Anorexia Nervosa Essay, Research Paper

As a way to ?strive? to be ?thin?, or as a way to cope with low self-esteem and daily stresses, many people develop eating disorders on their path to try to be ?perfect?.

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are the two most common eating disorders known, but they are not the only ones. Compulsive overeating, and anorexia athletica are other problems that people suffer with.

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder caused by starvation in a person that is terrified of becoming overweight. A person who is anorexic may refuse to maintain a normal body weight, when their weight is actually 85% or less than what is recommended for their age and height. They are constantly pursuing thinness and trying to be ?perfect?, even thought they rarely will ever see themselves as perfect.

Bulimia Nervosa is a disorder in which a person will binge eat and then purge to prevent weight gain. Some examples of how a bulimic purges are self-induced vomiting, fasting, excessive exercise, and abuse of laxatives, diuretics, or diet pills. A bulimic feels out of control while they are binging. Their weight is usually normal or close to normal.

Binge Eating Disorder, also known as compulsive overeating, is when a person binges very frequently and repeatedly. They feel very out of control and unable to stop eating during their binges. People that have this disorder do not usually vomit, over-exercises, or abuse laxatives the way that bulimics do.

Anorexia Athletica occurs when a person constantly exercises beyond what is recommended. They try to find any extra time to exercise. The main focus they have is on challenge and they are overly concerned about their weight and diet.

People who have eating disorders are likely to have a co-existing physiological disorder and/or addicting, self-destructed behaviors.

Some physiological illnesses that may occur with eating disorders are obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, BiPolar and BiPolar II Disorder, Borderline Personality disorder, Panic Disorders and anxiety, and Multiple Personality Disorder.

Destructive behaviors can include alcoholism, drug addiction, self-injury, cutting, and self-mutilation.

If an eating disorder is not stopped early, physical damage, even death can occur. Some medical dangers that can occur with an eating disorder are as follows: Irregular heartbeat; cardiac arrest; kidney damage; liver damage; destruction of teeth; rupture of esophagus; loss of muscle mass; disruption of menstrual cycle; infertility; weakened immune system; icy hands and feet; swollen glands in neck; stones in salivary duct; excess hair on face, arms, and body; dry, blotchy skin with a yellow or gray cast; anemia; malnutrition; disruption of body?s fluid/mineral balance; fainting spells; sleep disruption; bad dreams; mental fuzziness; permanent loss of bone mass; fractures; and death.

Approximately one percent (seven million) women between the ages of ten and twenty have anorexia in the United States. About four percent of college-aged women have bulimia, yet twenty percent have some type of eating disorder. Only one million people with anorexia and bulimia are males. Fifty percent of people who have been anorexic develop bulimia or bulimic patterns. The eating disorders anorexia and bulimia primarily affect people in their teens and twenties; although reports prove the disorders occur in children as young as six and adults as old as seventy-six.

Without treatment for an eating disorder up to twenty percent of people, or one out of every five people, with a serious disorder will die. With treatment only two to three percent will die.

With treatment sixty percent of people will recover. Twenty percent of people will only make partial recoveries. The other twenty percent do not improve at all.

www.anred.com

www.ams.queensu.ca/anab

www.something-fishy.org/isf/