1. Perfection
In today's society, where physical characteristics are used to measure beauty and success, people are willing to push their bodies to extremes to achieve physical perfection. As an overweight woman, I may be considered a failure of society's beauty test. However, my high self-esteem and acceptance of my body allows me to not be disturbed by what, to some, may seem as a sign of failure. Unfortunately, there are people whose desire to be accepted by society causes them to develop eating disorders. The two most common are called anorexia and bulimia (WebMD.Com Eating 1). The Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, association (ANRED), statesAnorexia and bulimia affect primarily people in their teens and twenties, but clinicians report both disorders in children as young as six and individuals as old as seventy-six? (ANRED Statistics 1). Anorexia and bulimia are both serious eating disorders with differences and similarities in their symptoms, diagnosis, causes, treatments and prognosis.
Although anorexia and bulimia share many of the same symptoms, they also have many differences.About half of people with anorexia also have symptoms of bulimia? (MayoClinic.Com 2). According to the American Anorexia Bulimia Association (AABA), some symptoms of anorexia are: excessive exercising, depression, weakness, exhaustion, constipation, and loss of menstrual period in women (AABA Anorexia 1). They also state that bulimics suffer from those symptoms as well. (AABA Bulimia 1). Although there are .
similarities, each disorder has its own unique characteristics. A major symptom of bulimia is binging and purging. Bulimics practice binging, eating large amounts of food at one time, and purging, causing themselves to vomit, or defecate, in an attempt to prevent weight gain (Reyes 1). Anorexics, however, restrict their diets and starve themselves in attempt to stay thin and if possible, lose more weight (?Anorexia Nervosa? 1).
Yet they still feel fat, and continue to starve themselves. ... Anorexics feel as if they are heavier than the others around them, and believe the fastest way to lose weight is to simply starve themselves. Another cause of anorexia is the need to obtain perfection. ... Then when they look at themselves and don't see perfection they "punish" themselves by restriction or starvation. ... There are no general answers to why people become anorexic and why when on the brink of death they continue to starve themselves. ...
This causes many girls to starve themselves to be the "ideal figure. Another factor contributing to anorexia is the need to obtain perfection. Perfection, for some families, is a must not only to strive for, but achieve. ... When they cannot achieve perfection, they "punish" themselves by restriction or starvation. ...
Thousands of teenagers are starving themselves every day in an effort to attain what the fashion industry considers to be the "ideal" figure. ... Another factor contributing to anorexia is the need to achieve perfection. ... When they cannot accomplish perfection, they punish themselves by starvation. ... Miss Pearson explains " I loved the power I felt in starving myself"( Cove, 1998). ...
The extreme lengths women will go to in their never ending pursuit of perfection, prove that we have become a society obsessed with image. In this quest for perfection, women are now turning to extremely drastic measures; they are physically changing their bodies through cosmetic surgery. ... Barbie seems to embody perfection. ... Women are literally starving themselves in attempts to loose weight and emulate the media's depiction of the perfect body. ... In conclusion, the extreme lengths women will go to in their never ending pursuit of perfection, prove that we have become a soc...
There is so much emphasis on striving for perfection that not enough people realize how unrealistic this goal of looking like the perfect supermodel is. ... So many people try horrendous diets, exercise far too often than needed, and starve themselves for a goal that sadly they will not accomplish. ... The constant desire and drive for this unattainable perfection. ... In a constantly changing world with so many problems there needs to be a media turn around and less emphasis should be made on perfection. ...
There is so much emphasis on striving for perfection that not enough people realize how unrealistic this goal of looking like the perfect supermodel is. ... So many people try horrendous diets, exercise far too often than needed, and starve themselves for a goal that sadly they will not accomplish. ... The constant desire and drive for this unattainable perfection. ... In a constantly changing world with so many problems there needs to be a media turn around and less emphasis should be made on perfection. ...
The whole concept of "perfection" is just a tool which companies use to sell their product. ... People are dying because of an obsession with trying to attain that "perfection" which doesn't exist anyway. ... Several models have admitted to starving themselves to get thin just to fit the industry's image. ...
And desperate times call for desperate measurements as I began to starve myself in order to achieve my image of perfection. ... It didn't matter how much I tried to talk myself out of it I knew that if you starve yourself you will lose weight, it as fact that everyone knows. ...