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.

Eating disorders have become an increasing public health problem once thought to be an affliction amongst young women, now an epidemic across culture and gender boundaries. Anorexia gives rise to serious socio-economic and bio-psychological circumstances of our ever vast, growing society. Awareness of eating disorders have increased but perhaps only in proportion to its advancement of its research and treatment. That which still leaves us in a position for a much greater demand for education and heightened awareness of this perplexing disease.

The Mayo Clinic-- a world-renowned medical facility in Minnesota-- put it well: “Anorexia isn’t about food. It’s an unhealthy way to cope with emotional problems.” According to Brousseau, there are over 6,000 girls a year dying from this emotionally induced disorder. One would think that there would be a more concentrated effort to at the very least discourage it. Examples such as her own, however, prove that there clearly is still a misconception; moreover, Anorexia is still looked at by many as a silly phase among teenaged girls rather than the reality of it being a life-threatening

In the year 1874, two physicians introduced anorexia nervosa as a clinical diagnosis. These two physicians are Charles Lasègue, of France, and English physician, Sir William Gull. In their clinical reports, it was clear that Gull and Lasègue had different views on the condition, yet both defined it as a “nervous” disease distinguished by self-starvation. Gull was the first to use the term anorexia nervosa, which literally mean “nervous loss of appetite” to the Clinical Society of London. The following year, Gull’s report was published to the society which made the term anorexia nervosa gain its immense acceptance.

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 is a serious psychological disease where people develop a constant desire to lose weight and limit their daily energy intake. Anorexia results in declining body fat, unrealistic perceptions and exaggerations of your body image and usually involves an incline in exercise. People with Anorexia can either be restrictive with their food, count kilojoules and skip meals or binge eat and purge. Anorexia Nervosa is the most dangerous and harmful mental illness in Australia. 1 in 10 young adults

The opposing side to this topic says that media does not play a role in anorexia because of environmental factors, exercising, and dieting. People that support this side like Adam Cresswell and Sarrah Le Marquand state that anorexia is not caused by society or the media world. Cresswell states “Eating disorders are a product of epigenetics is good news for parents and carers, who often “wring their hands, asking: ‘what did I do wrong’””(Cresswell 1). Cresswell is wrong by this fact in the actual fact that if a young teen is suffering from anorexia, then the parents should be worried about their child and get that child help. No child or adult should have to suffer from such disease. Cresswell also states “These can be early-life pressures, stress, and ultimately dieting,” he says. “For some people, dieting can be really dangerous behavior. The reduction in certain nutrients can alter gene expression “” (Cresswell 1-2). Cresswell is right about how dangerous dieting can be, because it is, but television advertises all of these new diet methods and how to exceed these plans, internet sites give lists of different dieting options, and these are examples of how media pushes some people that live in this

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).

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

Anorexia nervosa, a medical condition defined by an abnormal or pronounced lack of appetite, has become a household recognized condition due to its prevalence and impact. Anorexia nervosa is a major eating disorder that disrupts everyday life, resulting in extreme thinness, hormonal imbalances, behavioral signs, and health issues that can lead to death. While the disease strikes across all gender, races, and classes, the victims affected are typically young, healthy, and attractive women of successful families. The average girl affected usually ages between thirteen and nineteen years old (Landau 3). This disorder has increased rapidly over the last ten years, becoming more common each year (Landau 2-3). Women faced with both a biological

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss (Anorexia Nervosa). Women and men who suffer with anorexia nervosa exemplify a fixation with a thin figure and abnormal eating patterns. There are two types of Anorexia, including Binge and Purge type,

As the term "anorexia nervosa" did not exist until 1873” (The first anorexic). In the western world one of the first accounts of anorexia nervosa was during “the 12th and 13th centuries, most famously Saint Catherine of Siena who denied herself food as part of a spiritual denial of self” (A History of Eating Disorders). Most cases of anorexia had to do with fasting as a religious or spiritual experience. However for the women of the Victorian period being thin had transformed and became a way for them to feel successful instead of powerless. It wasn’t till 1970 that the disorder was able to reach the public as it wasn’t just the upper-class that was suffering from anorexia. Again anorexia evolved into the "twentieth-century women progressively idealized the lean, almost 'tubular' body type, deprived of the symbolic emphasis of fertility and motherhood. The thinness of the 'new woman' expressed her sexual liberation and rejection of the traditional female role" (Bremer, J.). Whereas before woman needed to look healthy and capable of having and raising children, now women were aiming to achieve independence the need to be those thing were

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which people see themselves as overweight even if they are underweight. Anorexia nervosa is a self-imposed starvation. People with anorexia 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