Carlos German

Tim Dalton, David Crohn

FIQWS 10108 (HA 15)

December 6, 2018

How Body Image Promotes Eating Disorders

A person’s perception on their own aesthetics and sexual attractiveness is something that is often thought of constantly throughout the day. The idea of body image is not harmful at all. It only becomes dangerous when body image issues arise from living in a society that promotes unbelievable body ideals that makes it hard for many to not get caught on to unrealistic standards. Body image is highly influenced by many factors such as culture, society, social media and other aspects for instance friends and family. Distorted body image, the idea that a person has a negative perception of their own body attractiveness has many downsides. Quickly, it can be deducted that a negative body image perception can greatly have an impact to self-esteem and health. There is a high chance that a body image problem may create issues such as eating disorders. Eating disorders are illnesses in which an individual experiences severe disruption when it comes to eating habits caused by the desire of fulfilling a negative set of thoughts and emotions that they believe would help them fit into a certain social standard. Eating disorders are not as dormant as many people may tend to believe, in the U.S, “At least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder.” (Eating Disorder Statistics) There are many different types of eating disorders, some examples are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. A perfect visualized representation of body image issues is shown in the film “To the Bone.” The film is focused on a young woman named Collins at twenty years of age battling anorexia. Throughout the movie, the viewers are exposed to many of the battles and struggles that come with anorexia as well as people with similar issues. The topic of body image and eating disorders is extremely prevalent in the plot.  The film will be utilized to further research and educate some of the issues surrounding body image and eating disorders.  It can be concluded that body image issues can physiologically and physically have an impact on the human body may lead to illnesses such as eating disorders that are detrimental to a person’s health.

1. Anorexia Nervosa

Before we begin discussing further into the film, it is essential to understand some thorough information about some illnesses. Eating disorders may often flourish as a result of body image issues. Distorted body image is capable of many life-threatening illnesses. Anorexia Nervosa is a physiological and physical eating disorder causing the person to lose weight in an unhealthy manner for their age and height. However, it leads to other issues such as creating an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Undoubtedly, body dissatisfaction within an individual can serve a huge role in dietary choices. Nevertheless, Anorexia Nervosa is capable of leading individuals to turn to restrictive dieting that once again aids to serious eating disorders to prevent any weight gain. Disturbed by their own body image, the individual will begin to emphasize on their appearance and their health in order to satisfy the perception that they are overweight despite often times being underweight. (Brazier, Yvette. “Anorexia Nervosa: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment.”)

 

Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa

            To elaborate, it is a must to be educated on the certain symptoms that may the illness exhibits. Some symptoms that may show are “sexual indifference, strenuous regimens of exercise, “repetitious behavior patterns, lack of speech, insomnia, cognitive, temporal and visual distortions, disturbed attitudes toward eating, fondness for solitude, and suicidal ideation” (Depathologizing anorexia: the risks of life narratives) are all signs of the anorexic conditions. Additionally, it possesses physiological threats such as over-exercising, refusal to eat and emotional change. Throughout the film “The Bone” many of the symptoms described above are present. For instance, in the film the main character suffered from severe bruises on her back from constant sit ups. The film shows a potential harm that strenuous exercise can have on people with the illness without moderation. Additionally, other symptoms involve emotional change that later develop into depressive like traits and obsessive behavior on food intake. Another great example was also shown in the movie. The protagonist in the movie was well educated with the number of calories each food has. Having a thorough knowledge of how much units of energy reside in a food was a toxic behavior that was developed to measure all her food intake. There are huge health risks that this illness poses on the human body. For women, some of the symptoms that can happen are irregular menstruation or absence of it for months or possibly years. Slow growth in children and or slow growth are also symptoms of the illness.

Causes of Anorexia Nervosa

By now it has been established that individuals who suffer from this eating disorder retain an unhealthy relationship with food. In regard to the mainspring of this illness is still unknown. However, it has been wondered that some of the probable causes of Anorexia Nervosa might be a combination of “biological, physical and environmental factors.” (Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) As stated above the illness can be influenced by environmental factors. Today, many heavily idolize the idea of being the thinnest. This tends to encourage individuals into the thinking that they need to be skinny in order to portray what some judge true beauty is. This is when we see how a negative body image perception by an individual can be detrimental to a person’s health. In means of achieving acceptances to satisfy others, many turns to restrictive dieting improperly. Individuals may turn to starvation tactics as an unhealthy way of weight loss that result on said illnesses.

Treatments and Issues with Anorexia Nervosa

There are many options that people suffering from Anorexia nervosa that are anorexic can do to face and battle against Anorexia Nervosa. The treatment will require the individual to seek professional help from dietitians, doctors and mental health professionals knowledgeable and experienced with eating disorders. Recovery may involve programs that require hospitalization and medical care. Psychotherapy, which was offered in the film is based on family-based therapy in which the family of the individual is involved involving counseling. Additionally, therapy can be done individually with just the person suffering from Anorexia Nervosa which allows for a more personal connection between the patient and the doctor. However, the treatment for a patient suffering from such illness can be extraneous and laborious. The reason behind the illness treatment being excessively challenging is because “anorexia nervosa [patients] are not always modified by treatment and thus can lead to relapse. Although patients are aware of their weight loss, they continue to feel overweight.” (Metral, M., and M. Mailliez.)  As briefly mentioned before, many of the Individuals struggling with eating disorders to some extent experience distorted body image. Body dissatisfaction among-st individuals in their mind they want to be appealing by trying to please what they believe society may deem as beautiful, being thin and skinny. Many of the individuals may believe that they are healthy which makes dealing with the health issues more difficult considering that the individual often believes that there is nothing wrong and that they’re healthy physically and mentally. But that causes failure to accept and embrace the medical treatment that is required because those that suffer from Anorexia Nervosa and are anorexic fear gaining what they believe is excessive weight.

2) Bulimia Nervosa    

There are other types of major eating disorders, Bulimia Nervosa is a threatening eating disorder that occurs frequently around the world often associated with body image issues. Individuals that suffer from this condition tend to binge eat, the concept consuming large quantities of food over a small window of time. However, those with Bulimia Nervosa then commit to avoid weight gain at any cost. Methods in which individuals achieve their desire of avoiding weight gain is by forcing themselves to vomit. Other possible methods that they may utilize involve fasting and extreme exercising.

Importance of Bulimia Nervosa to The Essay

Bulimia Nervosa is one of the most common eating disorders and it was present in the film. The reasoning behind the addition of this illness was to highlight other illnesses that are common and detrimental to a vast majority of people. It was also important to know that there are other eating disorders that relate to each other and common for people to possess more than just one eating disorder. In the featured film, one of the characters was deducted to suffer from Bulimia Nervosa because she would binge eat and then proceed to utilizing methods that prevented her from gaining weight. She had a bag in where she would vomit and the character in the movie would also utilize laxatives to help her battle against any weight gain from eating the required food her body needed to be healthy. Therefore, it is apparent that it was required to briefly conduct research on other important eating disorders that were involved in the movie.

3) The Film to The Bone

There are many issues tackled within the movie that should be highlighted. In the film, a family hits the breaking point when a 20-year-old woman that suffers from anorexia nervosa is rapidly becoming more and more anorexic. Early on in the movie, the family seeks for help by a well-known successful doctor that takes a different approach to treat patients that are suffering with eating disorders. Ellen Collins, the main character that’s suffering from the illness is then sent to a group home in which is inhabited by other people that are also suffering from eating disorders caused by distorted body image. Within the group home, the viewers and the main character were exposed to the severity and dangers that eating disorders are capable of. In the group home, many of the characters are obsessively restrained from food by their own will and are often scared of eating anything. The importance of demonstrating this in the film hoped to advocate and highlight how body image issues can lead to serious dangerous eating disorders.  Additionally, the protagonist is constantly measuring the width of her arms which allows the audience to know that she is scared of her arms getting any bigger. In the film, it can be inferred that the act constant checking of her arms width by the young woman can be interpreted as some type of body dysmorphia. The term is used as a “Body dysmorphic disorder defined by DSM-IV-TR as an intense, obsessive preoccupation with or a greatly exaggerated distortion of a small or imagined defect of one’s body” (Body Dysmorphia, the Plastic Surgeon and the Psychiatrist) In other words, it is a mental illness that involves an excessive emphasis to body attributes that they perceive not desirable. People tend to often target certain bodily attributes that negatively affects their perception of beauty. The film effectively accomplishes the goal of demonstrating many of the consequences and depth that these illnesses can accomplish in terms of destroying a person’s health and self-regard to their appearance. Additionally, the film was also able to demonstrate other health effects that eating disorders can have. In the movie, one of the patients residing in the group home was pregnant. The woman was battling the illness and trying her best to overcome her obstacles. Unfortunately, the eating disorder the woman possessed caused her to lose the child. It can be deducted that the producer of the movie decided to include that in the movie to show that eating disorders can cause damage and it can affect anyone.

CONCLUSION

Thus, it has been shown that body image issues within a person is capable of many catastrophes physiologically and physically. In 2018, social standards at an all-time high. Too frequently, people try to feed into other people’s expectations of what beauty is. Beauty should be a relative term and it should not be able to dictate and negatively persuade people to aim for false standards of beauty. Eating disorders are extremely common and present all throughout our society, but many fails to realize the severity of such illnesses. But a lot of the cases of what body image issues can lead to will serve as an example to many people that it is way more important to prioritize health and overall well being to live a long healthy life embracing their body and their composition.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

“Eating Disorder Statistics • National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.” National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, www.anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/.

 

Brazier, Yvette. “Anorexia Nervosa: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 19 Jan. 2018,

 

Pascual, Nieves. “Depathologizing anorexia: the risks of life narratives. (1).” Style, Summer 2001, p. 341+. Literature Resource Center, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A97074189/GLS?u=cuny_ccny&sid=GLS&xid=b63ce6a2. Accessed 25 Nov. 2018.

 

“Anorexia Nervosa.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Feb. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia-nervosa/symptoms-causes/syc-20353591.

 

Metral, M., and M. Mailliez. “How certainty appraisal might improve both body dissatisfaction and body overestimation in anorexia nervosa: a case report.” Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 6, no. 1, 2018. Academic OneFile, https://link-galegroup-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A557662112/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=83994e58. Accessed 28 Nov. 2018.

 

Renshaw, Domeena C. “Body Dysmorphia, the Plastic Surgeon and the Psychiatrist.” Psychiatric Times, 1 July 2003, p. 64. Academic OneFile, https://link-galegroup-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A105044926/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=5d881dbd. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.