“ Anorexia Nervosa ” Research Paper - 3155 Words

â€Å" ANOREXIA NERVOSA † INTRODUCTION Most of us have heard at least one story of an emaciated teen age girl who starves herself because she’s convinced she’s fat. But despite anorexia’s TV – talk show familiarity, misconceptions about it abound. As a result, many sufferers can often go moths or even years before someone notices that they’re sick and steers them toward help. Some teenage girls go through this kind of disorder at different times of their lives. This kind of illness brings about many changes – physically to emotional to psychological. The nature of the disease is such that an anorexic person can almost never bring herself to consciously acknowledge that she’s ill. This is why it’s important for family, friends†¦show more content†¦Individuals with the binge eating/purging subtype also restrict their food intake, but also regularly engage in binge eating and/or purging behaviors such as self induced vomiting or misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas. Many people move back and forth between subtypes during the course of their illness. Starvation, weight loss, and related medical complications are quite serious and can result in death. People who have an ongoing preoccupation with food and weight even when they are thin would benefit from exploring their thoughts and relationships with a therapist. The term anorexia literally means loss of appetite, but this is a misnomer. In fact, people with anorexia nervosa often ignore hunger signals and thus control their desire to eat. Often they may cook for others and be preoccupied with food and recipes, yet they will not eat themselves. Obsessive exercise that may accompany the starving behavior can cause others to assume falsely that the person must be healthy. (â€Å"NAMI†, 2000) The disorder was first described in 1868 by Sir William Gull and given the name anorexia nervosa in 1874. In a classical paper, he called attention to its neurotic peculiarities. The reactio n occurs largely in young, single women. Most patients are intellectually superior and in personality characteristics are introverted, stubborn, selfish,