I Am Thin, Video And The Two Studies On Anorexia Nervosa

After reviewing the â€Å"Dying to be Thin† (2000) video and the two studies on anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) my view of these two disorders has been expanded and somewhat altered. The â€Å"Dying to Be Thin† video looked at the history, triggers, medical complications and treatments. It documents the struggles of models, dancers and teenagers with the disease. The two studies on AN and BN asked patients in a therapeutic setting to write letters to their disorders from the friend and foe perspective. The results were interesting and merit further studies. The â€Å"Dying to be Thin† video increased my knowledge of the historical and scientific aspects of these eating disorders. It followed the common theme of how our culture contributes to the increasing number of girls and woman affected by AN and BN. As an athlete I could relate to the struggles of the ballet dancers to conform to the weight requirements of the profession. I was told to lose weight by my tennis coaches at every stage of my professional development. My sister who is also a tennis professional struggled with anorexia. I was particularity interested in the scientific research revealed in the â€Å"Dying to be Thin† video. It reinforced my belief that further studies of the brain will reveal previously unknown aspects of eating disorders and could lead to a cure. Scientist have found that elevated levels of serotonin are a marker for eating disorders. Increased serotonin levels reduces appetite. People withShow MoreRelatedThe Positive And Negative Aspect O f Their Disorder815 Words   |  4 PagesWhen I first saw the title and abstract to the articles required for this class, I read with disbelief the idea that anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) can be seen as having positive effects on an individual. To me, this was a foreign concept and had never crossed my mind. The exploratory studies required 18 (AN) and 30 (BN) participants who have been diagnosed with AN or BN to write two letters; one to their disorder as a friend and the other as a foe. From these letters, the researchersRead MoreEssay on Eating Disorders and the Media2815 Words   |  12 PagesHypothesis: Media exposure creates an ideal body image that is not easily maintained by most adolescents and causes adolescents to be dissatisfied with their bodies and leads to unhealthy diet habits and other more sever eating disorders. Logic of Study: What if the media was limited to adolescents, would they be less likely develop an eating disorder or would they just in fact have there own thoughts creating the actual self. Adolescents tend to have their own perceptions of what they want theirRead MoreEating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa2131 Words   |  9 Pages1. Using the cases of two eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa), or obesity, one can determine that health and illnesses are just as much of a societal and cultural issue, as they are a medical issue. Eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia are both mental illnesses. Anorexia nervosa involves starving oneself to avoid gaining weight, while bulimia involves binge eating followed by purging to avoid weight gain (Gerber and Macionis 2012). Both of these disorders stem fromRead More Eating Disorders: Just Dying to be Perfect Essay5629 Words   |  23 PagesAs the ideal women’s body has become progressively thinner over the past decades, the eating disorder anorexia has become progressively more prevalent. Anorexia is a disease in which a person eats nothing beyond minimal amounts of food so that her body weight drops dangerously. It is no wonder with all of the cultural messages of thinness being aimed at women, that 90-95% of anorexics are female, 25.7% of all female ballet dancers are anorexic, and that the percentages are similarly high for femaleRead More The Medias Influence on Body Image Essay4394 Words   |  18 Pages Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semistarvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciatedRead MoreEssay about Gendered Media9688 Words   |  39 PagesArticle 7 Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender Julia T. Wood Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill times more often than ones about women (â€Å"Study Reports Sex Bias,† 1989), media misrepresent actual proportions of men and women in the population. This constant distortion tempts us to believe that there really are more men than women and, further, that men are the cultural standard. THEMES IN MEDIA Of the many influences on how we view