Anorexia Nervosa Case Study

Words: 943
Pages: 4
Open Document
Growing up, Jasmine was a petite girl who was in gymnastics for several years. After quitting gymnastics, she entered a competitive arts school where she went through puberty and fell under the pressure of stress and the feeling of not being good enough. She believed she was not worthy enough to be at such a competitive school, so she started comparing her skills, grades, and body to her peers. This led her to become depressed and feel unworthy. In order to feel like she had control over her life, Jasmine started restricting her food intake. She began skipping meals which eventually led to days of fasting. She began abusing laxatives and started losing weight rapidly. It was not until years later, that she was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. …show more content…
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder that is characterized by weight loss. People with anorexia commonly limit what they eat and how many calories they consume. Many people with anorexia have a distorted view of their body. They may see themselves as overweight even if they are dangerously thin. In extreme cases it can lead to death. Bulimia Nervosa is a serious and potentially life threatening eating disorder. It is characterized by a cycle of binge eating and self-induced vomiting to compensate for binge eating. Binge Eating Disorder is characterized by recurring episodes of eating large amounts of food and purging afterwards due to feelings of guilt. The category for Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders was created for those who do not meet the criteria for any of the aforementioned eating disorders, but still have a significant eating disorder. Eating disorders do not discriminate and can affect people of all ages regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity (National Eating Disorders Association). Eating disorders are extremely dangerous which can be caused by contributing factors such …show more content…
According to the American Psychological Association, researchers have discovered biological evidence of a genetic link to eating disorders. The study compared DNA samples of people suffering from anorexia with those of family members who also have an eating disorder, observing where on a person's “genetic map” certain genetic markers accumulated. The study revealed a strong evidence for genetic predisposition. This means that if a person has a family member that had or has an eating disorder, the person is more likely to develop an eating disorder as well (American Psychological Association).
It may be argued that the scarcity of evidence makes it hard to accept that eating disorders are caused by the media. However, the comparison of eating disorders in different periods of times and societies proves that media is a factor for causing them. The number of people affected by eating disorders has increased from the early and mid-twentieth century due to how much society has changed from then. In the early and mid-twentieth century, plump and curvy bodies were deemed beautiful. Having a body as described, depicted fertility and wholesomeness. However, now, skinny bodies are deemed
Show More

Related Documents: Anorexia Nervosa Case Study

Essay on Biopsychosocial Case Study

Biopsychosocial Case Study Case studies are an important part of clinical psychology. One can learn about the biological, psychological, and social factors involved by studying patients with certain disorders or illnesses. The case study of Christina Ricci and Karen Carpenter are extraordinary and this analysis will give a brief overview of their case as well as discuss the biological, psychological, and social factors involved. This analysis will also explain the need for adaptation in…

Words 1107 - Pages 5

Generalized Anxiety Disorders Analysis

found to be comorbid with others. Two disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and anorexia nervosa (AN), seem to have a high prevalence of comorbidity. To have a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, a person must display certain behaviors like an extreme fear of gaining weight, a distorted view of their body, extremely low body weight or low Body Mass Index, or amenorrhea. There are also two types of anorexia nervosa: restricting type and binge-eating type. To be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder…

Words 1447 - Pages 6

Anorexia Essay

Anorexia nervosa has been generally defined as a person who creates a disallowance for their self to eat and maintaining a healthy body weight. The eating disorder is not characterized by a lack of hunger rather than having hunger yet choosing starvation at a cost of many psychological factors. There are thousands of reasons why a person may choose to begin starve themselves, but the most astounding part of this disorder is not only the physical but also psychological effects that occur because of…

Words 1791 - Pages 8

Essay on Anorexy: Anorexia Nervosa and Oral Health

most common among these is anorexia nervosa which is a psychological eating disorder. This disorder is noticed in people of all age groups, all races and it affects both the sexes. Though this disorder is found in all races but its incidence amongst the whites is higher as compared to other races. It is more commonly seen in girls but about ten percent of the cases are boys. It is also seen in all age groups starting from the age of eight years and there have been cases reported of 60 year old people…

Words 3341 - Pages 14

Obesity: Nutrition and Healthy Body Composition Essay

who are more than twice their desirable body weight. The effects of obesity on health were further clarified by the Nurses’ Health Study, in which Harvard researchers have followed more than 120,000 women for over 16 years. It found that even mildly overweight women had an 80% increased risk of developing coronary heart disease compared to leaner women. This study also confirmed that to reduce the risk of dying prematurely of any cause, maintaining a desirable body weight is important. The distribution…

Words 742 - Pages 3

Essay about Anorexia: Nutrition and Psychological Way

Anorexia Nervosa Anorexia Nervosa is one of the eating disorders and mainly seen by young women who is in their 10-20s. But 10% of anorexia patients are men. Most of the people intended to go on a light diet at first seems to escalate and turned out to anorexia nervosa. In biological way to cause anorexia is by their genetics from their family member who had other disorders: depression, an alcoholic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and etc… In psychological way may be from…

Words 622 - Pages 3

Anorexia Vs Bulimia Research Paper

there are some people who take this problem to a peak which lead them to develop eating disorder. The most common eating disorder are called anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are often discussed among worldwide population as it effect a lot of adult and even teenagers around 15-19 years old. One of the article about anorexia vs bulimia by Lindsey Jones states that one out of ten Americans suffer or have suffered from this illness in their lifetime. She also mentioned…

Words 1114 - Pages 5

Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by abnormal eating pathology in the form of restrictive food intake, a distorted perception of body image and the irrational fear of gaining weight. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, approximately 24 million people across the United States suffer from bulimia, anorexia or binge-eating disorder (2014). Anorexia nervosa is determined based on a set of three diagnostic criteria. The elements that must…

Words 1581 - Pages 7

Anorexia Nervosa Research Paper

“ 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…

Words 3158 - Pages 13

Essay on Abnormal Psychology And Therapy 1 Angelic Added

Charles Gilliams Psychology/300 General psychology April 9, 2015 Jennifer Murphy, Facilitator University of phoenix Abstract: In this paper, we identify the types of Abnormal psychologies and therapy. Abnormal psychology is the study of disorders that effect people mentally and physically causing obsessive and disruption patterns and habits to a persons well being and life style. The difference between normal psychology and abnormal psychology is that abnormal psychology deals…

Words 1105 - Pages 5