Eating Disorders

759 Words2 Pages

An eating disorder is an extreme expression of emotion, distress, or inner problems. An eating disorder can be compared to drug use or self mutilation as a way to relieve pain or stress. Food or the denial of food becomes the drug of choice and is used to numb painful feelings. There are three main types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, also known as compulsive eating disorder. Anorexia Nervosa is an extremely abnormal fear of gaining weight, a distorted self image, a refusal to eat and severe weight loss. Ninety-five to eighty-five percent of cases of anorexia in the United States are female, five to fifteen percent are male. About one in every one hundred female adolescents has anorexia. One in every ten cases of anorexia ends in death. Anorexia is characterized by extreme weight loss and restrictive dieting. Physical symptoms of anorexia nervosa are losing a lot of weight in a short time, continuing a diet even when extremely thin, having unusual eating habits, the stopping of menstrual periods in females and exercising obsessively. Psychological symptoms of anorexia are feeling dissatisfied with appearance and believing the body is fat, being fascinated with food, eating in secret and feeling depressed. Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder, common especially among young women of normal or nearly normal weight, which is characterized by binge eating and followed by feelings of guilt and depression. It is often associated with measures taken to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, dieting, or fasting. Ninety percent of those diagnosed with bulimia are female, ten percent are male. Bulimia affects one to three percent of middle and high sch... ... middle of paper ... ...ing afraid that you can’t stop bingeing on your own. As well as physical problems, eating disorders cause serious mental health problems. It is not clear which comes first, the psychological problem or the physical problem but they are both very serious to a persons well being. The psychological effects of eating disorders are depression, which can become so severe that it leads to suicide, feelings of being out of control and helpless, anxiety and self doubt, guilt, shame, paranoia, fear of discovery, obsessive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, especially around food, feeling lonely and feelings of hopelessness. Eating disorders can be cured with help but can cause serious mental and physical health problems. Eating disorders should not be handled lightly and taken care of at the first signs of symptoms before permanent damage can occur to the body and the brain.

Eating Disorders: Behind the Scenes
764 Words | 2 Pages
Many citizens in the United States and other parts of the world fight with weight and body image issues. Most exercise and eat healthy to help their problems. Some take a more unhealthy and sometimes deadly route. An estimated five million people are affected by eating disorders each year (Alters & Schiff, 2003, p.36). Eating disorders are more common among females. At least three percent of women have some type of an eating disorder (Alters & Schiff, 2003, p.36). Eating disorders are classified as persistent, abnormal eating patterns that can threaten a person?s health and well being. There are three major types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating.
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Eating Disorders
2394 Words | 5 Pages
Anorexia is a psychiatric disorder that is most common in young women. Those who suffer with anorexia have a fear of gaining weight and have an inaccurate portrayal of their own bodies. They see themselves as being fat, even though they are already thin to begin with. They are willing to go to extreme measures to lose weight, but the only outcome is a severely unhealthy body weight. To achieve the weight they want they will either starve themselves or do a tremendous amount of exercise.
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Eating Disorders: A Life Threatening Mental Illness
1760 Words | 4 Pages
An eating disorder is a life-threatening mental illness where someone has an abnormal or dangerous eating habit, which is brought on by past and present body views, family, or mental off-balances. There are many different options for someone with an eating disorder: (Engel) nutritional rehabilitation, individual psychotherapy, group inpatient or outpatient therapy, and family therapy (Miller). Eating disorders are not abnormal in todays society….(add more here) (Engel).
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Anorexia Essay
1679 Words | 4 Pages
There are countless health problems that an eating disorder can lead to. However; if caught in time, professional assistance can help a person to overcome a disorder. I personally feel invested in this topic because my best friend developed an eating disorder. It was hard for me to see how much she hated the way she looked. I watched her weight drop to an unhealthy size in a matter of months. Thankfully, with the help of therapy, she has since moved past it. Learning the signs and characteristics of an eating disorder can aid in identifying individuals at risk. If you are suspicious that someone you know could have an eating disorder, it is important you talk to them about it. The results of eating disorders being caught early on could be the difference between life and death.
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Taking a Look at Eating Disorders
1111 Words | 3 Pages
No human is perfect and because of this it is no secret that there are things that humans one way or another want to change or fix about themselves. However, some take this to an extreme. When an obsession over being thin starts to rule your life, eating proportions or habits, and thoughts- you might be in the beginning stages of an eating disorder. Eating Disorders are circumstances where there are strange or peculiar eating routine where there is too much or too little food intake for the lack of benefit to the person’s mental and physical health. Linked from Anorexia are some of the most common types of eating disorders such as Bulimia, anorexia, and binging. All of these eating disorders fall back onto excessive obsessing over weight and food related situations. Once often becomes brain washed into only focusing on the main goal, which is usually to be slim and thin.
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Eating Disorders : Eating Disorder
1323 Words | 3 Pages
Different forms of treatment are available such as in patient treatments, cell phone apps and therapy to teach how to overcome an eating disorder. Each eating disorder, anorexia nervous, binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa may respond better to different forms of treatment and each patient is different in what will work best for them to overcome. Support from family and friends is necessary in working with treatment and being strong enough to face an eating disorder once treatment is done. Eating disorders are easy to gain, but with the right treatment can be defeated.
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Eating Disorders
994 Words | 2 Pages
Typically, people who develop an eating disorder are in emotional turmoil. They want to be in control but feel they are not. Any anxiety, self-doubt, or feelings of failure or inadequacy become tied to how they look. When being thin becomes an obsession, when self-worth becomes associated with slimness, the stage is set for eating disorders. People with eating disorders become preoccupied, even obsessed, with food and weight. Eating disorders can lead to extreme behavior including self-starvation, bingeing, purging, and compulsive exercise. Untreated eating disorder lead to heart damage, depression, permanent health damage, or suicide. Eating disorders-- anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are psychiatric illnesses that affect over five million American women and men.
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Adolescent Eating Disorders
1663 Words | 4 Pages
In 1978, Brunch called anorexia nervosa a 'new disease' and noted that the condition seemed to overtake ?the daughters of the well-to-do, educated and successful families.? Today it is acknowledged and accepted that anorexia affects more than just one gender or socio-economic class; however, much of the current research is focused on the female gender. ?Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme dieting, intense fear of gaining weight, and obsessive exercising. The weight loss eventually produces a variety of physical symptoms associated with starvation: sleep disturbance, cessation of menstruation, insensitivity to pain, loss of hair on the head, low blood pressure, a variety of cardiovascular problems and reduced body temperature. Between 10% and 15% of anorexics literally starve themselves to death; others die because of some type of cardiovascular dysfunction (Bee and Boyd, 2001).?
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Eating Disorders
1282 Words | 3 Pages
Eating disorders are complex conditions that come about from a combination of biological, emotional, behavioral, psychological and social factors. While they may start with a preoccupation with food and weight and body image issues, they are much deeper than that. People who suffer from eating disorders use the control of food as a means to cope with feelings and emotions that are over-whelming and to have a sense of control of their lives.
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Eating Disorders
1503 Words | 4 Pages
Eating disorders is a problem any one can get; it doesn’t matter what age they are. Eating Disorders can include many diseases, obesity, anorexia, bulimia, and many more. Some of this diseases can occur in an open and close of eyes sometimes it’s not noticeable on how it really occurred. Eating and hunger are a complex phenomena and it’s controlled by numerous of psychological, biological, and social factors. Sometimes it doesn’t really matter if people go to therapies it can be helpless for some people. Even though they keep going and going to therapies, it’s no use because they have that image of them self’s the wrong way even though he or she is very skinny. They see themselves with allot of weight, and the people who are overweight or obese, they eat too much because they don’t feel welcomed in any group of friends and eating helps them feel better. Many symptoms are seen and also felt when the person is going through. If a family member sees something strange with either a brother, sister, son or daughter, sometimes even the parents can be going through this. It is very important to talk to them or take them to a doctor. Sometimes culture can be a cause of eating disorders and how the research has proven this. Not only can this cause eating disorders but many more. Some of the time this kind of diseases can risk the life of an individual and when a doctor tries to help him or her it would be too late. All the damage has been done, and there is no way to go back in time and fix all the mistakes make once, to have that one alive and with his or her family. (Huffman. K.)
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Types Of Eating Disorders
840 Words | 2 Pages
Let’s start by defining what eating disorders are and who has them. Eating disorders are problems that are psychological in nature that result in inadequate or excessive food intake (Martini, Nath, Bartholomew, 2012). Eating disorders are a group of very serious conditions that leaves the affected so completely preoccupied with food and weight that they can focus on hardly anything else (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Examples of the main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. The majority of people suffering from eating disorders are female; however males can also be affected. Males are the exception to the rule when it comes to binge-eating disorder; it appears almost as many males as females are affected (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Eating disorders are usually diagnosed in adolescence (Newman & Newman 2012). Eating disorder detection has a broad age range, however most are between ages eleven and twenty (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014).
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Eating Disorders
1401 Words | 3 Pages
When you think of the words “eating disorders”, you automatically picture someone who is thin. This is partly true because people who suffer from anorexia or bulimia are relatively thin, but what you did not know is that there is also an eating disorder that affects mostly those who are obese and it is called binge eating. Eating disorders are any of several psychological disorders characterized by serious disturbances of eating behavior (Merriam Webster, 2014), the best-known eating disorders are bulimia nervosa, binge eating and anorexia nervosa (Yancey, 1999). Not only do eating disorders have the highest mortality rate than any other mental illnesses, but it is estimated that in the U.S. twenty-four million people of all ages suffer from an eating disorder (ANAD). Eating Disorders are not just something that appear overnight and they certainly cannot be prevented, there are several factors that influence these disorders but with help and treatment they can be treated.
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The Eating Disorders
1329 Words | 3 Pages
Eating disorders are characterized into three different forms- Anorexia Nervosa, and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia is restricting the intake of calories on a day to day basis in order to lose or maintain a specific weight. Bulimia is consuming large amounts of food in short periods of time, called binges. Afterwards, Bulimics attempt to eradicate the body of the food eaten, typically by purging, vomiting, taking laxatives, or exercising for long periods. (Engel, Reiss, and Dombeck) “She was gagging, finger shoved down her throat. Most everything she had eaten was splashed on the mulch: a bag of potato chips, most of a carton of onion dip, two fudge brownies, and a slice of strawberry shortcake,” shows the activities of a bulimic (Anderson 146).
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Anorexia Nervosa, Binga And Binge Eating Disorders
1086 Words | 3 Pages
Eating Disorders (EDs) are a series of often life-threatening mental health disorders which are commonly used as coping mechanisms or as ways to mask one’s problems. The causes of these illnesses are still being researched, and the effects they have on a person’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing can often be as long as the sufferer’s life.
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Argumentative Essay On Eating Disorders
1022 Words | 3 Pages
Eating disorders are a big issue in society these days. Young adults and adults are starting to have body images that are likely not reachable. More than 8 million people suffer from an eating disorder in America itself. Eating disorders are mental disorders about abnormal eating or not eating enough a day. There many eating disorders including Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia, Binge eating disorders and lots more. All these and more eating disorders is a way people thinking that they can escape their problems.
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Eating Disorders