Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa - Essay Example

?Anorexia Nervosa Anorexia nervosa is a disease that is mainly self-cultivated because of wrong perception of one’s physical image. Dr. Laura Hill, who is the “clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the Ohio State University Medical Center and Harding Hospital, interprets anorexia as a persons inability to cope with life stressors” (Twitty, 2000). A person suffering from anorexia nervosa thinks that he/she is too fat and needs to starve in order to shed off the fats. In an attempt to achieve this, the person starves until the body starts to show up ribs and skeleton, though the person is still not satisfied and keeps on starving until he/she dies. This is basically a psychological disorder that ruins the person’s health and escorts him/her to the point of death. Victim of anorexia nervosa can not manage to quit the dieting once the minimum body weight has been achieved. Their weight becomes too less for their age and height. Still, the patient thinks that he/she should not eat because if he/she does, he/she would gain weight and ruin his/her looks consequentially. Methods commonly employed to lose weight include but are not limited to excessive exercise, dieting and medication. Anorexia Nervosa means "nervous loss of appetite". This definition is not particularly good, since it is based on misunderstandings. The people who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa do not at all have lack of appetite, they are only scared of putting on weight. Therefore, the term "selfstarving" would be more suitable, or even better expressed "weightfobia". (Gehlin, 2008). Anorexia nervosa was first explained in 1684, though it was not determined with its own diagnosis until 1870 (Gehlin, 2008). Birth of this new health disorder generated was associated with the changes that took place in the society over the centuries. Young women began to idealize extremely slim and smart women. Slimness became the measure of beauty, and to be called beautiful, a woman had to be necessarily thin. Much of the history of anorexia nervosa is shaped by the looks conscious culture. That is the reason why anorexia nervosa is more common today than it has ever been in the past. Another evidence for the role of culture in the spread of anorexia nervosa is that a vast majority of the victims of this disease are models from the fashion industry, which sets the trends for people to follow in general. In the contemporary age, to be thin is to be fashionable. Media advocates slimness. Various slimming techniques are employed to achieve the ideal figure, the unsuitable ones of which lead to such eating disorders as anorexia nervosa. In addition to the belief that slimness is something to take pride in, the immense reliance upon the technology in the modern age reduces the body’s need to consume food as no energy is wasted in doing things manually. Media is ingrained in the life of an individual living in the modern era. Media’s emphasis on exercise and fitness naturally inculcates an urge to become smart, and the eating habits accordingly developed increase the individual’s susceptibility to acquire anorexia nervosa. Media’s influence upon the society has made anorexia nervosa an important community issue. Treating the patient of anorexia nervosa requires the community health nurse to exhibit a unique and enhanced level of health care. The community health nurse needs to be more of a counselor than a regular health care provider. In order to start the treatment, the patient needs to be made aware of the fact that he/she is ill, both physically and mentally as the patients usually deny having any disorder at all. Most patients do not opt for the treatment unless the case becomes extremely obvious and dangerously severe. Healthypeople.gov is an organization that sets up healthy objectives for our nation. Some of the objectives identified by Healthypeople.gov (n.d.) for 2020 are: 1. Increasing the adolescent population that takes part in the out-of-school and extracurricular activities. 2. Increasing the schools in proportion that implement breakfast programs in schools. 3. Increasing the adolescents in proportion that go through a complete wellness examination in the last year. Eating disorders have long been an issue all over the Ohio State. “According to the American Anorexia Bulimia Association, Inc. (AABA), eating disorders — anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder are psychiatric illnesses that affect over five million American women and men” (Twitty, 2000). In the same report by Twitty (2000), AABA states that 1 per cent teenage girls in the US become a victim of anorexia nervosa, as a consequence of which, 10 per cent lose their life. Children acquire this disease upon the commencement of their menstrual cycle, i.e. around the age of 13 and 14 years. Prevention is not possible in every case, though a vast majority of the cases can be prevented through encouraging the victims to adopt realistic and healthy behaviors towards diet and weight. This can often be achieved through talk therapies. Primary prevention can be made by encouraging the victims to eat through ads displayed on billboards and TV. The more the patients would read and see information regarding anorexia nervosa, the more likely they are to realize that they are the victims too. This realization is the first step towards prevention. Secondary prevention can be made by screening. One way to screen is to send the community health nurses to schools to look out for early symptoms of anorexia nervosa in the students. Tertiary prevention is essentially meant for an individual who has already acquired anorexia nervosa. Such patients need to go through the complete rehabilitation process, talk therapy and counseling in order to be convinced to come out of the dreadful condition. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disease that forbids the victim from eating at all, as a result of which, the body starts to feed on the stored fat and the victim loses weight till death. This is a rare disease, and is more common in teenager girls than boys. It is a community health issue and is largely, an outcome of the culture and social trends. In order to treat the patient of anorexia nervosa, the patient’s relatives and friends need to make the victim break the diet. The community health nurse has to counsel the patient psychologically in order to make him/her come out of the disease. References: Gehlin, L. (2008). The History of Anorexia Nervosa and other Eating Disorders. Retrieved from http://web4health.info/en/answers/ed-anorexia-history.htm. HealthyPeople.gov (n.d.). Adolescent Health. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objectiveslist.aspx?topicId=2. Twitty, S. (2000). People often deny weight issues. The Lantern. Retrieved from http://www.thelantern.com/2.1345/people-often-deny-weight-issues-1.100887. Read More