Eating Disorders In Western Culture

Eating disorders in Western culture are slowly increasing. Anorexia nervosa is one of the three major eating disorders; the other two are bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. So, then what is Anorexia nervosa? Anorexia nervosa (AN) literally means “nervous loss of appetite” (Barlow, Durand, & Hofmann, 2015, p. 273). This eating disorder is the fear of being overweight, so then these individuals dramatically decrease their intake of food. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the criteria of having AN is restricting energy intake that leads to outstanding low body weight based on the age, sex, and physical health of the person, extreme fear of becoming gaining weight and feeling of disturbance in one’s body shape or weight (2013, p. 338). AN often begins when an individual starts a diet. The positive feeling of having control of their eating habits overcome the reality of how much weight is being lost. Soon after, the individual has lost a substantial amount of weight that it can be both unhealthy and dangerous. Anorexics tend to count their calorie food intake. Food intake decreases with time and soon enough individuals are hardly eating at all. In their eyes, they will not be perfect until they lose a little bit more weight or fat. People who are anorexic

In many cases, mothers, and sometimes fathers abuse their authority and force their child to become skinnier; hence the mentality of always wanting to lose weight to be their definition of being slim. Adolescence are more susceptible to have an eating disorder since they are not capable of making proper decisions. Since their prefrontal cortex has not fully developed, they cannot make rational choices in their lives. With so much hormones, they can be sensitive about their body image changing, for the better or for