ANOREXIA NERVOSA Anorexia Nervosa has affected people for hundreds of years-dating back to the early 16th Century.

Its a disease where a person is incapable of sustaining a healthy body weight and has a fear of gaining weight because of a distortion in their self-image. It is a serious disease that has a massive affect on teens that have experienced it or experiencing it now. It usually is a life-long battle, however the most startling impact Anorexia has sis the psychological damage it does to teenagers and statistically shown numerous teens are having Anorexia. Anorexia is very dangerous, and in worst cases can often lead to death. Some people believe it to be a joke, yet statistics show that it is not a joke and is real.

HERE SHE WROTE " I agree with this statement, EXPLAIN ! how people use the term off hand for this, etc"
The classical assumption on Anorexia is that it only affects girls . This Most people believe that because women are the more sensitive gender, which men do not get insecure about their bodies. There are cases where men have been diagnosed with Anorexia, (mostly teenage boys.) Society has put teenagers under a lot of pressure to fit in, and as a result of this pressure they obtain diseases like this. Due to the fact that society wants a person to aspire to something that is unrealistic, most people try to achieve an image that is impossible, because it does not exist. An example of this would be from an article that emphasizes on the fact that teenage boys also are entitled to be affected by Anorexia. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has devised a questionnaire to assess possible social and cultural influences related to the body Model or stereotype of males, in this case adolescents. It is also the first time that a group of males with anorexia nervosa has been assessed from this perspective This elaborates on the fact that Anorexia happens to boys. Due to Social Culture, more boys are questioning their body and feeling more insecure. They are feeling more insecure because they are aspiring to all unrealistic, masculine models. Out of the people that are affected by Anorexia, 25% of them are boys , proving it is not just a disease that affects girls.. Another example would be:
Distressdue to body image, Influence of advertising,Influence of verbal messages,

Influence of social models, and Influence of social situations.Most patients with eating disorders are female,and to date little attention has been paid to the influencesof the above factors in adolescent males andstill less in male patients with EDs. ( Toro. J)
This statement clarifies that Society has such a massive pressure on teenagers in todays. They aspire to something that isnt real. He states that boys get anorexia, however it isnt emphasized as much, comparing to girls. Being that they both feel insecure about their bodies, they both have to live up to certain expectations. These expectations include: societal pressures and family pressures. In Toros informative description of Anorexia in boys, he emphasizes the fact that boys are not immune to this disease because of their gender. They are still affected by the media as well as girls are and this article proves that not only girls attain Anorexia, boys do as well.

SHE WROTE HERE " THIS IS KIND OF A MESS. ALL GREAT STUFF BUT NOTHING FLOWS TOGETHER"
Anorexia Nervosa is usually described as a loss of appetite which is really the exact opposite. Teenagers who have Anorexia have an appetite but they deny their hunger to get a sense of control in their life. They feel that they cannot control their own life or matters in their life, and try to control what they eat. The psychology of Anorexia has been researched and according to Jennifer Maskell Carney, there has been no cure for this problem solely because people, who have it, have it in different cases. It is complicated to understand why someone actually has Anorexia. For the most part they are in denial of the disease because they do not want to face what the reality is, they are scared. The most important fact about Anorexia is that it can never be categorized. Most people, who categorize it do not realize what they are talking about and makes them ignorant of the situation. Especially the fact that people do not know what Anorexics are thinking in their head, (the psychology of it.) Most Anorexics have the same psychological affects and traits. These psychological traits are listed: A Denial of hunger
A Social withdrawal Very Irritable Huge Preoccupation with food Less interested in Sex Depressed a lot

obsessed with food, thinking about it constantly. attention and concentration decreases perfectionists, (striving to do anything to be perfect)

(N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010.

<http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/anorexia/DS00606/DSECTION=sympto ms>.)

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A person with Anorexia also has psychological issues. A battle in the brain is one of them.- (N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. <http://www.booksie.com/all/all/tuscanybimbim/anorexia-opinion>.) This battle is similar to other battles, such as smoking, drinking or any form of addiction. Anorexia is an addiction, because the people who have Anorexia need the feeling of being perfect. The more they lose weight, the more that feeling of perfection takes over their life. This war is what to eat or what not to eat. Mostly in Anorexics, they have two sides in their brain or two voices. One voice is the logical and the other voice is emotional . Even when Anorexics finally admit they have a problem, they never are truly sure if they want help. The root of this psychology is mostly from the persons background (mainly family). Usually this person has trouble dealing with his/her emotions and feels very alone and therefore he/she turns to an eating disorder seeking for being loved and affected. In our study, patients Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa can be conceived as being related to the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as Someone else can control your thoughts, Having thoughts that are not your own, or Other people being aware of your private thoughts both groups were as likely as the control group to endorse these items. Moreover, both groups of patients did not report having had the experience of Hearing voices other people don't hear, as reported by about 2% of the people. - ( Paola Miotto) This quotation establishes that the most significant part in Anorexia is the battle in the brain. This is stated to be a restriction on both ends, the logical and emotional part of the brain. She discusses on how her patients are being tested psychological studies on Anorexia and Bulimia. They have had similar reactions in their brain of people with schizophrenia. Due to the fact the patients are saying that there are two voices in their head constantly battling. In the whole article she states that the most significant part of Anorexia is the psychology of it. That even if the person is becoming healthier physically, he/she is still suffering mentally, and it is very important to get treatment for the mental part of the disease. The mentality must be changed as well as the appearance.

The history of Anorexia dates back to the 16th Century and has been diagnosed in the 19th Century. With the research of Sir William Gull, he diagnosed two different adolescent girls with Anorexia. He named the girls Miss A and Miss B in his test. He realized that Miss A had lost 33lbs; she was 55 and 82lbs. He noticed that she was emaciated and her lack of basic nutrients was causing her appearance to be like this, solely by the refusal of food. The observation of Miss B was similar. Her appearance was emaciated, and similar to Miss A, by the refusal of food. As a result of these observations, he states that by starvation alone and the refusal to sustain a healthy body weight, death is inevitable. This was the beginning of the diagnosis of Anorexia, and unfortunately it has still been around since then.-( Pearce, J.

M. S.)
According to statistics by the National Eating Disorders Association in 2009- (N.p., n.d. Web.

8 Dec2010

<http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/in-the-news/news-release detail.php?release=34&title= %E2%80%98Top>. )

, as many as 10 million women and 1 million men suffer from Anorexia in their lifetime. They state how Anorexia is mostly found in mid- to late teenage years. They also created a table of the statistics over the years Age N Percent under 18 142 22.3% 18 24 209 32.8% 25 34 150 23.5% 35 44 81 12.7% 45 54 39 6.1% 55 and over 16 2.5% This represents that younger people, including numerous teenagers are associated or have Anorexia. This does not mean because they are not mature they have this disease, it means it can happen to anyone.

The physical affects Anorexia has on a teenager is a huge dilemma. Some physical affects Anorexia has on teenagers is loss of hair, very thin, moody, yellowish skin, for girls they stop menstruating, a low-metabolic rate, low self-esteem or depression, and they start to lose their muscle mass very quickly. (N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010.
<http://www.medicinenet.com/anorexia_nervosa/page4.htm>.)

Teenagers with Anorexia usually tend to over exercise to burn the calories off. They sometimes restrict their calories almost as low as 500 calories a day. Most teenagers who had/have Anorexia have either been bullied for being fat or feel that they dont fit-in because they are not as thin as everyone else. One primary factor that the majority of Anorexics have is that they have body-dysphormia, as stated by Masahiro Ochi. Body dysphormia means means that their perception of themselves is mentally wrong. For instance, usually friends of Anorexics will judge on how skinny they are, and Anorexics cannot see the same view as they can. They only view themselves as fat because they aspire to something that is thinner than they are (unrealistic image.) This is one of the reasons that Anorexia causes death. Due to the fact that the participants of Anorexia cannot see they have a problem because they are dealing with body dysphormia. Even if they are near death from starvation, they will not see it and be in denial for a very long time. The majority of Anorexics are teens. Usually for teens it is easier to recover than adults because teens have more time to realize their illness and can get help before it worsens. In todays modern world, most people would start to get furious with Anorexics because they dont understand why they cannot eat and these people are also hurting Anorexics, for the fact that Anorexics are very sensitive toward their feelings. Due to all of this, Anorexia is a real disease. It has symptoms, affects, and it does have treatments. However, if Anorexia is not treated early on, the sufferer will continue to suffer with this illness for the rest of their life. They would never look at food the same way before Anorexia again, and they have a

higher chance of relapsing in the future. They could recover or get cured from the illness, however it will never really go away and they have to learn how to fight it every day. If treated early on, Anorexics have a better chance of making an enhanced chance of recovering better, compared to treat later on. Yet, Anorexia can never really be cured or fully recovered. ( Jennifer Maskell Carney) Most people believe that Anorexics can be fully recovered because they see that the patient is gaining weight and becoming healthy, yet Anorexia initially started in the mindset of a person-teenager, so it will never leave the mind. Physically the teenager is recovering, however psychologically the teenager is not because the underlying emotions that cause Anorexia will always be there. These emotions will always be there because it is how the person views themselves, both physically and internally. Without any treatment, Anorexics eventually starve themselves to death, or go into cardiac arrest because of the electrolyte imbalance. This is proving the fact that Anorexia is very real and can happen to anyone, because worst case scenario is that the Anorexic dies. Treatment for Anorexia is usually therapy, or in another worst case scenariosurgery. Individual therapy essentially helpful, however group therapy or family therapy is more effective because some of the roots of Anorexia are due to the teenagers background. If Anorexia is left untreated, the teenager usually begins a cycle. This cycle is first starvation, then starvation and over exercise, then bingeing and finally regurgitating. This cycle only gets worse as the Anorexia is left untreated and usually this is why most Anorexics who receive late treatment can never fully recover. Anorexia will never go away in a Society, and it is not just something that happened recently-having been dating back cases since the 16th Century. Especially in todays modern will, more and more teenagers are the exposed to thin and beautiful or muscular models, even without T.V.! Although the obesity in America is getting higher and higher, the opposite disorder is also getting higher and higher, mostly due to more media influences, even while just walking around the neighborhood

Unquestionably, Anorexia Nervosa is a serious illness and it is not a joke. It has grown over the past centuries, however has been traced back to early history. It has been around for a very long time and unfortunately it will continue to be an epidemic throughout the world. There is no cure to Anorexia, only treatment and it is usually therapy. The most significant factor that Anorexia has is the mindset or the psychology of it, because it has a bigger role in why the teenager is doing this, or how he/she is doing this. It is the root to the problem and if left untreated or treated later on it could become a life-long battle, due to the fact it truly is an addiction. If anyone you know has Anorexia, make sure they get help now because if they dont they will never realize they have a problem and the disease will only get worse, eating their organs away and their life away.