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Summary Of Anatomy Of Anorexia By Steven Venekron

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For my summer assignment, I read Anatomy of Anorexia, which is written by Steven Levenkron. Anatomy of Anorexia gives insight and understanding into the strange and dangerous mental illness that is anorexia nervosa. It explains the causes of anorexia, the influences, the treatment options, and much more. Not only is this an interesting read, it is also a great tool for families who have a daughter battling this illness. Steven Levenkron, the author, is a well-known psychotherapist who lives in New York City, has his own private practice, and has published eight books. He specializes in eating disorders, self-harm, and OCD. His books have helped many people understand mental illness and seek help when help is needed. The book’s main focuses …show more content…

Children who had to nurture themselves from a young age don’t trust adults because they weren’t shown affection, which causes the child to have no healthy dependence on their parents, which then causes them to rely on the media to get a sense of self-worth. This self-worth is found in their physical appearance and it causes them to feel the need to starve themselves so they can “measure up to society’s standards.” This example is one of the hundreds of ways that a dysfunctional family can cause a girl to become anorexic. Another possible cause of anorexia is a lack of a sense of femininity. Women seem to find their sense of femininity from men. We look to men to tell us if we are beautiful, ugly, fat, skinny, etc. We tend to base our sense of femininity on our physical appearance which causes us to diet, wear “fashionable clothing,” and it can even cause us to starve ourselves. Fathers play a huge role in their daughters sense of femininity. Our fathers tell us we are valued as women, we are beautiful, and we are cherished. If you grow up with a deceased, absent, or disengaged father, you grow up with a huge hole in your femininity, which causes low self-esteem. The other main focus of Anatomy of Anorexia …show more content…

Since anorexia takes a drastic and dangerous toll on your physical appearance, it is easy to classify it as a disease and not a mental illness, but the illness is all in your mind. There isn’t a virus you can catch or a cancer you develop that causes you to think you need to lose a ton of weight or that you will never be valued until you are a certain size. Anorexia is one of the deadliest and most dangerous mental illnesses. The definition of psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and the way it functions. Anorexia definitely fits into the “psychology category” when it come to categorizing illnesses. That’s why it is so hard to cure anorexia; you can’t force the patient to gain weight, and even if she does gain weight it doesn’t mean her anorexia is gone. It is one of the hardest illnesses that doctors and therapists have to

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