Anorexia Nervosa Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Anorexia Nervosa Paper - Essay Example People suffering from anorexia nervosa have hypersensitivity towards their looks. They feel that their value as a person is directly affected by the shape of their bodies thus has an intense fear of gaining weight. They deliberately lose weight and find that food dominates their lives. They may diet; exercise excessively or use other means to lose weight despite even being underweight to the pint that their condition becomes life threatening (Jade, 2009). This condition is serious and affects all sorts of people of all ages; however, it is more common amongst teenagers and in recent years has become common among boys at 25% (in the 7-24yrs age group). Among all the people suffering from anorexia nervosa, women make 90-95%. Among the women, some are over the age of 30 years and their condition occurs first before they reach the age. This is despite the fact that most cases go unreported thus making it difficult to judge the numbers of people suffering. Also, the some may go undiagnose d as they fall short of the conventional diagnostic models despite having symptoms. Symptoms There are any symptoms associated with this disorder, and they vary from one person to the other due to factors such as individual differences. A common symptom is a body weight that is much less than expected for your age and height (15% or more below the normal weight). Others would have an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat despite being underweight, they may also have a body image that is distorted due to their focusing on body weight or shape. Anorexics decline to acknowledge the gravity of their loss of weight. In women, some may fail to have their menstrual periods for three or more cycles, which is a serious symptom. Moreover, in some others, they severely limit their food intake or even make themselves vomit, they exercise excessively at all times, or in worse cases, they use drugs such as diet pills to curb their appetite and laxatives to induce bowel movements. Visible symptoms include blotchy or yellow skin that is dry and covered with fine downy hair, slow or confused thinking accompanied by poor memory and judgment, depression, dry mouth, wasting away of muscles and loss of body fat, constipation, and fatigue. However, these symptoms may also be caused by other conditions or diseases thus there are tests to rule out these possibilities. Causes The causes of anorexia nervosa have not been completely comprehended. However, they are some well known causes such as; pressure from society and media, personality and family environment and genetic factors. Pressure from society and the media contributes as they portray the perfect person as being thin. This is commonly seen as is the case with models and TV actresses being slim, slender or thin in the western countries thus is most common in these countries. Personality and family environment plays a role in the case of having low self esteem. This is where a person thinks lowly of himself and associa tes it with his/her body weight. Family wise, it could be as a result of emotionally upsetting events like divorce or abusive family relationships. Also on personality traits, it can be caused by obsessive compulsive behavior where one thinks obsessively of doing certain actions. Genetic factors have also been identified to cause anorexia where in a family with identical twins, and one twin has anorexia, then the other has a 1:2 chance of getting it too. Other causes could be having