Lifestyles of the Well.. and Not So Well - A critical analysis of the media's role in the rise of anorexia

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YEAR 12 MULTISTRAND SCIENCE

Unit : Lifestyles of the Well.. and Not So Well

Assignment Topic : Media - A Critical Review

Due Date : Monday September 8 2003

Mark Allocation : 10 (Scientific Process)

ANOREXIA NERVOSA

Media has a significant impact on people's perceptions and views of an issue. This is especially true when discussing the topic of 'body image'. This supposed 'perfect' shape in which many females and even males try to achieve is the main theme. The media can are not adequate if we do not look like the stick thin models in magazines and on run ways.

Researches agree that the number of patients with anorexia nervosa is increasing. Recent estimates suggest that anorexia nervosa affects one out of 200 Australian girls between the ages of 12 and 18. Is this due to media and its influences? In this assignment I will examine and report on an eating disorder, (I have chosen anorexia nervosa) and will be discussing mainly the media's impact on the publics' view of this disease and the stigma attached to it and its treatment. Symptoms, causes and treatments will also be discussed in the following paragraphs.

A normal person takes a stroll down the streets of her home town, which has an abundant number of advertisements. As this person looks up at the pictures, she can see a Calvin Klein ad. The image portrays people who are the idols of our youth; young, thin, beautiful men and women. These young people depict the "ideal" body. As they walk, they begin to notice their own physical attributes and wonder what it would take to look like that Calvin Klein model.

This often means stringent, unhealthy diets, laxative abuse, and even forcing themselves to vomit. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder of self-starvation, which manifests itself in an extreme aversion to food and can cause psychological, endocrine, and gynaecological problems. Anorexia nervosa is the eating disorder I would like to talk about today.

This eating disorder has been found to almost exclusively affect white adolescent girls, and can be described as a mental disorder. It is well known that psychological, social, biological, cultural and familial factors play a big part in resulting in anorexia. There has recently been some argument that it has a genetic or organic basis, but there is little supportive evidence and research continues. Often patients are found to be intelligent, well behaved and quiet; they come from strict families who describe the patients as 'model children'. Anorexia nervosa is more likely to start when a young person is going through a difficult life stage. People suffering from anorexia often have a poor self-image and believe they don't deserve love. These children are made to feel that perfection is necessary and included in this is the perfect body. This makes them feel they have little or no control over their own life as it is being dominated and run by their parents. In turn this leads them to anorexia. Food is the only thing they see that they have complete control over. By disallowing themselves food they are giving themselves boundaries and taking control of a part of their life.
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At first when the initial weight is lost it brings out approval from friends and family. It's this that can then lead to further dieting as it is a situation which they are in control of and it is developing into further approval and praise.

Its main symptoms are symptoms involving a refusal to eat, large weight loss, a bizarre preoccupation with food, hyperactivity, a distorted body image and cessation of menstruation. Although it seems as though these symptoms would be fairly obvious, cases are not usually reported till late in the diseases' development usually when ...

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