Kaetlin Rich

Mr. Tarlton
English CP 2
Period 4
5/15/15
Say Hello to ANA and MIA
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Part 1: Pre Research (aka. What I think I Know)
Anorexia and Bulimia is that they are both eating disorders. Though there are many types
of eating disorders, I believe these two are focused on the desire to lose weight. Anorexia and
Bulimia are very important topics me because one of my closest friends, which I had met in
therapy, struggled with these disorders and nearly lost her life. When I was in 8th grade I had
been in private therapy for my depression and nothing seemed to be helping my outlook on life,
so my therapist suggested that try a group therapy. Group therapy was made up of teens my age
struggling with various types of addictions and disorders. Some of the struggles included
substance abuse, Depression, Self harmers (Suicidal Ideation), Anger Management,
Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and of course Anorexia and Bulimia. As I entered the group I
prepared for the worst, as if I was going to feel once again attacked into isolation, but that was
not the case this time. I was actually in a place where I felt accepted and that what may seem to
others is weird was normal to everyone. Every session we would go around the circle and tell the
group why we were there. For example: My name is Kaetlin, Im 14, and I am here because of
depression. This is when I met Liz, she had Anorexia and Bulimia. As weeks went by our
friendship grew and as I seemed to be getting better, she was getting worse. To barely eat and
throwing up the little she ate took its toll on Liz. By the time I graduated from this program Liz
had been long gone from there, and in a new program somewhere out in LA. The reason it is

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important to me to learn more about these disorders is so that maybe I can, in the future, help
someone going through these disorders as I could not help Liz the way she helped me. I assume
that these disorders are based on the desire to be skinny. From what I understand, Anorexia is the
act of actually starving oneself, going days and even weeks without eating, and Bulimia is a
systematic routine of eating as much food as possible then throwing it up so that there is a
satisfaction of eating without the risk of gaining weight, this is called binging and purging. In my
research I would like to find out: How are these disorders diagnosed? What effects do these
Disorders have on your body? What are the underlying causes of Anorexia and Bulimia? What
are the Treatment options? And how can these disorders be prevented?
Part 2: The Search Begins
As I began to research I found that Anorexia and Bulimia have been around since the
ancient Romans. They used Bulimia as a way to eat nonstop at banquets and Anorexia as a way
of showing spiritual dedication. A physician name Sir William Gull was the first person to
diagnose these to a patient of his. This led me to ask the question of How are these disorders
diagnosed? According to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education, Eating disorders are
diagnosed based on signs, symptoms, and eating habits. If your doctor suspects you have an
eating disorder, he or she will likely perform physical and psychological exams and request test
to help pinpoint diagnosis. This quote is saying that doctors that diagnosing these disorders will
physically examine your body for abnormalities, the doctor will also perform psychological
examinations to see if your thoughts or emotions are affecting the way you eat, and request other
tests to see if you fit the criteria of either Anorexia or Bulimia. I found this information was

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important to my research because it explains how a doctor evaluates and diagnosis patients as
anorexic or bulimic. It is important to know this because it isdetermines the chance of the
disorder getting out of control before you even know you have it; this means that the earlier the
problem is diagnosed and treatment starts, the better chance you have of overcoming the
disorder.
Anorexia and Bulimia go hand in hand together because they are both eating disorders
that cause the person it is effecting to starve themselves. The effects these disorders have on the
body are painful and dangerous. The recurrent binge-and-purge cycles of Bulimia can affect the
entire digestive system and can lead to electrolyte and chemical imbalances in the body that
affect the heart and other major organ functions (Health Consequences of Eating Disorders)
This means that excessively eating and throwing
up routinely can cause you to develop gastric
ulcers and can even acid reflux disease. It can also
affect your heart because the electrolyte
imbalances cause irregular heartbeats or heart
Peptic Ulcer caused by Bulimia

attacks. The body undergoes other damages such

as rupture of the throat and other damages to your health.

Anorexia on the other hand has different effects on the
body such as loss of bone density, change of skin pigment,
hair loss, and overall weakness, missed periods for females,
dehydration which leads to kidney

Affects of Anorexia on
the body Diagram

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failure, muscle loss, and much more. This helps me answer what are the causes of these
disorders on your body because it points out the main and most damaging aspects of both
disorders as to what they affect in the body and how bad they are affected. These affects sound
horrible and it makes you wonder why someone
would have to go through this. So what could be
the underlying causes of this? Elsevier B.V. says:
The biological, psychological, and
social components may play a role in the
pathogenesis of Anorexia. It examines
Erosion of caused by Bulimia

aspects that contribute to vulnerability for

Anorexia, such as genes, personality traits, cognations; considers a range of factors that
may trigger disease onset (stress, life events, and media) and explores the
biopsychosocial factors that maintain the illness (physical, psychological, and social
responses). The attempt to develop an understanding of predisposing, precipitating, and
perpetuating factors is important in the development of effective strategies to prevent and
treat Anorexia, as well as in predicting those as the greatest risk of a poor outcome
This quote helps me answer this question, though may seem simple, the answer may be varied.
There are three major causes behind Anorexia: Genetic, Psychological, and Social. Anorexia and
Bulimia can be passed down genetically or influenced upon someone by a family member who
has it. Anorexia can also be caused by the warped body image, feeling lack of control of
anything in your life, or even stress, these are Psychological causes. Lastly is Social, this plays a

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huge part in almost every ones life whether they have these disorders or not. Society uses media
to advertise abnormally skinny weight which greatly influences the way people are thinking of
themselves. This information is important because it not only helps me answer my question
about the underlying causes; it helps the you understand there is more than one cause for
anorexia and bulimia. Now that I know the causes I wanted to find out treatment options for
these two disorders. According to the American Psychological Association, Family therapy,
cognitive-behavioral therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy can help individuals overcome
these two common eating disorders. This explains that working through family therapy will
help relieve stress at home and help build healthier relationships with family members as well
making it easier on the patient to receive help needed. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is therapy
thats bases on changing an unreal warped body image of one self and focusing on achieving
health behavioral goals. Interpersonal psychotherapy is a period of time that is taken to try to
stabilize mood and ability to function in everyday life. This was an important piece of
information because it gives examples of more than one way to make sure the patient gets the
correct help and understanding needed. Now that I understand how these disorders are
diagnosed, the affects it has on the body, the underlying causes, and the treatment options; How
is it Prevented? There are no known ways to prevent these disorders from happening. Early
treatment may be the best way to prevent the disorder from progressing. Knowing the early signs
and seeking treatment right away can help prevent complications (Anorexia Nervosa
Prevention) What this quote is trying to say is that educating yourself and knowing signs of these
disorders is the best way to keep the disorder contained. Also not encouraging social media that
glorifies and depicts these disorders as beautiful is another good approach to preventing it. The

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importance of this is that because these are such dangerous and painful disorders are, If theres
some possibility to prevent or even lesson to people affected by it we most defiantly should do
so.
Part 3: Conclusions to what I have learned:
I have learned that Anorexia and Bulimia have three major underlying causes which are:
Genetically passed down from generation to generation, Psychologically (no control over
yourself/warped body image), and Social media advertizing unnaturally skinny is beautiful. I
also learned the affects that Anorexia has one the bod are loss of muscle, loss of bone density,
hair loss, change of skin pigment, and overall weakness; While the affects of Bulimia on the
body include Peptic ulcers in the stomach, inflammation or rupture of the throat, tooth erosion,
and gastric reflux. This research has taught me so much that I hadnt know before and am very
pleased with what I did learn. At the beginning of this topic all I knew was that Anorexia and
Bulimia were both eating disorders and I honestly thought the only cause of these disorders had
to be social media or what society holds as beautiful, but I found out that it goes way deeper
than that. I also thought that Anorexia and Bulimia were based on the desire to be skinny but the
Psychological part of is actually can be brought on from traumatic events in someones life, that
they feel they no longer have control over anything in their life so they use not eating as a way to
take control. I have learned a lot and I would like to continue to learn more about these disorders
because I find them very interesting. If I do continue my search I would like to learn about Binge
Eating Disorder next. My views of how I saw these disorders before have changed due to the fact
of not only the emotional pain but the physical pain as well. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, a

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young boy experiences the Holocaust first hand. The physical effects of self starvation are the
same as the physical effects of forced starvation that the Nazis enforced upon the Jews of
Germany. The same effects were inflicted upon the Jews intentionally which affected those who
survived psychologically as well. Although there is no cure for these disorders, we can educate
ourselves and try to glorify unhealthy weights asbeautiful.

WORK CITED

Anorexia Nervosa Prevention WebMD 2015. 3 June 2015

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/anorexianervosa/anorexia-nervosa-prevention

"Health Consequences of Eating Disorders." NEDA: Feeding Hope. 8 Aug.

2013. Web. 3 June 2015. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/privacypolicy-nationaleatingdisordersorg

Psychiatry: Volume 7, Issue 4, pages 147-151 Science Direct. 2008 Elselver

Ltd. 3 June 2015
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1476179308000347

"Tests and Diagnosis." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education
and Research, 14 Feb. 2015. Web. 3 June 2015.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/eating-disorders/basics/testsdiagnosis/con-20033575

Treatment for Anorexia and Bulimia American Psychological Association.

2015. 3 June 2015. http://www.apa.org/topics/eating/treatment.aspx