Eating And The Purging Non Purging Behavior example essay topic

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, life-threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain minimal body weight within 15 percent of an individual's normal weight. The term anorexia literally means loss of appetite, but this is not true. In fact, people with anorexia nervosa ignore hunger and thus control their desire to eat. They begin to diet, and then the dieting turns to an obsession. Like all eating disorders, anorexia nervosa tends to occur in pre- or post-puberty, but can develop at any major life change. Anorexia nervosa predominately affects adolescent girls and young adult women, although it also occurs in men and older women.

One reason younger women are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders is their tendency to go on strict diets to achieve an "ideal" figure. This obsessive dieting behavior reflects today's public pressure to be thin, which is seen in advertising and the media. Others especially at risk for eating disorders include athletes, actors, dancers, models, and TV personalities for whom thinness has become a professional requirement. One of the most frightening aspects of the disorder is that people with anorexia nervosa continue to think they look fat even when they are bone-thin. Their nails and hair become brittle, and their skin may become dry and yellow. Depression and obsessive-compulsive behavior is common in patients suffering from this disorder.

People with anorexia nervosa often complain of feeling cold (hypothermia) because their body temperature drops. They develop strange eating habits such as cutting their food into tiny pieces, refusing to eat in front of others, or fixing meals for others that they themselves don't eat. They even become obsessive with exercising to try to maintain an image to their family that they are indeed healthy. Bulimia nervosa, often simply called bulimia, is an eating disorder. People with bulimia consume large amounts of food and then rid their bodies of the excess calories by purging (self-induce vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics) or by non-purging (excessive exercise, fasting) behaviors. Some bulimics use both purging and non-purging behaviors.

This type of lifestyle can become addicting. Often, the individual will feel a loss of control during over eating and the purging / non -purging behavior becomes a way of regaining control. As with anorexia, bulimia typically begins during adolescence. The condition occurs most often in women, but is also found in men. Many people who suffer from bulimia "binge and purge" in secret.

They may maintain normal or above normal body weight. Bulimia can occur in those with anorexia nervosa or it can occur as a separate condition. The binge-purge cycle may be accompanied by depression and an awareness that the eating is abnormal and out of control. Evidence of binge eating, including disappearance of large amounts of food in short periods of time. Evidence of purging behaviors, including frequent trips to the bathroom after meals, signs and / or smells of vomiting, presence of wrappers or packages of laxatives or diuretics. The individual might become obsessed with exercise in order to burn off the calories.

They begin to show signs of swelling in the check and jaw area. When the purging begins the stomach acid in vomit starts to eat away and can cause the teeth to become rotten or discolored. The individual might complain of a constant sore throat and even hair loss. Bulimia can cause damage to the kidneys and even cause dehydration. There are many similarities between the two diseases in being that they are both life-treating to the individual and can cause serious health problems.

They are both regularly found in women in their adolescent years or young adult years. They are both difficult to treat because it is said that the individuals with these disorders suffer from mental disorders as well... such as a lack of control, loneliness, and feeling unworthy. The biggest similarity between the two disorders are that they both deal with a person's ideal weight causing the problems to begin for them. Even though the two diseases appear to be the same, they are very much different from each other. Anorexia deals with the individual simply starving themselves where as Bulimia deals with a person eating too much and vomiting the meal right after. Anorexia deals with weight just like Bulimia, but Anorexia is where the person sees themselves always being fat and continues to starve till they have become just skin and bones.

Where as Bulimia is a controlling of normal body weight, where the individual feels they are getting too heavy and just tries to maintain the average body weight. Another difference of the two diseases would be the consequences. Anorexia can progress into amenorrhea and cause low blood pressure, impaired heat function, dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, sterility, decrease in the gray matter volume in the brain which is thought to be irreversible. Bulimia can cause rotting of the teeth because of stomach acid in the vomit. The extreme use of laxatives and diuretics can imbalance the body chemistry. Bulimia also causes swelling of the salivary glands and hair loss.