Anorexia nervosa is characterized by an irrational dread of becoming fat coupled with a relentless pursuit of thinness. People with anorexia go to extremes to reach and maintain a dangerously low body weight. But no matter how much weight is lost, no matter how emaciated they become, it’s never enough. The more the scale dips, the more obsessed they become with food, dieting, and weight loss.
The key features of anorexia nervosa are:
- Refusal to sustain a minimally normal body weight
- Intense fear of gaining weight, despite being underweight
- Distorted view of one’s body or weight, or denial of the dangers of one’s low weight
There are two types of anorexia. In the restricting type, weight loss is achieved by restricting calories. Restricting anorexics follow drastic diets, go on fasts, and exercise to excess. In the purging type, people get rid of calories they’ve consumed by vomiting or using laxatives and diuretics.
Anorexia is most common in adolescent girls and young women, with a typical age of onset between the ages of 13 and 20. But people of all ages—including men and children—can suffer from anorexia.
The difference between dieting and anorexia
Eating disorders, including anorexia, often begin with normal dieting. A person may start dieting and exercising to get in shape, but as the pounds come off, a desire to lose even more weight is triggered. This cycle continues until the person almost completely stops eating.
Many factors influence this destructive progression from healthy dieting to full-blown anorexia. For many anorexics, self-starvation is a way to feel in control. People with anorexia may feel powerless in their everyday lives, but they can control what they eat. Restricting food is a way to cope with painful feelings such as anger, shame, and self-loathing. Saying “no” to food, getting the best of hunger, and controlling the number on the scale make them feel strong and successful—at least for a short while.
Unfortunately, this boost to self-esteem is short-lived. Anorexics believe that their lives will be better—that they’ll finally feel good about themselves—if they lose more weight. But no amount of dieting or weight loss can repair the negative self-image at the heart of anorexia. In the end, anorexia only leads to greater emotional pain, isolation, and physical damage.
Anorexia nervosa as affective disorder
It has been argued that anorexia and depression may be related in some way, since there is some degree of overlap in the symptoms of these two diagnostic categories.
Clinical features of depression such as insomnia, weight loss and reduced libido are reported as also occurring in those diagnosed as ‘anorexic’ whilst anorexic symptoms are reported in people with depression. Researchers have therefore investigated the possibility of some relationships between these two disorders from a number of different perspectives. And whilst girls and women diagnosed as anorexic often feel depressed, it is not clear how the discursive construction of anorexia as a form of affective disorder could help us to understand such distress, particularly when the theoretical status of affective disorders’ like eating disorders are open to dispute.
Society and culture
- There is evidence to suggest that dieting and restrained eating is very prevalent amongst girls.
In western cultures many girls are pre-occupied with and troubled with issues of food, eating and body weight and shape. If dieting is not attendant “diet mentality” are now descriptively and prescriptively normative, then it seems vital that we understand anorexia nervosa within the socio-cultural context.(Polivy and Herman, 1987)
- Research also suggests that negative attitudes to fatness as well as idealizations of thinness, far from being peculiar to those diagnosed as anorexic, are culturally sanctioned and widespread.
- Many socio-cultural explanations of anorexia are, however, limited to a documentation of the increased emphasis on a thin body and the increased prevalence of dieting in cotemporary society.
Media’s influences eating disorder
Many magazines portray thin body as more beautiful. The Glamour appearance of young women is considered to be more vital, consequently most adolescence begins to copy their role models.
The cause of eating disorders is multifactorial. One of these is sociocultural factors which include family, peers and the media. It has been suggested that constant media pressures can lead to body dissatisfaction, which may result in distorted eating patterns
In the mass media shape and weight define perfection. Women perceive themselves as being bigger than they actually are. Their figure deviates from the ideal thus resulting in self body dissatisfaction.
'All I see is these pretty models, I wish I could look like one of them.' ( Wertheim et al. 1997 )
The 'ideal' body image is far from the physiologic norm. Supermodels are born with a specific body type and what the public doesn't understand is that they cannot diet to achieve it.
'Women don't set out to be anorexic, they begin by thinking they're too fat because everywhere they go the media is telling them that they are right'
Products are often advertised displaying the ideal body shape in the hope that it will enhance the product and create body dissatisfaction. Purchasing the product is perceived as a positive step towards reaching the 'perfect' body image. Concern surrounds the appearance of such advertisements in magazines aimed at adolescent girls, as at this age they are particularly vulnerable to the influences of the media.
Stice and Shaw (1994) stated that exposure to the thin 'idea' may have a negative effect on emotions leading to body dissatisfaction. Such emotions include depression, stress, guilt, shame, insecurity, unhappiness, and lower self-confidence.
The media are not solely responsible for eating disorders but they do contribute by promoting the 'ideal' physique. There is some resistance to media messages, as the majority of people do not develop distorted eating patterns.