Marc Breedlove's Principles Of Psychology: Anorexia Nervosa

When I have seen the topic "An Anorexia Nervosa in our textbook "Principles of Psychology" by Marc Breedlove, it immediately caught my attention. I always wanted to better understand an anorexia nervosa and what causes this condition. The anorexia nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self starvation and excessive weight loss. People with anorexia have an extreme fear of gaining weight, which causes them to maintain a very low weight. They will do almost anything to avoid gaining weight, including starving themselves or exercising too much. People with anorexia have a distorted body image. They think they are fat, even if they are extremely thin. It is a serious psychological disorder.
Currently, it is thought that anorexia nervosa develops as a result of multiple factors, both biological and environmental. Some of the environmental favors are the celebrity teens and athletes conform to the "Hollywood ideal body": girls are petite and skinny, and guys are athletic and muscular, and these body types are also popular in high school, coaches, family members, and others may encourage teens in sports such as gymnastics, ballet, and ice skating in which they need to be as thin as possible. Some athletes and runners are also encouraged to weigh less or shed body fat at a time when they are biologically destined to gain it. Peer pressure among friends makes them be thin or be sexy. Also, there are some biological factors such as irregular hormone functions, genetics, nutritional deficiencies or abnormalities in the structure or activity of the hypothalamus.
Many people include me believe that the anorexia nervosa is a disease mostly related to the culture we live in and a study based on clinical research in the 1970s proved our point of view. The current increase in anorexia nervosa is believed to be linked, in part, to the public's obsession with exercise and fitness and the pressure to look
I thought anorexia is just a body disease but I was wrong, when she told me the story of her illness, I was shocked. My friend developed anorexia nervosa at fourteen years old. For a year or two she kept my eating disorder a secret. She refused to eat junk food and desserts and want to be perfect. She started to lose weight. She was getting depressed and had outbursts of anger. She was physically present, but mentally and emotionally lived in another world. Her eating patterns become more rigid, portions smaller, there was real fear in her eyes and actions when ‘bad’ foods were given to her and it was getting worse and worse. My friend had a counselor, but he did not help her. Her parents hoped that the psychiatrist would help her, but he also could not help her. Her weight and heart rate were low enough to cause her harm, and her blood pressure was dropping significantly. So her parents got into hospital to save her. She stayed in the hospital for the next 11 weeks. The doctors saved her medically. She had a team of five that were her support-medical team outside of hospital. My friend finally decided to fight back. It took a year or more to slowly introduce new foods and get her to be able to eat it regularly and another 3 years to fully recover. I hope that her recovery is real, attainable and, finally, she is