...are merely physical diseases while there are others that may only affect the mind. Some are genetic; some are a physical response to the body’s exposure to outside elements. Anorexia Nervosa, however, is a disorder that is both physical and mental in nature. This disorder is not genetically based; however, it is something that affects both a person’s physical health and their mental well being. What is anorexia nervosa? It is a condition that is more than just someone’s concern with gaining weight or excessive dieting. A person with anorexia often initially begins dieting to lose weight. Eventually, the dieting turns into a need for control. The desire to be thinner is no longer the main concern, where as it turns into a need to have complete control over fears that are in relation to the body. It turns into a downward spiral of restrictive eating, often accompanied by other behaviors. These behaviors include but are not limited to excessive exercising, abuse of diet pills which helps suppress hunger, and the use of diuretics or laxatives to help manipulate body weight. This will usually lead to a point close to starvation in order to feel a sense of control over his or her body. It becomes an obsession and, in this way, is similar to an addiction (“Anorexia nervosa,” 2009). Anorexia nervosa most often affects teenagers and is definitely found more amongst teenage girls than boys. Recently, new studies have shown that the initial age of onset has changed from 13...
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...Anorexia Nervosa Vs Binge Eating Society’s set standards are the reason we have beautiful girls deceived into thinking they’re not good enough. Constantly retouching photos in magazines, applying lots of makeup and performing plastic surgery on models and celebrities has formed an unachievable ideal body image that many strive to possess. Living in a world full of fake perfection introduces us to low self-esteem and a dysmorphic body image as we desperately imitate those we identify with, perceive as prestigious or rewarded by society. Anorexia nervosa and binge eating are both disorders where eating becomes a way of satisfying an emotional or psychological need instead of a physical one. They have opposite effects on the shape of the body; however, both eating disorders cause serious mental and health problems that may eventually result in either suicide or death. Anorexia nervosa is an irrational obsession with losing weight and an unreasonable fear of gaining it. Anorexic people eat very little and tend to have intense exercise routines in order to avoid weight gain. Shockingly, it’s not about food in reality; they just associate being thin with being worthy. You can’t really blame them. The media is always mocking curvy celebrities like Adele, Kate Winslet and Jessica Simpson while glorifying super skinny (rumored to be anorexic) ones like Victoria Beckham, Ariana Grande and at some point Audrey Hepburn. J.K Rowling once expressed: “is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’...
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...Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa Sandra Quick Dr. Kathleen Dunley, Ph.D University of Phoenix I remember the day as if it were yesterday. My Mom and I were in a room designated for the bride and her wedding party to dress for the wedding. My Mom had tears streaming down her face, tears of joy I assumed. I was wrong; she was crying because I was 28 years old, weighed only 92 pounds and was suffering from a serious disease called Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Every day since that day in June, I struggle to prevent relapse. AN is a serious disease that effects primarily American woman usually around age14. By focusing on why an individual is affected by AN, what treatment is available, and the large number of those that relapse, this essay will show why so many people do not seek treatment, additional research is needed and so many individuals relapse. Eating disorders are not followed by the Federal Government; therefore, no statistics show if there is an increase or if simply more patients are diagnosed. “It’s a national disgrace that we still don’t have published data on how many people have an eating disorder.” (Monroe-Striegel, 2006, p. 123), who heads the psychology department at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, Ninety percent of American adults are aware of at least one eating disorder. According to the Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, teachers from elementary and middle schools report that...
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...Connie DePlonty Bay Mills Community College EATING DISORDERS 2 Abstract We have all heard the typical stereotypes of the “perfect body.” Who has a perfect body and what does it look like? Are all girls supposed to be tiny and twig-like, and are all guys supposed to have washboard abs? No, and if this were true, that is how we all would have been created. According to the NEDA website (2014) “everyone is different, and that is what makes people interesting, if everyone were the same then we would have no individuality." It is important that the message of being your own person, to embrace your individualism and love who you are gets to young adults and teenagers. When the message does not get across there are serious consequences such as the development of eating disorders. This paper will review the types of eating disorders, history of the disorders, how they may be diagnosed, signs and symptoms and possible treatment options. EATING DISORDERS 3 “Eating disorders are psychological problems marked by an obsession with food and weight. There are four general categories of eating disorders these are; Anorexia nervosa, Binge eating, Bulimia nervosa and a category called (EDNOS) eating disorders not otherwise specified” (Eating disorders - In Depth Report - QualityHealth. (n.d.). These eating disorders affect individuals of various...
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...look for models regardless of whether it was their natural size or a size that was brought on by an eating disorder or excessive exercise. Now decades later we are still seeing the effects of the demand for stick thin models and how it has affected society. More specifically the rise in eating disorders and low body mass index or BMI in models on the runway today. There are two types of eating disorders that are most common: Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder where a person diets, exercise, or doesn’t eat even if they are underweight. People with this disorder often times have a large fear of becoming overweight or gaining weight. Those with anorexia nervosa have a warped perception of themselves (Thompson p159-161). Bulimia Nervosa is when a person binges on food or has frequent episodes of overeating. They then use different methods to relieve themselves of their overeating by vomiting or abusing laxatives in order to prevent weight gain. Often time people that suffer from bulimia nervosa also suffer...
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...Beautiful, a term defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a combination of qualities such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight”, is a term that most people want to be perceived as (“Beauty”). Celebrities who fit this definition act as role models for women who want to look like they do, and magazines and television advertisements are constantly telling women how they too can be “beautiful” by selling them weight loss products, exercise programs, and other image enhancers. The constant exposure to the media’s version of beautiful is not something that is often thought of as negative. However, their portrayal of what is beautiful has become distorted over the years, to the point where achieving this “thin-ideal”, which will be defined later, is nearly impossible for women if done through healthy means. Because of this, many women develop body dissatisfaction, which can lead to serious and dangerous consequences, such as the development of eating disorders, in order to be “beautiful”. While there are many factors that can be linked to eating disorders, research has found that the media’s influence on society’s portrayal of extremely thin females as the ideal body is directly correlated to the increase in body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and other harmful conditions found in women. By analyzing this from a feminist perspective, it can be argued that not only does the media’s influence on the idealization of thinness effect females physical...
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...Research has shown that greater females’ exposure to media containing a high proportion of ideal body images, the greater the likelihood of reporting attitudes and behaviors characteristic of anorexia nervosa and bulimia (Morrison, “Body-Image Evaluation And Body-Image Among Adolescents: A Test of Sociocultural And Social Comparison Theories”). Leading to the fact that sixty nine percent of girls in fifth through twelfth grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape (“National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders”). According to Rader Programs a study showed that after viewing images of female fashion models seven out of ten teens felt more depressed and angrier than prior to viewing the images. All of these facts contribute to the certainty that media has contributed to the body dissatisfaction in girls. One thing that teens fail to realize is that those images are airbrushed versions of model who weigh about twenty three percent less than the average women (“Ramasubbu, “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”) and the body portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only five percent of American Females (“National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders”). While most teens are obsessed with trying to reach an unreasonable goal that the media has embedded into their brains, they...
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...realization that every person, should look like they look, or should fit in clothing like they do. Seeing these unrealistic, usually photo shopped, beauties give an average person, or even overweight person, a notion that in some way they are less than beautiful or glamorous than they are. While most people can shrug off these kinds of stereotypes or feelings of looking like these models, others are haunted by the thought and are constantly obsessed with looking like and compromising their own view for society’s view of being “perfect”. This way of thinking not only affects how they feel about their looks, but also affects their outlook on the every aspect of their lives; whether it is academics, sports, or comparing to others in their family. High energy and fast paced lifestyles have made family interaction a minimal experience and leading kids towards the road of self destruction. Rumney (2009) states that, Anorexia Nervosa, is psychological disorder in which an individual deliberately and willfully starves themselves, engaging in “relentless pursuit of thinness” that can be fatal (p. 16). While according to Snyder (2009), Anorexia nervosa is the most common psychiatric diagnoses in young women today (p. 1). She also states that 1% of Voss 2 adolescent females, which translates to 7 million, in the United States suffer from this sometimes deadly disorder (p.1). Although women are not the only ones affected by the disorder; they make up 90%-95% of all those diagnosed...
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...Music videos have become widely popular amongst teens, and it is now becoming increasingly important that their negative influence be noticed. “Analysis of the content in music videos is important, because research has reported that exposure to violence, sexual messages, sexual stereotypes, and use of substance abuse in music videos might produce significant changes in behaviors and attitudes of young viewers” (American Academy of Pediatrics 3). Due to adolescents incomplete development, they will replicate the artist’s behavior as a way of expressing themselves because they are unaware of how else to do so. “Approximately 17% of male adolescents and 25% of female adolescents expressed that they liked their favorite songs specifically because the lyrics were a reflection of their feelings” (American Academy of Pediatrics 3). So, if adolescents frequently listen to lyrics that are, in their opinion, relatable they are more likely to mimic the behaviors of the artist who produced the lyrics. Even if the artist is exhibiting...
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...Being the mean girl is shown to seem fun and make a joke out of classmates. According to an article titled Stereotypes & Gender Roles, it states, “aggressive cues, an outgrowth of social cognitive theory, are information contained in media depictions of violence and can come to suggest when aggression is appropriate. Furthermore, scholars studying these effects argue that viewers who see justified violence learn that it can be a useful problem-solving device” (Justice, 2013). The idea of bullying comes full circle at the end of the movie with the reveal of the “Burn Book”. A book that contains secrets and rude rumors about the rest of the school. The emphasis on bullying influences those watching and teaches them about both verbal and cyber bullying. It shows that bullying can be used as a stepping stone to get ahead and it is okay to be violent towards...
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...self-harm. As someone who wants to protect and help those with mental illnesses, I can make it known to those around me that language like that is offensive. I can do my best to educate friends and people who talk to me about how people with a mental illness are not the stereotype. I have friends who struggle with depression, eating disorders, and bipolar disorder. To hear someone make light or make fun of them hurts them dearly. Also, the webpage mentions writing letters to television shows and movies that portray people with mental illnesses in an unflattering or false way. This is another way to help fight the stigma of mental disorders. Television shows have such a large part in our society, that the message they send about people with mental illnesses shapes societies views significantly. Also, I realize that I myself might be perpetuating the stigma that mentally ill patients live with. By making light of schizophrenia or “hearing voices” I belittle those that actually deal with those issues. I will start to be more aware of the phrases I use and the people it effects. Throwing words like “anorexic” out in a conversation to describe a skinny girl casually is belittling those that are diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. My language could make someone embarrassed to come forward with their mental illness and get help. By making it clear that mental illness is not something to be ashamed of, but rather something that is not their fault it could make them feel more...
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...Mental Illness Paper HCA 240 5/18/2014 Mental Illness Paper In this paper we will explore the background of Bulimia nervosa, myths, misconceptions, and past treatments. We will discuss the different symptoms, signs, neurotransmitters that may be associated with the illness. The paper will go over the ways that this mental disorder can be treated, and the ways that the environment in which the person may live could have direct effects to the success or failure of their treatment. Describe the way the illness is treated in todays’ society verses the way that this illness was treated in the past. What is Bulimia nervosa which means (ravenous hunger) in latin it is a type of eating disorder, which is potentially life threatening disorder (Mayo Clinic, 2012). Many people with Bulimia take dangerous methods to hide the disorder, from family and friends. People with this mental illness tend to eat large amounts of food at a time this is called Binging (Mayo Clinic, 2012). The second step to this disorder would be Purging bulimia (Mayo Clinic, 2012). The purging part of bulimia would be when a person regularly makes themselves through up even in times when they do not need to (Mayo Clinic, 2012). The other side of Bulimia is non-purging bulimia, which is when the person decides to go about other methods to get rid of calories (Mayo Clinic, 2012). For example, they over exercise, start fasting just to lose weight or to cut calories. The history of bulimia could be dated back...
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...How Do the Language and Images in Fashion Advertising Reflect Societal Stereotypes/Expectations of Women? A regular American is exposed to over 3,000 ads every single day and will spend two years of his or her life watching television commercials. These commercials have the will to show food, cloths, beverages and the most important: beauty items in the most perfect way. These adverts show beautiful and flawless women exposing not only their desirable bodies and faces but also, their ideologies. Every time regular TV viewer watches television, magazines and even newspapers he is constantly in contact with this a massive and wild environment that has a clear effect in society. Sometimes the audiences do not realize the significance and the...
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...Gender And Its Social Unstoppable Construction Abstract This paper provides information about the social construction of gender. Research from seven different journal articles organized into the categories of children, men, women, and the culture of Bugistribe, Indonesia.The understanding of gender roles is evident in children, even at the age of three years old. Studies show that parent’s set unclear norms regarding gender roles, which confuses kids. Moreover, there is historical background on social construction and women. The importance of the role of beauty in the female gender role showing how young women are being more sexualized. Also, the role of eating disorders in men and women’s genders is addressed. Men’s struggle with masculinity in present society as well as fear of feminism is talked about. Finally, the Bugis tribe, located in South Sulawesi, Indonesia is studied. Their five separate genders show a fascinating look at social construction. Gender And Its Social Unstoppable Construction Gender is an extremely captivating concept. The social construction of gender is an extensive and complicated subject. Looking at the views children have of gender roles shows social construction. Studying how women’s gender roles are socially constructed with feminine behavior is very interesting. Also is fascinating how men attempt to balance and uphold masculinity. Finally, gender in other cultures, specifically the Bugis tribe of Indonesia, have extremely different takes...
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...These women on television can all play different roles, for example, the corporate climber, the supermom, the social butterfly, the ruthless villainess, but they all have one common denominator; their attractiveness. The women seen on television are beautiful, thin, and primarily white. These are the types of women the media wants us to strive to be like because it boosts their ratings. How many people would watch a television show about someone’s life that was less successful and less attractive? Many would agree that the last 30 years some progress has been made in how the media portray women in film, television, and magazines and there has also been a growth in the presence and influence of women in the media. Nevertheless, female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we view every day. The media’s portrayal of women plays a significant impact on the effects to body image and self-esteem to implications in sports and politics. One current popular show that many young adults watch on television is a show, Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl follows the lives of Manhattan’s Upper East Side socialites. Each show begins with a blog “Gossip Girl”, which delivers the latest scandalous details about the shows main characters. The characters are college age which makes it an age many young adults can relate to. This blog fuels the drama that ensues amongst the characters on the show. The characters on the show each are fashion forward, possess stunning features, sex appeal, wit, and confidence...
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