Kristi Qesari

April 26, 2016

ENGL102
Professor Wakeman- Linn
Understanding Anorexia

When most people think of anorexia, they think of visible

bones through ones skin and self hate, but they rarely ever think
about what type of disorder anorexia actually is. According to the
National Eating Disorders association, an organization that informs
society about eating disorders, anorexia nervosa is a serious,
potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by selfstarvation and excessive weight loss (Anorexia). Contrary to
popular belief, anorexia is a mental condition rather than a diet
gone wrong or just a craze diet in general. Anorexia, along with
other eating disorders such as bulimia and binge eating, are widely
misunderstood by society and those who do not suffer from them.
When people hear that someone suffers from anorexia, they often
wonder about how and why this person could do such a terrible
thing to themselves, instead of thinking about how to get this
person the help and treatment they deserve and so desperately
need. People also tend to have the misconception that young girls
choose to be anorexic because they want to look like the size zero
models we always see in magazines and fashion runways. Although
this may be true from some people, it is certainly not the case of
every person who suffers from an eating disorder. Eating disorders
can eventually lead to death if they are not treated, therefore, I
believe Americans should focus on how to treat eating disorders,
especially in children, more effectively because the mental and

physical health of these children are declining, children are too

concerned about how they look and the families of these children
do not know how to help them.
There are many causes of anorexia nervosa, although many
people believe that the only cause is the fear of gaining weight and
being judged by others. According to the National Institutes of
Health (Anorexia), a United States Department of Health and
Human Services organization, the causes of anorexia include
someone having an anxiety disorder as a child, having a negative
self-image, having eating problems during childhood, having
corrupted ideas about beauty and health, trying to be perfect and
paying attention to only their weight and shape (Anorexia). Often,
an individual develops and eating disorder during their pre-teen
and teen years, and if they are not receiving treatment for it, that is
when it carries on into their adult life. Anorexia is more common in
females but males also do develop it due to these same causes.
The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are different for every
individual. According to the NIH, some individuals may experience
an intense fear of gaining, having a distorted body image,
resisting food, exercising excessively, going to the bathroom right
after meals and using pills such as laxatives to make themselves
use the bathroom, in order to make themselves release waste,
causing some weight loss and other individuals who suffer from

anorexia may experience yellow skin, slow thinking and reactions,

depression, dry mouth, little to none bone strength, and extreme
sensitivity to cold weather (Anorexia). Although symptoms are
different for every person, the amount of pain remains mutual.
Anorexia is a serious medical disorder that needs to be
understood on a deeper level so we can effectively help those who
suffer. Eating disorders usually develop when someone is a preteen or teenager, and these are the most critical years of peoples
lives where they are starting to figure out who they are and
develop their self-esteem. People develop eating disorders for
various reasons that include; depression, anxiety, obsessivecompulsive disorder, coping with death, drug addiction, etc
(Anorexia). Maura Kelly is an example of a young girl who
developed anorexia when her mother died in eighth grade. She
could not control the fact that her mother died but what she could
control was how much weight she was losing, which made her cope
with the loss of her mother much easier (Person).
Children nowadays are too concerned about their body image
at such a young age. At a young age, children, especially girls,
admit that they want to loose weight, which is shocking. According
to a survey conducted by the Heart of Leadership organization, an
organization that helps women live a better life, 80 percent of
children that are 10 years old are scared of being fat and more than

90 percent of girls 15 through 17 years old admit that they want to

change at least one aspect of their body(Statistics). According to
the same survey, seven out of 10 girls believe they do not
measure up in their looks, performance or school relationships
(Statistics). These statistics are shocking but also eye opening
because they make eating disorders a slight bit more
understandable to people around those who suffer from anorexia.
These numbers are extremely alarming and something needs to be
done to make these young girls know that size zero is not the only
size in the world. These surveys show that young girls are claiming
they want to lose weight but the only question we can ask
ourselves is: why? Dieting at a young age can lead to eating
disorders because these children do not know the limits of diet and
then they tend to think that dieting can also mean starving.
The mental and physical health of children with eating
disorders is declining these days. Children suffering from eating
disorders are not only diagnosed with an eating disorder but they
are usually also diagnosed with other mental disorders as well.
According to the Eating Disorder Hope organization, an organization
that informs others about eating disorders and motivates those
who suffer from eating disorders to recover, Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder (OCD) is a common mental disorder that contributes to
eating disorders (Teen). According to the same organization, two

out of three anorexia patients admitted to a hospital or

rehabilitation center, also suffer from OCD, leading children to
become obsessed with exercising/losing weight and starving
themselves because they have disturbing impulses/images of
themselves (Teen). People who suffer from eating disorders in
general often say losing weight is an attempt to starve certain
feelings of depression, abandonment and worthlessness, before
those feelings can destroy me (Person). Children suffering from
eating disorders need to receive treatment immediately, but
unfortunately that is not always the case. Eating disorders can
cause several other complications to the body other than just
mental problems. According to the Eating Disorder Hope
organization, eating disorders can damage the brain, heart, bones,
kidneys, and liver, therefore whoever is treating a patient with an
eating disorder also has to regularly check up on these body parts
to make sure they are functioning properly as well (Eating
Disorders).
Families of children suffering from eating disorders do not
know how to help their loved ones suffering and they also do not
realize how important they are in the process of helping their loved
one. Most families and friends of patients with anorexia do not
understand eating disorders, making it difficult for them to help
out, but it is essential for them to help regardless. Families play a

key role in helping patients with eating disorders, especially

children because the road to recovery is difficult on its own, but
being alone during the process is even more difficult. Children find
it much more encouraging when their family is helping them in
their recovery process according to the Eating Disorder Hope
organization. According to the NIH, if a patient is alone in the
process of recovering, it is more likely for them to take a longer
time to recuperate, or unfortunately, not recover at all (Anorexia).
Families and friends also do not know where or how to get help for
their loved one suffering, which is another issue that needs to be
resolved. Some ways families and friends can help their loved one
is by attending cognitive behavioral therapy and support groups
with the anorexia patient. By doing this, the patient feels like they
are not alone and that they can get through this rough time
(Anorexia). Another way to help is to visit body image therapy
centers. For example, the Body Image Therapy Center in Maryland
is a center where people who suffer from eating disorders can get
treatment. The Body Image Therapy Center treats men and
women who are 18 years old or older, but sometimes they take on
patients younger than that on special occasions (Central). They
also treat patients with bulimia, binge eating disorder, anorexia,
purge eating disorder and night eating syndrome(Central). Having
more available resources and centers for people with eating

disorders to receive treatment from is awfully important in my

opinion.
Often, people who do not understand eating disorders have
the misconception that people develop eating disorders solely for
the purpose of looking thin, so they think that it is their fault and
that no one should help them. These people also believe that the
media is the cause of eating disorders and everyone wants that
size zero body type which is not the case. Unfortunately, these
people are the ones who say ew, why is she so skinny and ew, I
cant believe she would do that to herself.
In regards to the beliefs of the other side of this argument,
what people need to understand is that eating disorders are a
mental disorder where humans feel the need to exercise
excessively and lose excessive amounts of weight because they do
not want to be viewed as a sexual human being (Hooke).
According to Catherine Pearson, a writer for the Huffington Post,
although about 70 percent of girls in grades five through 12 said
that magazines influence their idea of a perfect body in a survey
conducted by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and
Associated Disorders, there is no evidence that these magazines
and media images are the reasons why people develop eating
disorders. (Pearson). Yes, eating disorders are a complicated
concept to understand and not everyone will understand them, but

that does not give anyone the right to body shame anyone else and
make them even more self-conscious than they already are. What
people need to start realizing is that people who suffer from
anorexia truly believe that they do not deserve to eat food or get
help. Yes, the media can affect some individuals views on body
image and what the perfect body should look like but what people
do not know is that some models are suffering from anorexia and
bulimia so severely that instead of photo-shopping their photos to
make them look thinner, they are now having to photo-shop them
to give models curves. In Doves 2006 evolution of beauty
commercial, they show a model that went through an extensive
process of hair and makeup but yet she was still edited to look as if
she was thinner, had a longer neck, bigger lips, slimmer nose,
higher brow bone and thicker hair. This shows that the media has
been altering models for several years in order to make them look
thinner, but now curves are being edited on the photos to disguise
the severe thinness of the models. This is a great example of how
the media is not trying to influence women, especially children, to
lose weight, but rather demonstrate a healthier image. If the
reason people had eating disorders was just because of the media
then wouldnt everyone be susceptible to having an eating
disorder? This further proves my point eating disorders are mental

disorders rather than an individuals desire to alter their appearance

based on trends they see in the media.
It is time to change societys way of thinking about eating
disorders and instead of worrying about the media; we need to
start worrying about how we can get those who suffer the medical
attention they need as soon as possible. I believe everyone should
also understand that eating disorders could be ways of coping with
rough times for some individuals. Everyone copes in a different way
and for some people their mechanism can be more harmful to their
bodies than others. Eating disorders can eventually lead to death if
they are not treated, therefore, I believe Americans should focus on
how to treat eating disorders, especially in children, more
effectively because the mental and physical health of these
children are declining, children are too concerned about how they
look and the families of these children do not know how to help
them.

Works Cited
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2016.
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2015. Web. 04
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