Eating Disorders Essay, Research Paper

Nick Pourakis

Prof. Joseph

Final Speech

12/8/00

Introduction

I. Imagine a 19 year-old girl, let?s say her name is Kim. She?s 5?5, about 90 pounds. She has blond hair but is bald in some places and it?s falling out by the handful. Kim also has this gross layer of peach fuzz growing all over her face and body and her teeth are a yellowish color from occasionally throwing up after she eats, which is probably only a lettuce leaf or a diet coke every day. Kim?s face is sunken in and her body is so emaciated that you can actually see all of the bones protruding. Her pulse is weak and she went into kidney failure last week due to malnutrition. Currently, Kim is in the hospital but no one knows if she will get out. This is a portrait of an anorexic.

II. I am here today to inform you about the epidemic of Anorexia Nervosa among females, especially young women.

III. The three prevailing factors that influence the development of Anorexia are psychological, social, and cultural, in nature.

IV. Growing up in a household of all women, I have seen my family, in addition to close friends, struggle with body image, dieting, and self-esteem issues. In addition to being the firsthand witness to this struggle for many women, my ex-girlfriend had a suffered from Anorexia Nervosa, and I have experienced the devastation that it can cause.

V. I am sure that everyone in this room knows a women who thinks she?s fat, or is always trying to lose weight, or feels bad about the way she looks. It maybe someone you know whether it?s your mom, sister, girlfriend, or even classmate.

-Transition: According to the DSM IV, this disorder is characterized by a refusal to maintain average body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, and a disturbance in the way in which one?s body shape is perceived or a denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight. Now I?d like to begin discussing the three influences, or risk factors, of Anorexia.

Body

I. Research has shown many relevant psychological factors that accompany Anorexia, including low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, insecure attachment style, distorted self-perception and other mental disturbances such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A. Anorexics will often feel worthless, hopeless and out of control, believe that they are not good enough, they never do anything right, that they are criticized by their appearance, and that their lives would be better if they lose weight.

b. A study by Heights in 1997 analyzed a survey of 17, 318 female high school students. The results showed that 26% reported themselves as over weight compared to 4.7% that actually were, according to their body mass index. In addition, the strongest predictor for female?s negative self-concept was perceived weight.

- Transition:In addition to these psychological factors, there are enormous social influences that aid in development of this disease.

II. Women, especially adolescents, spend an increasing amount of time with their peers and, as children get older, the influence of their friends is extremely powerful.

a. Many studies show that beliefs and behaviors connected with eating, dieting, and thinness are conveyed through peers. Barr et al (1998) found that for elementary and middle school girls, the importance friends put on weight and eating was most likely responsible for their weight concerns.

b. A different study (Neumark-Sztainer, 1997) depicted the presence and effects of stigmatization on adolescent girls. Of 50 overweight girls samples, 48 described hurtful comments and differential treatment or rejection due to being overweight. In addition, the girls discussed negative assumptions that peers make about them including they are lazy, incompetent, and unclean.

-Transition:It is clear that weight affects how friends and peers look at you and therefore, many women are swayed by this prevailing view into taking extreme measures to be thin. In addition to being judged by peers, women also carry with them the societal ideal of thinness.

III. All over billboards, magazines, and TV is a message to women to be thin, diet, exercise, and control your weight or else you will be ridiculed and looked down upon.

a. Females cannot avoid the media?s influence and are flooded with images of fat-free bodies, dieting ads, and ways to stay thin on a daily basis.

b. People tend to believe what they see even though the reality of the situation is much different. According the Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention organization, the average American women is 5?4? and weighs 140 pounds while the average model is 5?11? and 117 pounds and that these fashion models are thinner than 98% of all women.

-Transition: It is clear that women?s insecurities stem from societal pressures to be thin, even though this belief is unrealistic for many.

Conclusion

I. In summary, Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life threatening disease, that has many roots or origins.

II. You can see how Anorexia develops from a combination of many different powerful psychological, social, and cultural factors.

III. The EPAP also states that 80% of young women feel bad about their bodies, 75% feel fat, and up to 70% are on a diet at any given time. In order to handle this unprecedented pressure to be thin, many females resort to crash diets, starvation, and even develop Anorexia and then they may die. But at least they die thin, right?

References

Barr, T., Sharpe, T., Shisslak, C., Bryson, S., Estes, L., Gray, N., McKnight, K., Crago, M., Kraemer, H., & Killen, J. (1998). Factors associated with weight concerns in adolescent girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 23(4), 31-42.

EPAP, Inc. (1999). Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention. Seattle.

Heights, R., Pritchard, M, King, S., & Czajka-Narins, D. (1997). Adolescent body mass indices and self-perception. Adolescence, 32(128), 863-880.

Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M, & Faibisch, L. (1997). Perceived stigmatization among overweight African-American and Caucasian adolescent girls. Journal of

Adolescent Health, 23(5), 264-270.