Anorexia Nervosa Essay

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Anorexia nervosa is refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally

normal weight for age and height Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat,

even though underweight. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or

shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on

self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.

This condition is both a physical illness and a psychiatric illness. Anorexia

nervosa can be a very severe illness, including a risk of death from starvation.

This illness occurs most often in young women. About 5% to 10% of people with

anorexia nervosa are men (Larson). Anorexia nervosa means in Greek and Latin

roots "lack of appetite of nervous origin." Usually appears in early

or middle adolescence. A girl or young woman begins to starve herself and

sometimes exercise compulsively as well. Her weight falls and her health

deteriorates, but she continues to deny that her behavior is abnormal or

dangerous. She may say she feels or looks fat, although everyone else can see

that she is gaunt. To conceal her weight loss from parents and others, she may

wear baggy clothes or secretly pocket and discard food instead of eating it.

Despite her refusal to eat and despite the misleading term "anorexia,"

her appetite is usually normal, at least at first. Her reasons for rejecting

food are a mystery that researchers are still trying to solve (Anorexia).

According to the current diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric

Association, a woman is suffering from clinical anorexia, not just dieting or

fasting, when her weight has fallen to 15% below the normal range and she has

not menstruated for at least three months. Sometimes the diagnosis is made

because of drowsiness and lethargy that are affecting her schoolwork. Other

symptoms are dry skin, brittle nails and hair, "languor" (fine downy

hair on the limbs), constipation, anemia, and swollen joints. The level of

female hormones in the blood of an anorectic woman falls drastically, and her

sexual development may be delayed. Her heart rate and blood pressure can become

dangerously low, and loss of potassium in the blood may cause irregular heart

rhythms (Bower). Experience has shown that the more distorted an idea the victim

has of herself, the more difficult the cure, and the longer the condition goes

untreated the more uncertain the outcome. Anorexia nervosa must never be lightly

dismissed as a passing phase, which time and maturity will cure. A person that

is anorexic is not nature. Spontaneous cure rarely happen because the victim

takes a positive pride in sustaining her hunger. The longer the illness lasts,

more weight is lost. This deepens in the anorexic the illusion that being thin

is making her significant and outstanding as an individual (Cavendish, 63). Some

believe that eating disorders are becoming more common, but the evidence from

systematic surveys is inconclusive. What is clear is that fewer cases are going

undiagnosed. One reason is that the average age of puberty in American women has

retreated three or four years during this century, probably because of better

nutrition and less infectious disease. That means a girl is more likely to

develop anorexia while she is still living with her parents, and the disorder is

more likely to be noticed and acknowledged as the serious problem it is. As

social critics like to point out, drawing a line between eating disorders and

the consequences of normal, socially approved dieting is not easy. Many women

have symptoms that resemble anorexia in milder forms they may be losing too much

weight but still menstruating, or binge eating without vomiting or using

laxatives, or bingeing less often than twice a week (Macmillian).

"According to one estimate, more than two-thirds of college women indulge

in an eating binge once a year, 40% at least once a month, and 20% once a week.

As many as 4% of all adults (60% of them women) and 30% of the seriously

overweight are thought to be binge eaters." Binge eating without attempts

to compensate by vomiting or using laxatives is one of the conditions included

in the current APA diagnostic manual under the label "eating disorders not

otherwise specified." One cause of eating disorders could be abnormalities

in the activity of hormones and neurotransmitters that preserve the balance

between energy output and food intake. This regulation is a complex process

involving several regions of the brain and several body systems. Nerve pathways

descending from the hypothalamus, at the base of the brain, control levels of

sex hormones, thyroid hormones, and the adrenal hormone "cortisol,"

all of which influence appetite, body weight, mood, and responses to stress.

"The neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine" are found in

these hypothalamic pathways. "Serotonin" activity is low in starving

anorectic patients but higher than average when their weight returns to normal.

Another cause for this disease is the social pressure for slenderness. The more

likely it seems that a troubled young woman will develop an eating disorder

rather than other psychiatric symptoms especially if she believes that control

over one's appetite is the way to win admiration and attain social success. A

wish to mold one's body is also consistent with cultural ideals of achievement

and self-sufficiency. Anorexia is especially common among girls committed to the

demanding disciplines of ballet, competitive swimming, and gymnastics. According

to one survey, 15% of female medical students have had an eating disorder at

some time. But the common belief that high social status raises the risk for

eating disorders may no longer be correct, at least for American women. In a

1996 review of 13 surveys, researchers found that eating disorders were equally

common among whites and blacks and in all social classes. An unusual, not widely

accepted but interesting theory is that in some cases anorexia results from

excessive physical activity. Evidence for this theory comes from experiments in

which rats are allowed to exercise on a wheel at will but fed only a single

daily meal and given only a brief time to eat it. When put on this

"regime," they start to run more and more and eat less and less.

Eventually they may die of starvation. According to the theory, these conditions

are equivalent to self-imposed diet and exercise regimens. Normally people eat

more when physical activity rises. But if food intake is restricted at the same

time, a self-perpetuating cycle may develop in which restricted food intake

heightens the urge to move, and constantly increasing exercise depresses

interest in eating (Cavendish). Like most psychiatric disorders, anorexia run in

families. The rate of anorexia among mothers and sisters of anorectic women is

2% to 10%. In one study, researchers found that 20% of anorectic patients but

only 6% of people with other psychiatric disorders had a family member with an

eating disorder. Several twin studies suggest that this family susceptibility is

largely hereditary. In one comparison, anorexia was found in 9 of 16 identical

twins of anorectic patients but only 1 of 14 fraternal twins. In another study,

researchers found that when one of a pair of identical twins had bulimia, the

chance that the other would also have it was 23%, eight times higher than the

rate in the general population. For fraternal twins, the rate was 9%, or three

times higher than average. The authors calculate a heritability of 55%

(“Anorexia”). In the vast psychological and sociological literature on

eating disorders, a wide variety of influences have been suggested, from peer

pressure to sexual anxieties. One common theme is starvation as a form of

self-punishment with the unacknowledged purpose of pleasing a parent who is seen

as needing to impose harsh restrictions. Most anorectic...

Anorexia Nervosa. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1995ed. CD-ROM. Redmond:
Grolier, 1995. “Anorexia Nervosa.” Clinical References System. 1998 Online.
Internet. Available http://bewell.com Bower, Bruce. “Women With Anorexic Face
Ongoing Problems.” Science News 18 July. 1998: 3. Cavendish, Marshall.
“Anorexia Nervosa.” Family Health. 1986: Vol. 1. Gilbert, Adrienne A. “The
Impact of Eating Disorders on Family Relationships.” Eating Disorders.
University of Waterloo, Ontario. 1998: 1-22. Larson, David E., MD. “Anorexia
Nervosa.” Mayo Clinic Family Health Book. 1996 ed. 2. Macmillian, John.
“Anorexia Nervosa.” Nutrition and Fitness. 1995. You should cite this paper as follows:

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