have a strong fear of gaining weight and they 're very determined to prevent any weight gain. AN patients are also incapable of recognizing the severity of their condition. In the article entitled, "A Factor Analysis of the Meanings of Anorexia Nervosa: Intrapsychic, Relational, and Avoidant Dimensions and Their Clinical Correlates", Enrica Marzola explains, "AN sufferers often refuse treatments, show poor compliance with therapy leading to high dropout rates, relapse, and high mortality" (Marzola 2). Marzola examines how many patients become very attached to their illness and do not wish to be recovered from it. In addition, Not only do many AN patients believe that the disorder has help them gain their ideal body image, but they 've also described their starvation as a way to escape from any negative emotions, strengthen their identity, and reveals their distress. Enrica Marzola also addresses, "These instruments confirmed that AN sufferers experience a

Anorexia nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain fifteen percent of a normal body weight through self-starvation (Arnold, page26). Ninety-five percent of anorexics are women between the ages of twelve and eighteen, however, "…in the past twenty years, this disorder has become a growing threat to high school and college students (Arnold, page 39)". Anorexia produces a multitude of symptoms, and if not treated, anorexia can lead to permanent physical damage or death.

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

Eating disorder is a psychological concept of eating and weight theory that is related to this issue/current event. The most prevalent eating disorders these days include, Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexic Nervosa (Weiten & Doug, 2012). The incidents of young women binge-eating or purge-eating increased in 1970, through which women starved themselves, sometimes resulting in death (Weiten & Doug, 2012). The problem of eating disorders is largely prevalent in women affecting near about 3% of Canadian women during some period of their life whereas, it has increased among females between the ages 15 and 24 (Weiten & Doug, 2012, p. 424). Bulimia Nervosa involves the person vomiting, fasting and exercising or using laxatives after consumption of a certain number of calories. In addition, Anorexic Nervosa results in dieting or starving even after the victim has lost equal to or more than 15% of their weight (Weiten & Doug, 2012). A number of factors have been implicated in the incidence of eating disorders such as biological, developmental, psychological and social factors which are implemented through the idea of a being thin in society which then results into young boys and girls seeing themselves as fat when they are not (Weiten & Doug, 2012).

Teens today are always surrounded by advertisements of images of thinness. When they turn on the TV, read magazines or go on the internet. These advertisements are usually promoting something to sell by using images of thin and beautiful people that seem unreal. Both boys and girls feel societies’ pressure to have “the perfect body” so they go through extreme measures like self starvation or over exercising to achieve their goals of the “perfect image”(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt,page 26). Eating disorders are mostly developed by women. Although men also develop eating disorders but they only make up 5-10 percent of those affected by eating disorders, leaving women with a huge majority of 90-95 percent affected(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt, page 8). Girls who develop the eating disorder anorexia are usually Caucasian and middle to upper class, and are also

This paper was designed to discuss several basic topics regarding anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is and eating disorder with an incredibly high mortality rate characterized by low body weight and an obsessive fear of becoming overweight that occurs primarily in females after puberty, yet before the age of 40 years. Unfortunately, Not much is known about the causes of anorexia nervosa, but possible correlations are blood relation to a person suffering from anorexia nervosa, those who have recently experienced a stressful event, a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder in childhood, or participation in a culture or profession that values thinness.

Scope of the research: This study focuses on adolescents (aged 12-18 years) of both sexes meeting the criteria for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Anorexia Nervosa.

Female adolescents can develop eating disorders because of the way the media portrays models. Adolescent girls’ attitude of the thin ideal leads to body dissatisfaction, which in return puts them at risk for serious eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Bulimia is an emotional disorder involving distortion of body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight, in which bouts of extreme overeating are followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. Anorexia nervosa is an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. Kara L. Kerr who is currently studying psychology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies at the University of Tulsa claims that “Approximately 40 percent of anorexia nervosa cases occur in females ages fifteen to nineteen” (1). Females’ that are the ages of fifteen to nineteen should not be worrying about the presentation of their

“I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to lift the fork to my mouth, and when I talk myself into doing so, I taste only shame. I have an eating disorder” (Morrow, 2010). For 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States alone, eating disorders, such as Anorexia Nervosa, are a daily struggle. The fifth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also referred to as the DSM V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), defines Anorexia Nervosa as an eating disorder in which an individual persistently restrict his or her daily caloric intake leading to significantly low body weight. An intense fear or gaining weight or becoming fat is present, and individuals use negative

“In the United States, 20 million women… suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia nervosa…” (NEDA, 2010). Twenty-million females is a very large portion of America. Not only is this a very large number, this number only represents the number of patients that seek help with this problem and get diagnosed with anorexia nervous (NEDA, 2010). As we can see from this large number of only the cases that are reported, anorexia nervosa is a serious problem; especially in females in the United States. Because this disease can be life changing, it is important that we notice the assumed causes, symptoms, and treatments of this disorder in order to help those struggling with

Anorexia nervosa is listed in DSM-5 as a Feeding and Eating Disorder alongside bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). AN is characterised by symptoms that include dangerously low body weight, intense fear of fat or weight gain, abnormal cognitions that lead to an over-evaluation of the importance of body weight, shape and size, indifference about the disorders seriousness (APA, 2013). It is a multi-determined psychiatric disorder with an interplay between sociocultural, biological, physical and mental factors that make it extremely difficult to treat successfully (Chang & Bazarova, 2016; Boraska et al., 2014). AN affects approximately 3.7% of NZ population, the average duration is five years, with the highest prevalent rate (10%) in teenage females (M = 17 years). While predominantly a young white middle-upper class female disorder, recent research shows a significant increase in diagnosis of males,

The “ideal” body image in America for adolescents are causing eating disorders in many teens and it is a problem widely ignored. An eating disorder is any kind of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal/unhealthy eating habits. By looking at the media’s “ideal” body image, adolescents are going on unhealthy diets or exercising too much to reach this body image goal. They are trying to reach an unrealistic body image which is causing great harm to their bodies. Estimates are that one of every two hundred females 10-30 years old suffer from the serious eating disorder known as anorexia nervosa (Frissell 20). Most causes of anorexia are unknown, but one reason it could occur is caused by the environment the person is in. The things they are exposed to around them and