Is anorexia the same all over the world?
Anorexia is a mental illness and not a choice therefore it is prevalent all over the world,
whether it’s in the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean or up in the Swedish Alps eating
disorders are still found.
Anorexia is in reality a strive to be what they think as ‘perfect’, to be in ‘control’ these are all
factors that you can quiet easily find anywhere, once we put the stereotypical ideas of the
Greeks, the Spanish the French aside we can see that it doesn’t matter where you come
from, what your heritage or background is anorexia can truly hit anyone and sadly takes 5%
of the world’s population each year.
8 million people in the United states suffer from this eating disorder on average, 40% of
teenagers in the u.k develop this mental illness, between 30,00 and 40,00 people in Greece
have extreme cases of some type of eating disorder and at least 5 people in this room would
have beaten or may still be battling this mental disorder.
Yes anorexia happens all over the world but no, it’s not the same every person has a
different set of reasons, events or lifestyles that can lead to it. This disorder is relevant
around the world even if we don’t see it spread across the news or papers it’s still affecting
millions of people across the globe.
Some statics show that there is a larger amount of people affected by this disorder in the
western countries; france, austrlia, united states, the u.k compared to the eastern nations;
greece, serbia, italy, macedonia personally i don’t believe this is because of any cultural
difference but simply the medias focus on what women should look like, they’re not told that
the ‘perfect’ women is stick thin with their collar bones sticking out instead their “idols” or
celebrities are fit with toned mussels and a bit of shape.
The history of anorexia?
Although Anorexia Nervosa has long been well-known by psychologists and other
behavioural scientists, the general public first got to know about the disease and its nature at
the end of the twentieth century.
The first recorded case was in 1687 in London it took over 200 years for it to become
classified as a disorder in the 1870’s. Anorexia Nervosa means "nervous loss of appetite"
which is what the doctors thought this disorder was caused by.
Because anorexia is such a complex disorder that even today we still don’t fully understand
allot of the people thought it was a sign of madness and often these victims were shut away
in mental institutions or in some cases killed. In 1984, during the American TV-show
"Saturday night live", the host began to joke about the disease and showed a proposal of
how an anorectic cookbook could look like and showed the audience pages of celery sticks
on plates, but today we now know the serious of this disorder and the affect it has on not just
the person body but their families and friends also.
After almost three decades of clinical experiences the psychologist Hilde Bruch published a
book in 1978 titled “the golden cage”.
The research was based on over 70 cases with her majority of them being young women.
Unfortunately though by the time this disorder was truly taken seriously by the scientific
community the cases had become majorly more frequent so much so that it had become a
big problem in most college universities in America and the United Kingdom.
Clinical research in the 1970’s proved that this disorder was in fact a mental illness which
people had no choice over. Anorexia by this time was happening all over the world but a
higher number of anorexics were recorded in western nations.
Today, there are clinics all around the world, we even have specialized psychologists who
try and help both women and men battle anorexia nervosa.
Face of anorexia
Isabelle Caro ‘the face of anorexia’ in Italy. Has been anorexic since she was thirteen, she
posed for naked photo shoot in which she could display the effects of anorexia has on your
body. She wanted to raise awareness of the disease to people in the fashion industry. To
give you an idea of the extreme of her disease her BMI (body, mass, index) was under 14.
And she weighed 30 kilograms. Isabelle quoted ‘it’s a big step for me to eat a meal even a
cup of tea is sometimes too much’. After the way she has treated her body and stomach it
will take years for her to go back to having a close to normal diet.
Treatments
Anorexia is one of the few eating disorders that can be developed. Some people have
anorexia and bulimia at the same time. So they are starving themselves and throwing up the
little that they do eat. There is not a medicine that an anorexic can take and just be cured.
When the anorexia gets bad enough they have to be sent into hospital, and while in hospital
they are monitored and watched twenty four seven. They are given food that they have to
eat, and are not allowed to leave there bed for anything even to go to the toilet an hour after
they have eaten, that is to stop anyone burning off the food by exercise or throwing it up. It
they do not eat the food they are given, they get a tube down there nose and are force fed
through that. There are places that specialise in curing eating disorders too; it’s pretty much
the same rules as at a hospital but there are only people with eating disorders there. It can
take up to years to become healthy again after having an eating disorder, and some people
never do. Lots of people starve them self to the stage were they die. It is easier to cure when
they it is caught right at the start, it is a lot harder when they have been doing it for longer.
Sometimes doctors think that they have cured the anorexic but a few months later they have
gone back to their old habits and are sent back into hospital and that can happen a number
of times.
Once anorexics are to the stage that they have to be sent to hospital they have brainwashed
them elf to feel guilty when they do eat, they feel shame when they have put on weight. They
find it really hard to cope with all the changes they are going through after all the pain they
put themselves through staving themself. It takes a lot of hard work to recover, and one of
the hardest things is getting the anorexic to admit that they have a problem and need help.
Once they have done that they have to gradually start deleting the all thoughts they have
about food from their mind, they have to stop feeling guilty about eating and realise that it is
a good thing to eat. Then they are put onto a strict diet, with foods with really high
carbohydrates to help them put on fat. But the absolute first thing they have to do, is stop
them from all their thoughts they have about eating, putting on weight and their appearance.
Once the anorexic wants to be cured and has stopped all their negative thinking it is a lot
easier to help them.
What is it?
Anorexia is an eating disorder which a person starves them self to become their idea of thin.
It can affect anyone, but is most common in teenage girls. Anorexia can start with by
different reasons like having emotional problems and starving themselves can give them
relief from that. Sometimes they do it to get noticed or just to lose weight. Some anorexics
get motivated by photos of skinny celebrities and models that is why people say that the
media is one of the causes for anorexia.
History
In 1684 anorexia was first stated but it wasn’t till 1870 that it got described with an own
diagnosis.
Boys
I was reading that in some countries boys get anorexia too but not for the same reason as
girls, research has shown that most girls start an eating disorder because they want to look
like a role model and someone famous in magazines. For the boys it has been said that it
goes through their mind that if they lose every bit of fat then it`ll help them play better at
sport and there fitness. Every 1 in 10 people that get anorexia are boys and that has been
scientifically proven.
Other countries people get it
What makes them feel this way
for people to do this to themselves they are normally have something wrong or they just
really don’t like what they look like and wan to change.
problems with their family such as brother or sister run away or parents split up can strongly
cause kids to make them think there life is not important and needs to be perfect.
Relationships such as a boyfriend/girlfriend isn’t working well or they have a break up or for
instance have a fight and think he doesn’t like them anymore.
Where can people go to get help—
Everybody with anorexia is different, thus the same treatment approach won't be suited to
everyone. What works for one person might not work for you, so it is worth investigating and
trying out various options and approaches. It as nearly been proven that it is most effective
when people use the family counselling on their kids. Another option is to go see your local
doctor about it and they will sit down and talk about it with you and try to help you and get
the best outcome for you. Sometimes, to help you get better, you may spend some time in a
hospital so that your nutritional or psychological needs can be looked after in an environment
that offers a more intense level of support. This may include having your weight returned to a
level that will not cause immediate danger to your health. Some people also find it easier to
learn to eat healthily again in the more structured and supportive environment that a hospital
can provide, regardless of whether they are at a medically unstable weight or not.
Effects—
there are so many effects it has on all different types of things such as families, friendships,
relationships ect.
With the family it can affect how close the parents are together, the kids and see anorexia is
maybe the right thing to do if they want to look pretty as there brother or sister.
friendships will be affected at this time because when people go into these moods they shut
themselves off completely till they fell they look beautiful, if the friends don’t know wants
happen with them they will just stoping worrying and think that they just aren’t getting along
well.
What is anorexia-Anorexia nervosa is a type of eating disorder. Eating disorders refer to a group of illnesses
where someone has a distorted view of body shape and weight and they have extreme
disturbances in their eating behaviour. People who have eating disorders generally have a
very low sense of self-esteem and poor sense of self. Some of the other eating disorders
that are similar are called bulimia, binge eating and compulsive overeating.