Informative - Speech or Presentation Example

Anorexia and bulimia are psychological disorders which affect a large percentage of people in the world today and it is most rampant in the United States. It is necessary for these disorders to be studied not only as psychological problems, but also as social problems and a chronology of experiences related to these problems should be made so that studies can be conducted to facilitate their cure. It is a fact that these conditions are extremely difficult to treat because it is often difficult to make an assessment of how the people affected by anorexia and bulimia behave as well as how to find ways of curing different individuals from these conditions (Lacey 1694).

Among the greatest causes of anorexia and bulimia are the societal expectations that are pressed on those individuals affected by these conditions. Many of the patients with these conditions tend to have been brought up in an environment where the need to succeed and to excel in every aspect of their lives has led them to develop such a low opinion of themselves that they have developed an obsession with their bodies. One will find that the drive for these patients to succeed is so great and the societal expectations placed on them so great that the pressure becomes too much on them and these tend to affect them negatively as they try to fulfill these expectations.

The mentors of these patients are often perfectionists and because the patients would like to emulate every aspect of their lives, the pressure to do so becomes very demanding because in order to impress their mentors, they often set such unreasonable goals for themselves that to achieve these goals becomes overwhelming for them. It is also a fact that anorexia and bulimia patients are often raised in environments where they are not given the required attention while growing up and this comes to affect them in later life (Strober et al, 394).

This comes about because their parents are probably always too busy attempting to make a living for their families and have not enough time to get to know their families better, creating a situation where their children grow up in isolation. Such environments end up making the children involved to develop low self-esteem which is one of the reasons for the development of anorexia and bulimia, and their increasing prevalence. Statistics show that while anorexia and bulimia are disorders that are more prevalent in upper classes of the society, there are also increasing cases of these disorders in the other strata of society and this trend is most worrying (Chakraborty and Basu 175).

It has been stated that main reason for the prevalence of these conditions among the upper class is because of the higher expectations that are set for the members of such families and their feeling of inadequacy because of the fact that they are not able to fulfill these expectations. In the lower classes, on the other hand, it has been found that one of the most prevalent causes of anorexia and bulimia is the fact that the patients tend to be influenced by the media, especially that of perfection that is propagated by Hollywood as well as other forms of mass media.

The increasing prevalence of anorexia and bulimia in society has made it necessary for all individuals within it to be made aware of the symptoms so that they can get a hint of the development of