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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anorexia

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Submitted By ErinLeighW5
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Teenage Anorexia
“Nothing tastes as good as thin feels” – Kate Moss, model
It is unfortunate that this statement was ever made but the sad truth is that much of the modern world truly believes that being waifish is more important than being healthy. The culture of the modern world has spent decades idolizing high-end fashion models that are 6’00” tall and skin and bones. This image pollutes the mind of the teenager and begins to manifest a disorder in teens that cannot handle their own body image. Sadly the statistics for teenagers for eating disorders is astounding. Over one half of teenage girls and one third of teenage boys have unhealthy eating habits largely because of the yearning to be thin (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses directly on the problem at hand. For 14 year old Judy Jones, her problem is anorexia nervosa. Due to the nature of anorexia nervosa, Judy is likely experiencing some fear or change in her life. Dealing with an eating disorder is consuming and a way of coping with the change. I would choose to use cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat the psychological issues and her physical needs by altering her behavior. Interestingly enough, anorexia nervosa affects over-achievers and students that excel in other areas of their lives moreso than students of average achievement. This disorder grabs hold of them as a coping mechanism and the teenager cannot escape its clutches. If a student is good at everything they do, they are also good at hiding their eating habits. For Judy’s family to have brought her to seek therapy, it is likely that she has gotten to a point that she is physically showing the effects of the disorder.
Physically the disorder may be causing Judy’s hair to fall out, and the extreme weight loss likely caused her to stop menstruating. Eventually it becomes difficult to hide a boney body

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