[Disease] Anorexia: No Joking Matter

    Normally I would attempt to make a joke or at least a fun title, but in this case, I think it is just better to keep it straight to the point. This term in my STEAM course, in contrast to the last term where we looked at physical diseases, we have been looking at mental disorders. We read through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition, or DSM-V, specifically looking at Autism Spectrum Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. We also read part of the book, The Reason I Jump, which is about a kid with autism explaining to people how his mind works, and the unique perspective it gives him. We also watched a movie with the same name. For this AP, we were tasked with picking a disorder. From there, we had to explain some diagnostic criteria and some symptoms. We then have to create an experience that hopes to emulate the emotions and feelings that are caused by these disorders. I chose Anorexia Nervosa, and this is my project:


    Like I said, the disease I chose to research is Anorexia Nervosa, or just Anorexia for short. Anorexia is defined by The Mayo Clinic as “an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted perception of weight.” Basically, people with Anorexia are far below the average weight for their age and body type because they always believe themselves to be fatter than they should be, and so they do a variety of things to keep that weight down including but not limited to starving themselves, consuming drugs like laxatives to make the food go through their system without being absorbed properly, and forcing themselves to vomit. 

    There are three things that are required for someone to be diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa as defined by the DSM-V. They are:

  • “Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, developmental trajectory, and physical health. Significantly low weight is defined as a weight that is less than minimally normal or, for children and adolescents, less than that minimally expected.” This essentially means that one of the requirements is for the person to restrict what they eat so that their weight is less than is considered healthy. For example, as a 15-year-old male at around 5’9, if I weighed 80 lbs, I would fit this criterion.

  • “Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight.” An example of this criteria would be if while shopping for food, you look at your full cart and think that it would make you fat, and so you put it all back and leave the store, forcing yourself to not have food.

  • “Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.” Taking my example of me being 80 lbs, this criteria would be fit if I not only was 80 lbs but thought that this was a completely normal weight.

While experiencing Anorexia, the patient may be experiencing Gamma and Beta waves in their brains more often than usual. This is because they become stressed out whenever they view their reflection and observe how “fat” they are, or when they eat. 

There are two groups of people who are far more likely to become anorexic than anyone else. The first group is women. The societal pressure on women to be attractive leads to unrealistic standards and unreasonable paths to reach these standards. Of course, people of other genders can get anorexia, so don’t think you aren’t just because you are not a woman.

The second group of people that are more likely to get anorexia is teenagers. Teenagers face immense pressure in school to be perceived as attractive, and the vast majority of people didn’t enjoy high school. According to a Yale study, 75% of people have negative thoughts about high school. As a person in high school, I spend a lot of time thinking about my appearance, but fortunately, I am fairly happy with it.

A common misconception about Anorexia is that it is as simple as just choosing to eat more. This is not the case. People with Anorexia didn’t just one day choose to eat less or purge, it is an ongoing behavior rooted in deep insecurities, and as such requires just as much support as any other mental disorder.


For this experience, you will need two people. One person will be experiencing the disorder (person one) and the other person will be helping the process (person two). Decide now who will be person one and person two. DO NOT look at each other’s documents. A warning before this starts, Person One should not do this if they do not think they could handle being made insecure about their body. It is totally valid to skip this experience.


Person One:

The Link 


Person Two:

The Link 


Once you are finished, If you are Person One, reflect on how the constant judging made you feel about your body and your food choices. Probably not great. Person Two did not mean the things they said, and you have a perfect body. The point here is that some people face this on a daily basis. This affects their life and their choices, all because of society’s expectations of how people should look. Think about that the next time you are about to body shame someone, even if you think it is a joke.


If you are Person Two, you can receive a similar lesson. When you are intentionally doing it, body shaming someone probably doesn’t feel very good for you either. You might do things like this by accident even. Perhaps you thought of something funny and chuckled while someone ordered something, and they feel self-conscious. You should always consider how something completely insignificant to you can completely change someone’s view of you. Whenever you might be doing it, think of how it felt when you were doing it intentionally.



If you or you think someone you know is going through anorexia, there are a few things you should do.


  • Compliment them! Yes, even if it’s you, compliment yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror and think “Wow, I’m hot and sexy.” Even if you don’t believe it at first if you keep saying it you’ll start seeing yourself in a different light and start appreciating yourself. If it’s not you, one random compliment can make someone’s day, and it requires almost no effort from you!

  • Don’t compare yourself to others. Whether or not you have anorexia or any eating disorder, whether you are skinny or chubby, don’t compare yourself to other people. There are only two outcomes of that, either you feel bad about yourself or you make them feel bad about themselves. Don’t compare yourself to other people.

  • And of course, the final recommendation for support with anorexia is to get counseling therapy. You might think, “Ah therapy is only for people who are crazy.” This is definitely not true. Therapy can be useful in any circumstance and sometimes it is nice to talk to someone who, by law, cannot tell anyone else. Therapy can be useful even if you’re just a little stressed, so why not try it. Of course, therapy doesn’t work for everyone, but it is always worth a shot.


This has been my disorder analysis and experience. Remember, you are beautiful, and don’t take anything that happened in this experience to heart, it is merely a simulation of a disorder. I really enjoyed this project and it helped to take a deep dive into this concept which I only kind of understood before. If I were to do this again, I might have focused more on the exact workings of mental disorders in general, but other than that I found this very fun and engaging. There is one more Action Project in this Disease class, and then spring term, so stay tuned!


Sources:



  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. American Psychiatric Association, 2017. 

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