Anorexia is an extremely well known disease in today’s society. From top models to teenage girls anorexia does no discriminate its victims. Anorexia or its full name Anorexia Nervosa is, according to dictionary.com an eating disorder characterized by pathological fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, excessive dieting, and emaciation. The ability to restrain oneself from eating on the level of anorexia is attributed to willpower. However Anorexia is truly a mental disorder and I wonder if it is choice to pass up food or a deeply rooted habit.
A study on nature.com asked the question, “why do people persistently make choices that are
bad for them, even though they seem to know better?” This question is at the root of anorexia because people with the eating disorder know what they are doing is not beneficial for their health and instead they focus on the superficial benefits. In the study the mechanisms behind the continuous maladaptive choices are analyzed. The findings from the study provide information that the same brain circuits that are involved with habitual behavior, like biting one’s nails, are part of disorders in which people make self-destructive choices no matter what the consequences are. The Dorsal Striatum is part of the brains award system that is stimulated during habitual behavior. Dr. Walsh, a professor of psychiatry at the Psychiatric Institute at Columbia predicts that the 
longer someone is implementing anorexic behaviors the more of a habit it becomes and more of the Dorsal Striatum is involved. Anorexia is similar to addiction diseases like alcoholism or obsessive compulsive disorder. All this new information on how anorexia affects those that have the disorder can help evolve the course treatment.
Whether anorexia is considered a choice of willpower or a habitual behavior, different treatments are considered to be the most affective. Current treatments include medical nutrition therapy, art therapy, dance movement therapy etc. A statistic I found in a nytimes.com article says, “50 percent or more of hospitalized anorexic patients who are discharged at a normal weight will relapse within a year.” Clearly the treatments being used currently are only affective in the short-run and it is possible that a better treatment could be used with a more substantial result. Dr. Walsh said, “Habits have to be replaced with another behavior.” If the bad habit of starvation is replaced with a healthier habit in theory it is possible that anorexia can be cured.
Understanding anorexia and the mechanisms that are prevalent in the disease is very important to doctors and psychologists because anorexia has the highest mortality rates of any other mental illness. Anorexia spans culture, race, gender and age so it is important to have a cure that is truly effective.
Anorexia. The battle of many young people all over the world. I too recently have done some research on the disease and came across some interesting websites. I feel that so many people want to be just like their role models so badly that it means they will do whatever it takes, even if that means hurting themselves in the end. I am attaching a link of a good site on eating disorders. Thanks for the post! http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/eating.aspx
In my psychology class I wrote a research paper on anorexia and it is a vicious addiction and disease. It is very cyclical and habitual similar to other addictions. I think it was interesting that the specific part of the brain relates to habit forming behavior, which comes into play with anorexia. Another interesting finding is that in this study done on mice found that the lack of a estrogen-related receptor alpha (ESRRA) gene resulted in behaviors that are similar to those found in patients with anorexia. This study is fairly new and that goes to say that there is a lot more research to be done on anorexia and other eating disorders. Eating disorders are becoming more and more linked with genes and other brain functions which leads me to disagree with your statement that anorexia is either a choice of willpower or habit because there is a lot of evidence that some people are genetically predisposed.
Anorexia is a terrible thing there is no two ways about it but it is only one of the eating disorders, unfortunately. While I do think that anorexia should be covered so should Bulimia. It is when people vomit or purge themselves of anything and everything they have eaten to lower their weight. It is as dangerous as Anorexia however it has a lot of different side effects. The same issues of weight lose and such effect the person who is bulimic but they also have other issues like holes in the esophagus from the vomit to danger to taste buds. It has the same societal causes as bulimia as mentioned here: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1986-20249-001 . In the end these really are mental issues as much as physical. They have to be dealt with on both fronts but in the end it is up to the individual person.
My best friend suffered from anorexia, so I greatly appreciated the truth in this post. Many people do not understand how serious of a disorder anorexia actually is, and loosely throw around the term. Many are naive and do not understand its complexity. She has told me that the media’s influences were very triggering to her through her hardest days, and what made it worse was when people did not understand her. After doing some research myself, I have discovered that the media portrays a false reality of human beings that can manipulate the minds of many people. When I was younger, like most girls, I played with Barbie dolls. I was a blonde and so was Barbie, so I thought I was just like her. However, not everyone looks like that. I am proud that Barbie has recently announced new dolls to their collection that can resemble people of all looks and kinds. In this article, Cosmopolitan explains the new types of dolls, which will include larger girls to portray a more realistic body. I believe that with these new dolls, a younger audience will be able to see themselves in a more realistic way, which will prevent more eating disorders from developing in the future.
This post is extremely interesting. I know anorexia is a very serious disorder. People get so caught up in the superficial benefits that they do everything in their power to avoid getting fat. I believe that some people do not even realize that what they are doing is actually harming them. Instead, they believe the opposite which is why it becomes a problem. They think they look good and therefore continue their actions harming themselves even more. I did not know that anorexia has the highest mortality rates of any other mental illness. That proves just how serious of a disorder it is.