Anorexia Nervosa Research Paper

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious mental illness where a person has an obsessive fear of gaining weight so they allow themselves only very small portions of food, some even starving themselves. People with anorexia often have a distorted view of themselves. Anorexia most often starts in adolescence and is most common among girls. However anorexia can affect men and woman of any age, race, cultural and socioeconomic background. The average duration of Anorexia Nervosa is 7 years. Those who recover are unlikely to return to normal health.
Anorexia Nervosa commences with early descriptions from the 16th and 17th centuries however it wasn’t until late 19th century that it was considered a disease of the body and mind. Anorexia Nervosa is usually coupled with other mental illnesses.
For most of early history, the mentally ill were seen as domestic responsibilities. In Christian Europe, families had full responsibilities
In France in the 16th Century they began to vastly sweep the streets to round up beggars, mentally ill and paupers. Over 6000 of these ‘undesirables’ resided in Paris’s General Hospital. Houses for the ‘mad’ in France treated their patients as wild caged beasts. Those who were permitted to stay in their home were required to gain permission from the local officials. They were stripped of their legal rights and freedom.
Colonists in the Colonial American society thought the mentally ill to be possessed by the devil, they were removed from society and locked away. Colonists believed they had to expel or catalyse the crisis from the individual. That was done by immersing patients in ice baths until they lost consciousness or sending a big shock to the brain. To expel the crisis they would induce vomiting or bleeding. The bleeding practice involved draining the ‘bad blood’ from the