Compulsive Dieting & Eating Disorders

There is a frightening phenomenon that haunts attractive young women in American society. Millions of them are starving themselves on long-term compulsive diets, becoming emaciated looking. They are severely threatening their health. They suffer from anorexia nervosa. The chief symptom is shocking: self-starvation leading to a devastating weight loss. The treatment is difficult, the cure evasive and facts about the disease are not well known. Yet, anorexia nervosa, an illness that was once seldom seen, is now afflicting increasing numbers of adolescents. According to researchers at Brown University, at least 5% of adolescent females suffer from anorexia, but the eating disorder is also beginning to impact an increasing number of males (Treating, 2005).

One of the biggest reasons American women are afflicted with eating disorders is because there is hardly an eating experience (fries, milkshakes, burgers, etc.) that is not associated with sinful behavior. Thinness signifies control and self-control and, as such, has become an American mantra. Anorexia nervosa is defined literally as a psychologically willful absence of appetite. The disorder was first named and describe in the 1870s, but it was not until the mid-twentieth century that anorexia turned more towards the definition of extreme thinness "when the ideal female body began to be conceptualized as slim and boyish" (Stacey, 1993, p. 131). Because of the increasing occurrence of

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exia was in a male; additionally, males comprise between 10% to 15% of the eating disordered population" (1998). Ray (2004) contends that increasing exploitation of the male body in the media has led to the increase of the eating disorder among males, as well as other factors such as the desire to lose weight to participate in various sports that are weight-sensitive like wrestling. Family trauma, sexual orientation issues, athletics, and genetics are all factors that may lead to the development of anorexia nervosa in males, according to Ray (2004). Treatment Options There are a number of treatment modalities associated with anorexia nervosa, from prescription drugs aimed at improving mood and stimulating appetite to family, group, and individual counseling. However, many of these treatments have limited outcomes and patient denial often leads to difficulty in motivating patients to change behavior. As such, Sim, et al., (2004) maintain that family therapy is the most effective treatment for anorexia nervosa at the current time. Sim, et al., (2004) argue that this form of counseling often works best with patients who suffer from anorexia nervosa because the patient is taken out of the equation, so-to-speak. This approach i

Category: Psychology - C