Anorexia Essay, Research Paper

Anorexia

Anorexia is dangerous to the mental and physical aspects in order to achieve the idea of thinness. It is an emotional disorder involving compulsive self-starvation that result in a person being 15% under their normal weight.

Anorexia Nervosa means nervous loss of appetite. It doesn?t necessary mean they lose their ?appetite.? Frankenberger page 37 says, ? Anorexics experience severe hunger pains. They fear that they will gain weight which effects their eating habits. The resistance of eating gives anorexics a feeling of self control.

As the disease progresses, the food dominates the anorexic?s life. The disease doesn?t have to do with eating and dieting but rather with feelings.

Anorexia makes you obsessive about not gaining weight. Weighing yourself several times a day may cause joy and despair. Depending on if the scale went up or down. If you?ve lost a large percentage of weight,(20 to 25%), you may see a fat, bloated person. This perception of extreme body loss causes chemical changes in the brain, altering your perception of being fat. An anorexic person doesn?t like fat and will deny the right to eat. They are likely to be involved in purchasing, eating for others but for the self.

Sometimes anorexics lose control and start to binge as a bulimic. Purging as a bulimic and then going back to anorexic patterns. Other times, anorexics become self centered and isolate themselves from others. This leads to the suffering of depression and low self-esteem. They are aware of society?s idea of thinness and work at achieving this idea.

Some Signs and Symptoms of anorexics include; a loss of weight and have failure to gain weight within their growth. Have a refusal to maintain minimum body weight. When encouraged to eat, anorexics become more reluctant to eat. Female women experience an absence of at least three menstrual cycles because of the loss of estrogen. Anorexics have an overwhelming fear of becoming fat even when they are underweight. The self- concept of appearance is not realistic even though, they appear to be thin. There is excessive dieting and fasting. They perform extreme exercising and frequent weighing. Anorexics often shops and cooks for the family but, refuses to east for themselves. They have deteriorating problems with family And friends. They also avoid situations that are involved with food.

Eventually, with ongoing excessive dieting anorexics develop; hallowed cheeks and eyes, multiple bruises because of fat protection, soft hairs that forms on the skin as a protection from loss of fat. Anorexica also experience loss of muscle mass , diminished thyroid activity which causes brittle hair , nails ,dry skin and constipation. Have decreased blood pressure , which causes light headedness and fainting. When the bones weaken , this causes osteoporosis. Males lose testosterone. Anorexics also have an intolerance to cold temperatures because of loss of fatty tissues as well as , lower body temperatures. Some will take possession of bathroom scales and won?t let anyone on it , as fear that it will throw their weight off. They may forbid others to bring certain foods to the house , such as butter in the refrigerator with their diet products. Anorexics may become obsessively nead and expect others to live up to their lifestyle.