Film discussion: Thin
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that occurs when an individual is unrealistically concerned about being overweight or feels an overwhelming need to be so thin that in either case an individual eats so little that they become malnourished. While Bulimia is where an individual binges and purges. They may eat a lot of food at once and then try to get rid of the food by vomiting, using laxatives or sometimes over-exercising. Both of which are diseases linked to physical and psychological disorders.
The HBO documentary, “Thin,” takes place at a Renfrew Treatment Center and goes into the lives of four women with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Through the challenges of weigh-ins,
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She seemed to be making progress with her anorexia, but had trouble with some of the rules toward the end. Throughout the film, the patients would support another by encouraging each other to finish their food, such as a Polly’s struggle to eat her birthday cupcake. The other patients would also motivate each other and give one another insight on current dilemmas during group sessions which would help the recovery process. Although Polly encouraged the group to do better, she also hindered recovery for other women by lying to staff members, sneaking off, when given a day pass, smoked in bathrooms and gave potential, dangerous medications to other patients. It was determined by the staff, to expel Polly because of the bad behavior would jeopardize the other women’s progress. Soon after Polly was expelled, she was still having trouble with purging and weight loss after being discharged from Renfrew. In sub text, Polly moved back home, went back to school to study photography and was managing a studio. She soon died after at her residence in 2008 which was believed to be a suicide attempt. Furthermore, it was thought that Polly was verge to recovery, but when her stay at the Renfrew was cut short, the audience had little hope for her and she purged at the end of the film and left a sense of sadness for the future. Although her actions were not
Eating disorders are mental disorders that can have a serious physical complications. There are two main types of eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. These are complex disorders focusing on issues of eating, body weight, body shape. People who intentially starve themselves suffer from an eating disorder called anorexia this disorder usually begins in young people around the time of puberty, involves extreme weight loss due to starving themselves . People with bulimia consume large amounts of food and then rid there bodies of the excess calories by vomiting abusing laxatives, taking enemas or over exercising.
Bulimia nervosa, also called bulimia is a possible life threating eating disorder. A person that suffers from bulimia may secretly binge their food. They may eat large amount of food and then purge their food to get rid of the additional calories that they’ve digested. Bulimia is categorized in two ways, purging bulimia and non-purging bulimia. Purging bulimia is when a person regularly self-induces vomiting after eating. Non-purging bulimia is when an individual may use other methods to try to prevent weight gain, such as fasting, extreme dieting, or overly exercising.
Anorexia is an eating disorder that struggles with the fear of gaining weight and refuses to be healthy. Another eating disorder is Bulimia, which is when you overeat followed by forced vomiting and excessive exercise. Binge Eating is one of the most common eating disorders along with Anorexia and Bulimia, Binge eating is when you lose control over one’s eating. All of these common eating disorders all suffer from guilt or depression. “Individuals with bulimia and binge eating eat large amounts of food to reduce stress” (CEDC). They also could have risky behaviors, such as dealing with drugs or alcohol or even death. People with Anorexia or Bulimia are very concerned with being overweight or in other words fat.
“Dying to be Thin,” produced by PBS, is a documentary that examines the troubles that persons who are affected by eating disorders go through and the constant, daily struggles they face with health and body image. The film tells the story of a number of young women who battled mainly anorexia and bulimia and mixes a variety of ages to give a “during” and an “after” perspective. Many of the women in the video were ballet or some similar type of dancer. Dancers, by their own account, are encouraged to be thin. The issue really came to the forefront after a young ballet dancer from Boston died of heart failure at the young age of 22, with an eating disorder deemed to be the cause. The narrator goes on to introduce more young women and detail the potential illnesses that their eating disorders can cause. Chronic low blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, severe early osteoporosis, and heart failure are all common things seem in patients who suffer from eating disorders. Most patients have dangerously low body weights, body fat percentages, and, often, young women will experience amenorrhea, which is the loss of menstruation. All of the people in the video wanted to be better and were seeking a road to recovery. The video showed though, how difficult that can be since the eating disorders can be so wide ranging and have a number of different root causes. Often patients develop eating disorders as something that they have control over, in a world that they feel is out of their
The documentary Thin, followed the lives of four different women, as they struggled to rehabilitate from their eating disorders. The documentary followed these women as they were short-term residents at an impatient treatment facility in Florida that specialized in helping those with severe eating disorders. One participant, Shelly was admitted into the facility after complications relating to her excessively low body weight of 82lbs. She restricted her food intake to the extent that she required administration of a feeding tube to absorb nutrition. However, it was revealed during the documentary that she had been using her feeding tube to purge food.
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by refusal to maintain body weight over a minimum level considered normal for age and height, along with distorted body image, fear of fat and weight gain, and amenorrhea (absence of menstruation). Bulimia nervosa is characterized by binge eating followed by purging. These behaviors should occur at least twice a week for three months. Binge eating disorder typically
Anorexia is a very serious eating disorder that causes your mind and your body to be completely obsessive about staying thin; also there have been a few cases where patients have taken self-starvation so far that it becomes life threating. There are many signs and symptoms to anorexia, a few include but are not limited to, “the refusal to eat, the denial of hunger, social withdrawal, unhealthy thin appearance, and lack of emotions” (Eating Disorders). Bulimia eating disorder is
The two most common eating disorders are bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Both disorders, primarily affect young women, therefore the majority of the research on eating disorders has been done with women subjects. The onset of bulimia is between adolescence and early adulthood while the onset of anorexia is between early and late adolescence. Not only is the onset different but the disorders are unique. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by loss of control over eating which leads to food binges. These episodes are interspersed with episodes of purging, such as vomiting or laxative abuse, to keep weight down. The goal of anorexia is also to keep weight down , but to a
Anorexia nervosa is starving oneself, sometimes even to death, because of a personal believe that one is unattractive or unlovable. People with anorexia have a six fold increase in mortality rates compared to people who aren’t. And many of the deaths are sudden due to irregular heartbeats or coma induced by low blood sugar. Bulimia nervosa is eating and then Vomiting soon afterward or using a laxative to get rid of food in order to avoid weight gain. About 1 to 3 percent of adolescents and college aged women have bulimia. Binge eating disorder involves binge eating but not purging afterwords. About 3.5 percent of all women have this disorder, and it is more common in obese people.
Anorexia is a loss or a lack of appetite for food. Bulimia is over eating and can follow with vomiting or fasting. Bulimia comes with a lot of emotional issues too. Some people refer to Anorexia and bulimia as “women diseases.” These two medical conditions are more commonly seen in women, but that does not mean men do not suffer greatly. Research was taken and they found these cases affected seven million women and only one million men. It is actually a fact it is more dangerous for men to develop an eating disorder than women. The reason for this is because men will get down to the lowest weight and begin to lose valuable muscle and tissues. This is different than just losing fat.
Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder. It is also called Bulimia. In Bulimia after people eat food than in the short time they take it out by vomiting, purging, or fasting. An eating disorder in which a large quantity of food is consumed in a short period of time, often followed by feelings of guilt or shame and leading to binging and purging due to extreme fear of gaining weight. This person consumes thousands of calories in one sitting. Then force themselves to vomit. Their appearance is like normal body weight, but is actually a little over weight.
Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa have similar symptoms but the difference between them is the body weight. Sufferers of Bulimia Nervosa often have normal body weight and some are overweight or obese. They purge to manage their weight or prevent additional weight gain. (New Health Advisor 2014)
Anorexia nervosa- Lack or loss of appetite, Also a mental condition made by the person. Many women, children, and young men suffer from this. Bulimia nervosa - 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. is 1.5% in women and 0.5% in men. This translates to approximate 4.7 million females and 1.5 million males suffer from bulimia nervosa.
“Thin” a documentary about women facing their eating disorders. “Thin” focused on four particular women Polly, Shelley, Brittany, and Alisa. These women were all brave enough to realize they had a problem and wanted help with the exception of Brittany. Sometimes when I hear about women with eating disorders I can be unsympathetic. I just feel there are so many things in life to think about other than what people think of you. Then I had to realize media has a lot to do with the way our young women picture themselves. We all want to look like this superstar. They all see this fat, ugly person when they look in the mirror and I realized I do the same thing, if we admit it we’ve all done it. The only difference is I’ve
Eventhough both are eating disorders, there are many characteristics that distinct them from each other. People with Bulimia are more worried about how other people think about them. They are more active and are engaged in more sexual activities than the people with Anorexia. Victims of Anorexia Nervosa are more obsessive about their diets. They eat almost nothing and are always counting calories or literally weighing their food. Bulimics have less control over their diet. They have an eating behavior different from Anorexics. Often, people under the influence of Bulimia are compulsive eaters.