Essay on Family Dysfunction and Anorexia Is there a...

Family Dysfunction and Anorexia: Is there a correlation? Introduction Each year millions of people in the United States develop serious and often fatal eating disorders. More than ninety percent of those are adolescent and young women. The consequences of eating disorders are often severe--one in ten end in death from either starvation, cardiac arrest, or suicide. Due to the recent awareness of this topic, much time and money has been attributed to eating disorders. Many measures have been taken to discover leading causes and eventual treatment for those suffering from anorexia. (http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource ...er.html#Causes of Eating Disorders) ) Anorexia Anorexia nervosa is a psychosociological disease which affects†¦show more content†¦A Focus on the Family Eating disorders appear to run in families-usually affecting only the women. One study found that mothers who are overly concerned about their daughters weight and physical attractiveness--along with overly critical fathers and brothers-may put girls at increased risk of developing an eating disorder. ( http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/disorder.html#Causes ) Another study notes that, inappropriate parental pressure was specific for eating disorders ... and Eating Attitudes Tests (ETAT) scores correlated significantly with hostlity toward child, sibling disability, parental overprotection, inappropriate parental pressures, and negative changes in family relationships. (Horesh, -Nefta) When the connection between eating disorders and familial traits was looked into, three interpretable factors were found by Steiger-eating concerns and symptoms, dramatic-erratic traits, and obsessive-compulsive traits. Correlations were also found among t he subjects factor scores--correspondences between daughters and parents psychopathological traits, and between daughters and mothers eating concerns. Another controlled study of 51 teenage cases including a population sample done by Rastam found that 35 of the cases had a reasonably plausible background factor-based on a historyShow MoreRelatedBackground History of Anorexia Nervosa1452 Words   |  6 PagesHISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ANOREXIA NERVOSA Anorexia nervosa’s (AN) first descriptions began during the twelfth and thirteenth century with the historical Saint Catherine of Siena (Deans, 2011). It is related to participating in religious functions and medieval practices of self-starvation (Deans, 2011). Furthermore, the death of popular singer, Karen Carpenter in 1983 created the societal awareness about the effect of anorexia nervosa and become widely known at the end of the twentieth century (RaderRead More Eating Disorders And Substance Abuse Essay1636 Words   |  7 PagesDisorders And Substance Abuse Common Eating Disorders: The two most common eating disorders are bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Both disorders, primarily affect young women, therefore the majority of the research on eating disorders has been done with women subjects. The onset of bulimia is between adolescence and early adulthood while the onset of anorexia is between early and late adolescence. Not only is the onset different but the disorders are unique. Bulimia nervosa is characterizedRead More Adolescent Eating Disorders Essay1670 Words   |  7 Pagesassociated with the disorders of anorexia and bulimia, scholars have tried to categorize and find answers to the problems which certain adolescents suffer. In this paper I focused on the two major eating disorders of anorexia and bulimia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1978, Brunch called anorexia nervosa a new disease and noted that the condition seemed to overtake ?the daughters of the well-to-do, educated and successful families.? Today it is acknowledged and accepted that anorexia affects more than just one genderRead MoreInterpersonal Theory Of Suicide And Suicide1275 Words   |  6 Pagespatients with anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by a low weight, fear of gaining weight and a strong desire to be thin. Some will exercise excessively, force themselves to vomit, or use laxatives to produce weight loss. A study carried out in 2014 by Portswky found that a history of attempted suicide was found in 11.8% in patients diagnosed with an eating disorder. These statistics show that the presence of a mental health condition, such as anorexia, may contributeRead MoreRelationship Between Childhood Sexual Abuse And Eating Disorder Symptoms1635 Words   |  7 PagesPSYC 401 Introduction Some studies have shown a correlation between physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse and eating disorders, but there appears to be no casual link. (Tripp, 2001). Between 30 to 50% of adult women report an unwanted sexual experience in either childhood or adulthood. This paper explores the connection between sexual abuse, specificity during childhood, and eating disorders. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating and over exercisingRead MoreDysfunctional Family Systems and Disordered Self-Image2417 Words   |  10 PagesDysfunctional Family Systems and Disordered Self-Image Abstract: Disordered self-image, sense of self, and self-esteem are affected negatively by dysfunctional family systems. Maladaptive perfectionism affects mood, causes decreased self-esteem, and contributes to the development of avoidance tactics. Adolescent dysregulations includes disordered eating behaviors and/or eating disorders, anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction, and extreme attempts at weight control; all of which can be causedRead MoreEssay on Childhood Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders1579 Words   |  7 Pagesaimed at answering the question, â€Å"Is childhood sexual abuse a risk factor for eating disorders?† Literature Review Over the past decade or more, many researchers have attempted to answer this question, but were unable to find any positive correlation between the two that was more than for abuse in normal controls. For example, in a study of Japanese women, controls were MORE likely to have experienced minor sexual abuse and the authors conclude, â€Å"an abuse history is not essential or prerequisiteRead MoreThe Pathology Of Alzheimer s Disease1224 Words   |  5 PagesA neurodegenerative disease is when the central nervous system progressively deteriorates thus causing nervous system dysfunction. Neurodegenerative conditions are characterised by the change in the neurone function within the brain cells. Alzheimers disease(AD) can be classified as a neurodegenerative disorder, (Griffin W.S.T 2006). The pathology of alzheimer’s disease has been described as a person having neural plaques within the brain, they are made up of high levels of protein ÃŽ ²-amyloid, andRead MoreEssay on An orexia and Food Refusal in Children3655 Words   |  15 PagesAnorexia and Food Refusal in Children Eating Disorders in children and adolescents represent potentially life-threatening, debilitating conditions that impede physical, emotional, and behavioral growth and development. If treated soon after onset, childhood and adolescent eating disorders have a relatively good prognosis; however, if not treated, they may become chronic conditions by adulthood with devastating and sometimes irreversible medical, behavioral, and emotional consequences (RobinRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Positive Health3711 Words   |  15 Pagespaper. The similarities, differences and even ways to perform better on social networking sites will be looked into. It will also look into how to people use social media to maintain and grow/build relationships. Many studies have shown positive correlations in health communication with support from others using the social media networks. Follow me! : Social Support From Media/Networking Sites Impact on Positive Health Communication/ Positive Life Introduction Humans are the most social

This Boy’s Life Free Essays

Tobias Wolff Memoir Tobias Wolff opens up his Memoir with the image of him and his mother fleeing to find a better life in the Old West. Tobias wants to start from a â€Å"blank page† and decides to go as far as changing his name to Jack. Tobias feels guilty and unworthy and has extraordinary desire to transform himself into the boy he fantasizes about being. We will write a custom essay sample on This Boy’s Life or any similar topic only for you Order Now Tobias wants to be the privileged, independent boy that he describes himself as, in his letter to Alice, â€Å"I represented myself to her as the owner of a palomino horse named Smiley who shared my encounters with mountain lions, rattlesnakes, and packs of coyotes on my father’s ranch, the Lazy B. When I wasn’t busy on the ranch I raised German shepherds and played for several athletic teams† (Wolff 13). â€Å"Jack† is determined to impress Alice with his made up image of himself as a: free, self-relying adventurer, talented, and decently wealthy boy; all of which Jack isn’t, nor possesses. Jack does not own a horse, and the most adventure he has ever underwent, was the time he tried to find uranium under piles of rocks. More than anything Jack wants to have a loving father and a real family. His biological father, Arthur Wolff, lives separate of the family in Connecticut; Arthur even ended all of his Child Support payments for Jack which were critical for the survival of the family. Jack’s family does not have enough money to buy or support a German shepherd so there is no possible way he could have raised one. Lastly, even though Jack is a semi-athletic kid, he never continues with the sport/activity that he picks up and usually ends up dropping it after some time. Jack does not attempt to realize that this image of him is a fantasy, and can only keep dreaming of transforming himself into the charming young man he so heavily desires to become. Eventually Jack begins to live in his â€Å"untrue† fantasies because it is the only thing that provides him with stability in his otherwise extremely unstable life. In changing his name, Jack feels that he is one step closer to becoming more like his idealized image of himself, and one step further away from his father, Arthur, who has until now, caused Jack and his mother nothing but troubles. â€Å"I didn’t come to Utah to be the same boy I’d been before. I had my own dreams of transformation, Western dreams, dreams of freedom and domino, and taciturn self-sufficiency. The first thing I wanted to do was change my name† (Wolff 8). By changing his name, Jack would be further away from his father and closer to the ideal image he has ecreated for himself. Jack’s feelings of guilt and unworthiness are motivators for his dreams of becoming that â€Å"hero† kid he so heavily desires to become. Jack wants to try and adopt his father’s responsibilities and provide for his mother and somehow bail them out of their poverty and unhappiness. Jack is still a small boy however and their situation is far away from his grasp. In order to feel self- sufficiency and happiness Jack ignores reality and begins to fabricate his â€Å"heroic† image. Jack’s life in Chinook hit an all-time low. As Jack sets out on his early morning paper route, he feels oppressed by the predawn darkness and is reminded of â€Å"other absences† in his life, especially now that he is on his own, â€Å"The absence of light became oppressive to me. It took on the weight of other absences I could not admit to or even define but still felt sharply, on my own in this new place. My father and my brother. Friends. Most of all my mother† (Wolff 99). It is interesting to see how Tobias uses â€Å"absence of light† as a symbol to show that he is undergoing days of darkness. Tobias isn’t literally in the dark, but he is isolated from everyone he loves: his brother, father, friends, and especially his father. Jack’s loneliness is intensified by Dwight’s cruel methods of punishment and ceaseless criticism of his every move. The scornful criticism that Dwight doles out does not hurt Jack as deeply as he intends. In time, Jack becomes somewhat immune to Dwight’s cutting remarks and eventually they seize to even hurt, â€Å"All of Dwight’s complaints against me had the aim of giving me a definition of myself. They succeeded, but not in the way he wished. I defined myself by opposition to him. In the past I had been ready, even when innocent, to believe any evil thing of myself. Now that I had grounds for guilt I could no longer feel it† (Wolff 134). Jack understands that Dwight wishes to change Jack with â€Å"helpful† criticism, but Jack despises Dwight so much that he undercuts and opposes everything Dwight says. Jack cannot bring himself to believe that the criticism is true. In criticizing Jack, Dwight is trying to redefine him, but Jack is too strong to believe Dwight’s insults and â€Å"helpful suggestions†. Tobias Wolff does a very nice job at closing up his Memoir and making the reader feel as if it was complete. Tobias Wolff speeds up the last chapter and combines it all into a very small section. In this section the reader learns: that his father has gone insane, Dwight gets arrested for almost strangling Tobias’s mother, Tobias gets kicked out of Hill, and enlists in the army. Suddenly this momentum seizes and again the memoir begins to come to a graduated pace. Tobias continues his Memoir by introducing this quote, â€Å"When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever† (Wolff 286). The memoir thereafter changes perspective and again continues from where we left off, Tobias just sold Dwight’s guns and is heading home feeling happy and self-satisfied. Tobias leaves the pawnshop with a huge sum of cash believing it would last him for months. Tobias imagines his family reunited again with his brother, mother and father. He also envisions himself with good grades, being the captain of the swimming team, and the school embracing him with arms. Tobias feels happy and self-satisfied because as he says, â€Å"In this world nothing was impossible that I could imagine for myself. In this world the only task was to pick and choose† (Tobias 287). Tobias can keep dreaming that everything will be perfect: he will become wealthy, his family would reunite, and his education/talent would be immense. Tobias understands that he isn’t living in the real world and is only dreaming, but he doesn’t want to let go of this utopia where everything is perfect and nothing can cause him pain. Tobias continues driving home self-satisfied and happy with Chuck. Going back to the introductory quote, we can see how eventually Tobias realizes that almost all of his dreams did not come true, and he finally began to separate reality from fantasy. He realizes that as a kid he was still â€Å"half-created†: didn’t know what he wanted to become, what he was going to do with his life, and what his purpose was. Tobias also understands that not all dreams can become reality and life does not always give you flowers; it can be harsh and cause many hardships, unlike whereas in your dreams everything is ideal. Tobias also finds out that life did not predetermine him to become someone famous or well known, but he simply became a plain soldier who serves in the military and eventually goes to Vietnam. Tobias can’t stay â€Å"green† forever, meaning that he can’t keep searching for who he really is, can’t keep dreaming of being ideal. He must begin to act in the real world and let go of his fantasies. How to cite This Boy’s Life, Papers

Disneys Effect On Society And Culture Essay Example For Students

Disneys Effect On Society And Culture Essay For nearly seven decades Corporate Disney has dazzled its audiences; generation after generation have been entertained through avenues ranging from movies to elaborate theme parks. While many find this massive establishment to be a significant part of American culture and welcome the Disney spirit with open arms, one man in particular looks past the hype and into his own theory of the Disney Corporation. Carl Hiaasen, a journalist for the Miami Herald, paints a witty and sarcastic portrait in this nonfiction account of a company. Hiaasen critizises the company for manifesting evil, enveloping perfection to a sickening extent, and who’s sole purpose is to inhale as much money as feasibly possible. The book opens with Times Square-an area home to many things: MTV, Morgan Stanley, the worlds largest Mariot Hotel, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, and Peep Land, as well as the glittering new Disney Store. Hiaasen provides an interesting perspective, claiming Disney is out to â€Å"vanquish sleaze in its unholiest fountainhead, Times Square. (2) While to some this intrusion of the new Disney Store is obtrusive, to many it is the beginning of a turn around for this otherwise less than clean, corrupt area within our society called Times Square. Hiaasen continues his bleak opinion of the company by claiming, â€Å"Disney is so good at being good that it manifests an evil†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (37) Carl Hiaasen is searching in every avenue possible to find fault in the impressive empire. Manifesting his own conceptual evil from within the company. In the same way that Hiaasen criticizes good versus evil, or the conglomeration of the two, he also condemns the way Disney envelops perfection. He writes, †¦so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that it’s unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. Imagine promoting a universe in which raw Nature doesn’t fit because it doesn’t measure up; isn’t safe enough, accessible enough, predictable enough for company standards. Disney isn’t in the business of exploiting nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine tuning God’s work. (37) The interesting thing here is that these days not too many corporations are criticized for striving too high. Furthermore, wanting to improve on God’s work is a charge that has been made against art and artists throughout history. Hiaasen also claims that Disney will likely soon devour the world; the very same way it has devoured this country, beginning with the children. Yet, targeting the youth of the world is a very popular and obviously effective marketing tool, used by many corporations. Hiaasen says, â€Å"snag the children and everybody else follows-parents, politicians even the press. †(10) Well what’s wrong with that? That’s how the marketing world works. Hiaasen continues his accusations by claiming Disney to be â€Å"a money-grubbing corporation. †(12) Larry Peterson, publisher for the FSCC, responds by saying, â€Å"No kidding Carl ! But a money-grubbing corporation is not an outrage; it is a redundancy. That’s what corporations do. † Peterson continues by claiming that â€Å"Hiaasen follows a kind of faux ‘investigative’ pattern throughout the book, slamming the corporation for being too good, too successful, then posing as the all-to-human curmudgeon. † Hiaasen is acting very much like a wet-blanket. He is whining while using an arrogantly sophisticated vocabulary about anything and everything possible. One could never be too good or too successful, a person must always strive for excellence. Success is the name of the game and the Disney Corporation has won. Peterson also claim â€Å"Hiaasen has hit one of America’s raw nerves with his new book. This is most definitely true. Disney has been as much a part of American culture for the past seven decades as a summer barbeque, or the World Series. It gets inside of a person whether in a negative way or more commonly than not in an extremely positive manner. In conclusion, Disney does not â€Å"devour the world. Disney may have swept America of her feet seven decades ago but as individuals in society, we have a choice to turn away from Disney, eyes wide shut, complaining about yet another â€Å"issue. † On the other hand people can turn towards Disney, eyes wide open, allowing a smile to envelop our faces.