Anorexia Nervosa

Beautiful women are thin women. This is certainly what society would have us believe. Unfortunately, this belief causes many young women to be obsessed with thinness, obsessed to the point of illness, obsessed to the point of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disorder characterized by loss of weight, fear of fatness, and distortion of body image. People with anorexia have both metabolic and hormonal disturbances. Symptoms may include loss of appetite, loss of menstrual function, increased physical activity, increased appetite with forced vomiting to control weight, preoccupation with food and cooking, episodes of gorging, and enjoyment in losing weight (Anorexia, 264). The best treatment for anorexia is psychological, but along with this treatment must come an understanding of the disease.

Many people have no idea why anorexia exists or what it involves. People think, "If she would just eat, she would be fine." They do not realize that the woman has a psychological disorder with many aspects. Anorexia usually occurs in adolescent girls, with only 1 in 18 male sufferers. If a person is more than 20% underweight, she is diagnosed as having anorexia. Anorexics want to have self-control and believe that by deliberately starving themselves, they will be in control of their bodies and achieve a sense of self-esteem (Rumney, 2).

Most anorexics think that they are too fat, so they begin to diet. After starting to diet, women begin to feel somewhat

Related Essays

Anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which people intentionally starve themselves because of an irrational fear of gaining weight (Levey, Williams-Wilson .... (2699 11 )

Anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by an obsessive quest for thinness and a dread of being fat. A person suffering .... (3393 14 )

ANOREXIA NERVOSA ANOREXIA NERVOSA: CONSIDERATIONS OF CULTURE, This research examines the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. The condition is described .... (3977 16 )

Anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa is a serious disease caused by excessively reduced food intake, usually in an attempt by young people, particularly girls, to lose weight. .... (2342 9 )

Anorexia Nervosa There has never been a specific campaign to combat anorexia nervosa, however several high-profile celebrities have suffered from the disorder and this has .... (3286 13 )

elaxation and family therapy" (Abraham, 70). Different patients have different needs when they come in for treatment, but all treatment has similar objectives. Treatment of anorexia nervosa helps the patient increase her weight so that it is within normal range. Another goal is to help the patient reestablish normal eating behavior and try to stay away from other obsessive methods of weight control, such as excessive exercising; self-induced vomiting, or laxative abuse. During treatment, the physical symptoms of the illness are explained in a way that the patient can understand. There are many forms of treatment for anorexia nervosa, but the forms that help the patient to relearn are usually the most effective. One type of therapy for anorexia nervosa is treatment with drugs. In most of the cases where drugs are used, they are administered in the earlier stages of the disease when the goal is to try to make the patient want to eat again or to get rid of depression which sometimes hides the feelings of hunger that the patient would usually have. The drugs must often used in the treatment of anorexia have been "the phenothiazine, chlorpromazine, and tricyclic antidepressants" (Rumney, 67). Drugs are particularly useful wh

Category: Psychology - A