The article Anorexia Nervosa by Tracy Cushing published on the popular about.com is dedicated to explaining the psychological disease called Anorexia Nervosa. According to the article, Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a human psychological disorder caused by the feeling of someone's denial of the body weight that he/she currently has, (Cushing, 2010). The victim is overwhelmed by the fear of gaining or loosing weight. This leads them to losing a lot of weight than normal or even gaining a lot of weight beyond normal. Diagnosis for the disorder is evident by the patient's fear of putting no much weight. The patient also tends to feel quite uncomfortable with the current state that his/her body is. The patients are greatly driven by the desire for perfection. The desire causes isolation of the patients and greatly interferes with their social lives. This disorder is common in women rather than men.
According to Cushing, (2010), people suffering from Anorexia nervosa bear a false perception of their bodies gaining weight. This false perception is caused by the site of elegant slim models. The shape of a Model's body creates the perception that slimness is a good human quality .This leads the patient to refusing intake of food in order to reduce the body weight. The patient may also tend to take the food but later force himself or herself to vomit all they eat, they may also get rid of the eaten food by over exercising or even by diuretic abuse, (Cushing, 2010). This can cause severe malnutrition and poor body health.
Malnutrition can cause severe negative effects to a patient's body. Due to starvation, one may suffer from body weakness, low production of the Ant diuretic-hormone (ADH) and low production of thyroxin since thyroid glands are affected. Starvation generally affects the endocrine system. Later low gonad tropism in affected males, hypothermia, and high production of growth hormone, Hypothermia and low estrogens levels among others are noted. Low ADH production leads to ineffective filtration in the glomerular, among the other renal effects caused by Anorexia nervosa, (Cushing, 2010). The other effects include, edema, acidosis with dehydration, vomiting as a side effect of hypochloremic alkalosis among others.
The patient is also exposed to the danger of suffering from heart attack incase of shock and other related intense fear stimulus. The patient might also suffer from cardiovascular effects. They include long QT syndrome, bradycardia and orthostatic hypotension. People with this psychological problem have been known to collapse or get thrown off balance in instances involving quick response to stimuli of impending danger. It is advisable to keep patients of this kind away from peer jokes that may call for their abrupt change of emotional state, (Cushing, 2010).
When treatment is administered, observes (Cushing, 2010), approximately a half of the total patients get well and maintain their normal body weight. The rest of the patients might die. Some patients of weaker emotional stability may be inclined to committing suicide or subjecting themselves to destructive dietary habit in a bid to reduce their body weight. There are feeling among the scholars in this field that the AN is mostly popular with the white race, (Cushing, 2010).
To conclude, it is very complex to understand our bodies. And while everybody imagines the state that they should have been created in, appreciating oneself regardless of their body size becomes all important. People suffering from anorexia Nervosa are those overwhelmed by the fear of either losing or gaining bogy weight and size. Such fears infiltrate to their health and may further cause other medical complications that were not present.
