What Anorexia Nervosa Is and How It Affects Individuals
People of all ages have sought after an ideal body, at which some point they are willing to do whatever it takes to get the body of Jennifer Lopez or Taylor Lautner. For some, eating healthy and living an active lifestyle are two major parts of their everyday life, others want a faster alternative such as Anorexia Nervosa. People who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa tend to feel that they look like the beautiful bodies on television or in magazines. In reality these anorexic lifestyles are causing reverse effects on the lives of these people. Due to poor nutrition and sporadic eating schedules the bodies have a difficult time coping.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person diets and becomes significantly underweight. Often times the person still feels overweight and continues to starve themselves. Anorexia nervosa is caused by interplay of biological, genetic, psychological and social factors. In recent studies it’s estimated that .48% to .7% of females the age of 15 to 19 years old suffer from Anorexia Nervosa. A common misconception is that Anorexia Nervosa only affects females, but studies have shown otherwise, “In a 1992 survey of 1982 Harvard graduates, eating disorders in women had dropped by half, but among men, they had doubled. And a study of 131 Cornell University lightweight football players, completed this spring, found that 40 percent engaged in "dysfunctional eating patterns" (mostly binging or purging), with 10 percent classified as having outright eating disorders” (Seligmann, Rogers & Annin, 1994). In addition, 60% of people who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa often experience a lifetime of anxiety or other anxiety related disorders. Eating disorders are often caused by issues within important points in a person’s life. Patients have often mentioned that they felt their eating disorder stemmed from issues within their household, at school, or as they develop throughout the stages of life. Dr. Arnold Andersen tested the cause of anorexia nervosa in approximately 1,120 males and females. “In males, who tend to develop anorexia symptoms a couple of years later -- in late adolescence or their early 20s -- anorexia sometimes signals confusion over sexual orientation. According to Andersen, about 22 percent of male anorexics are homosexual. "Being gay is a risk [for the disease], but not a requirement," he says, Actors and Jockeys: For women, the overwhelming social and cultural pressure to be slim can produce such ferocious fear of fatness that the result is anorexia. For men, says Andersen, such pressures are a significant cause of anorexia primarily in a subset that includes models, actors, gymnasts, wrestlers and jockeys” (Seligmann, Rogers & Annin, 1994). According to Steven Zelicoff, a Pittsburgh based exercise physiologist, “There is a certain social acceptance of (excessive) exercise, but you would be frowned upon for being neurotic about the way you eat, but celebrated as a local legend by the way you exercise” (Seligmann, Rogers & Annin, 1994).
Our current generation has an issue concerning childhood obesity, which the government has had a large influence of supporting preventative measures to reduce the amount of children suffering from obesity. Although these anti-obesity messages benefit some, it also may trigger anorexia in others. For example, morbid obesity is the result of disorder eating, which is similar to anorexia; the only difference is the amount of food taken in. In result The Mental Heath Act states that when treating anorexia, the medical treatment is nutritional rehabilitation. The physical consequences of starvation place the patient at risk of dying. NICE guidance, which is an organization that promotes a higher standard of life, states that “when a young person with anorexia nervosa refuses treatment that is deemed essential, consideration should be given to the use of the Mental Health Act or the right of those