Anorexia Nervosa - Assignment Example

1. What was the most surprising thing about eating disorders that you learned while watching the video? The most surprising thing I learned about eating disorders from the video is the nature of the disease called Anorexia Nervosa. The featured victims of the disease did not seem to care or sometimes even realize that they were ‘abnormally’ thin. In Chapter 1, we see Katey Tracey, a ballet dancer, talking about how she felt loved, cared and adored by everyone after she came down to 20 pounds lesser than her ideal weight. She seemed oblivious to the kind of suffering she was putting herself through. We go on to meet, in the same chapter, fourteen year old Erin, who starved herself, under the illusion that she was fat and ugly, even when she was way below her normal weight and at the verge of death due to malnutrition. In Chapter 6, Jennifer Schmid, who is a victim of another form of anorexia, is unable to balance diet and workout. She eats well but burns a lot more, while exercising, than what she is capable of consuming. And in Chapter 7, we see Anne Chavarro, who suffers from Bulimia, taking to purging to keep up with her binge eating habits. What surprised me the most, was the fact that these eating disorders possessed the power to make human beings capable of withstanding all emotional and physical hardships or of resorting to extremely unpleasant methods like purging or of even putting themselves through starvation which is the worst a human body could suffer, just to be extremely thin. The victims seemed only too pleased about having a disease which left them a subject of admiration, even if it came with a death warrant. 2. What common themes did you notice among the girls who were interviewed about their eating disorders? Towards the end of Chapter 2, Dr. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, talks about cases of anorexia recorded in history, of women who lived hundreds of years ago. She opines that the common theme in those instances is that those women were using the appetite to express different things, depending upon their historical situation. I didn’t find it any different in the girls who were interviewed, except that the situations and motives were different. In Chapter 1, we learn about how Katey Tracey starved herself in a desperate attempt to be accepted by her teacher as the best dancer in her group. Eleena Melamed, another ballet dancer, talks out in Chapter 5, about what led her to anorexia. Her story matches more or less with that of Katey Tracey. It could be said that they were expressing their need to be accepted and admired. Erin, who felt lonely and insecure when her mother had to stay away for a year, took to starvation, to become thin and look glamorous, in order to attract the attention of those around her. She also admits to have been sexually harassed, which added to her feeling of insecurity. Here, she is trying to express her insecurity and bitterness towards the world. All the girls who attended the group therapy, in Chapter 2, had suffered some kind of psychological trauma in the past and had taken to starvation to vent out their frustration. One of them had become anorexic, in her bitterness towards her mom. Being soft-natured and unable to adapt to violent tantrums to relieve the frustration, she had taken it out on herself. She was trying to express her hatred of her mother through starvation. Kate Dillon, a plus-size model, who was once anorexic, had given in to the harassment by her fellow students. She had willingly undergone tremendous emotional struggle, ending up as an anorexic, in an attempt to impress those around her. Hence the strikingly common theme remains that of the emotional trauma they all seemed to have suffered at some point in their lives and the way they all took to starvation as an expression of their inner struggle. Another noticeably common theme is that irrespective of the reasons that had drawn them to it, they were all happy about the outcome; they considered it the heights of perfection, to be extremely thin. 3. What seemed to be some effective treatment strategies that the girls used to help overcome/improve their eating disorder? The most effective treatment strategy seemed to be the group and individual therapies which created awareness in the patients about the lack of logic in their behavior and about the seriousness of their disease. Towards the middle of Chapter 7, we learn about how most of the patients, who were in advanced stages of the disease benefitted well from psychotherapy. Cognitive behavior therapy, which is designed to break bad eating habits, seemed to help in establishing a healthier body image and a new approach to food, thus helping the patients to overcome their weaknesses. In patients who were not seriously underweight, drug therapy to control the levels of Serotonin in the brain, which, in high levels causes anxiety, also seemed to be effective. 4. What did you like the most and least about the video? What I liked best about the video is the way it has touched all the aspects of the disease. It has probed deep into the causes, symptoms and treatment methods of both Anorexia and Bulimia. The way it has been presented makes it very easy to follow. I am sure there are a lot of people out there who never relates their extreme dieting measures to an illness. This short movie is capable of creating enough awareness in public to recognize an anorexic patient by sight or habits. I also liked the way the video ends on a positive note, which will encourage more anorexic patients, to face it and get treated before it gets too late. What I liked least about the video is the fact that they forgot to mention whether the disease could be treated without the help of doctors, if diagnosed at a very early stage. Not many people are willing to go to a psychiatrist as a patient. Hence any mention of whether the support of family and friends could help the victim overcome the condition without medical attention, if still in the initial stages, would have been very helpful. Works Cited: Dr. Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Chapter 2. “Cultural Pressures”. Dying to be Thin. Director, Larkin McPhee. Narration, Susan Sarandon. Prod, A NOVA Production by Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. for WGBH/Boston. 2000. Dying to be Thin. Director, Larkin McPhee. Narration, Susan Sarandon. Prod, A NOVA Production by Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. for WGBH/Boston. 2000. Read More