The Disorder Anorexia Nervosa
In this paper, we will be describing a crucial disorder that affects many teenagers. This disorder is Anorexia Nervosa, better known as Anorexia. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by constant dieting, rapid weight loss and the feeling of being to fat during weight loss. Most anorexics are women and teenage girls, who see their self as being overweight even though they are deathly underweight.
The term ¡§Anorexia Nervosa¡¨ means loss of appetite due to nerves, but the people with anorexia do not actually lose their appetite until the late stages of their starvation. Until then they just do feel hungry but they will not eat.
There are numerous physical signs of anorexia but there are four main ones. They are:
1. Rapid loss of body fat
2. Wasting away of body fat
3. Pale dry skin
4. Irregular heart beat
An anorexic may also have dehydration and fainting may occur.
Anorexia also has many effects on the body. Anorexia may result in the shrinkage of internal organs, including the kidneys, heart, and brain. A person may also lose the ability to reproduce. As the heart muscle weakens, an irregular heart rhythm and heart failure are possible. Some other complications are:
„X Constipation and difficulty urinating
„X Muscle aches and cramps
„X Swelling of joints
„X Injuries to nerves and tendons
„X Inability to concentrate
„X Digestive problems
People afflicted by anorexia have an extreme fear of gaining weight. In addition, to drastic dieting, they may also turn to vomiting and the use of laxatives to lose weight.
Without treatment, anorexia can cause serious health problems and even lead to death. Anorexia is very dangerous, and professional help should be sought immediately. Prompt treatments will usually keep the problem from progressing, but some cases are very resistant to treatment and may require hospitalization. As many as 15 percent die from complications.
Anorexia Nervosa occurs much more frequently in females than in males. The statistics show that 90% of all anorexics are females. Most often anorexia develops during adolescence or young adulthood, although there is some evidence that it may occur at a later age.
Anorexia Nervosa placed third behind asthma and type 1 diabetes as the most chronic disease which affects young people. It is estimated that teens and young adults betwixt the ages 15 and 24 who suffer from Anorexia have 10 times the chance of dying when compared to those of similar age. Of individuals with anorexia, only .25% are males which is why most times its after death males are identified as being anorexic. About 10% individuals die from complications of the disease. That number duplicates to about 20% if combined with the patients who have anorexia and who suicide, thus making it the most life-threatening and fatal mental disease in
...uses body deterioration and psychological and emotional stress, which conclusively leads to death. Imagine walking through a fun house and seeing various distorted images of someone’s body. Most people know those images are fake. However, a person with anorexia truly believes the image they are seeing. This misconception is not discretionary nor is it a form of vanity. Anorexia is a serious mental disease that distorts a person’s view on life and happiness.
Anorexia is a disorder where a person deprives their body of food to abstain the fear of becoming fat, leading to excessive and unhealthy weight loss. Anorexia not only produces weight loss but many internal problems such as hair loss, fatigue, weakness osteoporosis, amenorrhea (the loss of menstrual periods) and can even cause heart attacks.
Anorexia is a serious and life threatening condition. It can result in death due to starvation, heart failure, or electrolyte imbalance. The first step in helping someone suffering with anorexia is to diagnose the physical characteristics attributed with the disease...
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that effects both men and women of all ages but most common in women. Refusal to maintain a healthy body weight. Many women in this day and age are taught by the media that being skinny or tiny in size is the healthy or more wanted body type, because of this women refuse to eat or take other measures to keep their weight extremely low to accomplish this. Many believe that even when they are small in body type that they are still large and see an overweight self in the mirror. No matter how skinny they may become it is never enough and they will still have a poor self-image and low confidence. There are two types of anorexia. There is the restricted type where people will try and achieve weight loss
Today, as many as 10 out of 100 young teens struggle with an eating disorder. Each year, many teens develop eating disorders, or problems related to their weight, body image, and food. Anorexia is a serious eating disorder associated with an intense fear of weight gain and food. People who suffer from anorexia limit the amount of food they eat and have a distorted view of their body size and shape and may become dangerously thin. That is because the disorder affects not only their body but also their mind. Although the cause of anorexia is not fully understood, there is evidence that physical, biological, and social triggers are part of problems in anorexia. All of these causes revolve around the society we are living in today.
Problems that are associated with anorexia are girls usually stop having their menstrual periods. This is a condition that is known as amenorrhea. Anorexia can lead to hair loss and dry skin. People who are suffering from anorexia feel cold and become easily ill. Mood swings are typical. One in ten anorexics die from starvation, suicide, or medical complications like heart attacks or kidney failure.
Anorexia is not a choice to be made. It is brought on by many pressures to be thin and it clouds one’s ability to see herself/himself as she/he really is, which is usually dangerously thin. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. Sufferers starve themselves and have extreme weight loss. When starving themselves, anorexics may suffer from terrible hunger pains, but feel rewarded when they can make it through a certain time period, usually a day, then work up to two days and so on.
Anorexia has many negative effects as well. According to the University of Maryland Medical Centers article Eating Disorders, “Anorexia nervosa can increase the risk for serious health problems such as: hormonal changes including reproductive, thyroid, stress, and growth hormones, heart problems such as abnormal heart rhythm, electrolyte imbalance, fertility problems, bone density loss, anemia, and neurological problems.” Anorexia can severely affect a person internally. The continuous lack of nutrients can leave an anorexic person extremely frail. The heart in particular can grow so weak, that heart failure occurs. Eating disorders can lead too permanent health damages can stay with a person for the rest of their life.
The word "anorexia" itself means lack of appetite. But that doesn't mean anorexics aren't hungry. Usually they do crave food and just deny their feelings. Most of them even dream about food or become focused on cooking for others. Despite their real hunger, their struggle for thinness is more important to them than anything.
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a fear of being overweight which results in becoming exceedingly thin. (guide) People with anorexia go to an extreme in abusing the way they diet, over exercise, and purge. When looking for symptoms in anorexia it is slightly hard to tell, for many times people keep their disorder a secret. Once someone starts undergoing this process, people sometimes gain weight rather than lose, which also initiates them to lose more weight. During the period of growth and maturation, anorexia leads to somatic and psychological development and which leads to serious health issues. (journal research) Although many don’t see what is happening, over time they are sev...
Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight and they are preoccupied with the way that their bodies look. Anorexia sometimes involves use of laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Anorexics may show symptoms such as extreme weight loss for no medical reason. Also, many deny their hunger, chew excessively, choosing low calorie foods and exercising excessively (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health).
Out of all mental illnesses found throughout the world, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa is one of the more common eating disorders found in society, along with bulimia nervosa. Despite having many definitions, anorexia nervosa is simply defined as the refusal to maintain a normal body weight (Michel, 2003). Anorexia nervosa is derived from two Latin words meaning “nervous inability to eat” (Frey, 2002). Although anorexics, those suffering from anorexia, have this “nervous inability to eat,” it does not mean that they do not have an appetite—anorexics literally starve themselves. They feel that they cannot trust or believe their perceptions of hunger and satiation (Abraham, 2008). Anorexics lose at least 15 percent of normal weight for height (Michel, 2003). This amount of weight loss is significant enough to cause malnutrition with impairment of normal bodily functions and rational thinking (Lucas, 2004). Anorexics have an unrealistic view of their bodies—they believe that they are overweight, even if the mirror and friends or family say otherwise. They often weigh themselves because they possess an irrational fear of gaining weight or becoming obese (Abraham, 2008). Many anorexics derive their own self-esteem and self-worth from body weight, size, and shape (“Body Image and Disordered Eating,” 2000). Obsession with becoming increasingly thinner and limiting food intake compromises the health of individuals suffering from anorexia. No matter the amount of weight they lose or how much their health is in jeopardy, anorexics will never be satisfied with their body and will continue to lose more weight.
Anorexia may not be noticed in early stages. The Anorexic usually chooses to wear layered and baggy clothes to hide the “ugly fat body” .An Anorexic may have ritualistic eating patterns such as cutting food into little tiny pieces and weighing themselves. These can be found in people who are on a healthy diet, but in Anorexics these behaviors are extremely exaggerated. Other warnings are deliberate self-starvation with weight loss, fear of gaining weight, refusal to eat, denial of hunger, constant exercising, sensitivity to cold, absent or irregular periods, loss of scalp perception of being fat when the person is really to this. Some other associated features are depressed mood, somatic sexual dysfunction, and ...
Anorexia is a deadly disease if you don’t catch it early. Physically and psychologically anorexia will destroy your body and your mind. You get so consumed on limiting your calorie intake and ignoring your health by depriving your body from nutrients and malnutrition. Mentally by starving yourself you think you are in control but the disease ends up controlling you. Anorexia starts at a young age affecting teen but it can also affect adult hood. Anorexia does not only affect females but also affects males.