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Causes & Cures of Anorexia Nervosa

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 ôwhen the ideal female body began to be conceptualized as slim and boyishö (Stacey, 1993, p. 131). Because of the increasing occurrence of anorexia in both male and female adolescents and its significant risks to health, there needs to be increased research on the causes and cures for anorexia. This literature will explore contemporary research related to the causes and cures of anorexia nervosa.

There are three main categories of eating disorders recognized by the medical community: 1) anorexia nervosa, 2) bulimia, and 3) eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) (Treating, 2005). Those with bulimia often eat e...

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Causes & Cures of Anorexia Nervosa. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:32, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1711390.html