Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa is a mental illness in which a teenage has an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of their weight and body shape. Girls with this illness believe themselves to be fat even when their weight is so low that their health is in danger. A boy with anorexia nervosa severely restricts food intake and usually becomes extremely thin.
Although cases of self-starvation have been known since antiquity, anorexia nervosa has become much more common in modern Western societies as thinness has increasingly become a primary measure of attractiveness (Elias, 2000). The disorder is thought to be most common among whites, people of higher socioeconomic classes, and people involved in activities where thinness is especially prized, such as dancing, theater, and distance running. More than 90 percent of cases are diagnosed in females, but some experts believe that many cases of anorexia nervosa in males go unreported. The disorder typically begins in the mid- to late teenage years.
Researchers estimate that about 0.5 to 1 percent of young girl in the United States have anorexia nervosa as it is clinically defined by the American Psychiatric Association (Elias, 2000). However, many more individuals, perhaps 5 to 10 percent of all young girls in the United States, have a distorted body image and a preoccupation with becoming thin, though they do not fit all the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa in boys results from an interaction of several different factors. Most researchers agree that one of the most important causes of anorexia nervosa is Western society’s emphasis on thinness and body shape as a primary measure of attractiveness. In fact, many believe that most people who develop anorexia are teenage girls because there is more pressure for women to be thin.............
