GO HERE!

There are pieces and methods to treating an Eating Disorder:

• There is an initial assessment to see which method of treatment will work the best.
• There is outpatient treatment in which the patient is treated at home.
• Different types of Psychotherapy to get the patient's mindset back into normal eating habits.
• Nutritional Counseling to help the patient eat well so that they feel better about themselves.
• Psychopharmacology are pills that help the depression that having an eating disorder causes.
• Medical Treatment which is to help patients with long term problems that have become an issue.
• Day Hospital Care is for patients who need a more structured method of treatment than outpatient treatment.
• Inpatient treatment is for patients who need an even more structured method of treatment, many of these places are affiliated with a day hospital care program so that the patients can step up and down in the process.
• Residential Care is for patients who have been hospitalized more than once but cannot reach the psychological or physical stability to do this on their own.

There are many different treatment centers around the world for Eating Disorders, the top 10 states with centers are:

California

Texas

Pennsylvania

North Carolina

New York

Florida

Arizona

Missouri

Illinois

New Jersey

Links to treatment centers!

Although women and girls are more affected by eating disorders, men have them too.

One in four preadolescent cases of anorexia occurs in boys.

 
More often in men though they have Muscle Dysmorphia, which is a disorder that is categorized by the extreme concern to gain muscle mass.

Some boys with the disorder want to lose weight while others want to gain weight or gain more muscle.

Boys who think that they are too small have a greater risk for using steroids or other drugs to increase muscle mass.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Boys who have eating disorders exhibit the same symptoms emotionally, physically, and behaviorally as girls. Although they are less likely to be diagnosed or treated for the stereotypically female disorder.

According to Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. "But, in contrast to women, where the images are one size fits all (thin is always in), men have a variety of images to emulate."

Reasons Men have Eating Disorders:

• To prevent weight gain
• Excel in sports.
• Avoid health complications.
• Improve appearance after childhood teasing.
• For their jobs.

Eating disorders are more prevalent in homosexual and bisexual men.

Reasons men do not seek treatment:

• Embarrassment because the disorder is known as a women's disease
• Services because male treatment centers have just recently received attention.

There are many different forms of Eating Disorders, the two main ones are:

• Anorexia Nervosa:

  Anorexia is a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight.

  People who have Anorexia believe they are always overweight, even though they are extremely underweight.

• Bulimia Nervosa

  Bulimia is an eating disorder where people eat a lot of food and then purge.

  People who have Bulimia can be an average weight.

  Bulimia is often done secretly

They are often shortened to Anorexia and Bulimia when being mentioned.

Anorexia:

The most common signs of Anorexia are:

• Obsessions with what that person eats
• Repeated Weigh ins
• Eating very small portions of food.
• Excessive exercise
• Forceful vomiting

According to studies Anorexics are ten times more likely to die of their illness compared to theose without the disorder.

Symptoms developed over long periods of time:

• thinning of the bones
• brittle hair and nails
• dry and yellowish skin
• growth of fine hair over body
• mild anemia, and muscle weakness and loss
• severe constipation
• low blood pressure, slowed breathing and pulse
• drop in internal body temperature, causing a person to feel cold all the time
• lethargy

 
Bulimia:

Common signs of Bulimia are eating excessively large amounts of food at a time, also called binge eating and purging which is self induced vomiting after eating.

Other Symptoms that are not always seen:

• chronically inflamed and sore throat
• swollen glands in the neck and below the jaw
• worn tooth enamel and increasingly sensitive and decaying teeth
• gastroesophageal reflux disorder
• intestinal distress and irritation from laxative abuse
• kidney problems from diuretic abuse
• severe dehydration from purging of fluids

 
Both of these Disorders can be Psychological and Physical.

Psychological Factors can be low self esteem, feelings of inadequency, Depression, Anxiety, Anger, and lonliness.

Interpersonal Factors can be having a troubled family, difficulty expressing feelings, being bullied based on weight and size, and having a history of abuse.

 Social Factors can be cultural pressures that value thinness and the perfect body (magazines, television shows...etc.), Narrow definitions of beauty that can only emphasize men and women of certain shapes and sizes, and cultural norms that value people based on image instead of inner qualities and strengths.

Statistics of Eating Disorders:

8 million
people in the United States
suffer from eating disorders

3% of all
young women and girls suffer from anorexia

3-4% of all
young women and girls suffer from bulimia

1% of men
suffer from eating disorders

15% of
young women have some kind of disordered eating
patterns

Eating disorders have the highest
mortality rate of any psychological disease

There are more than 8500 different web
sites that deal with anorexia

 

Treatment of Eating Disorders:

EatingDisorder.com

Academy for eating Disorders

On Election day I was asked to go to my polling place and ask a Poll Worker a few questions. The Poll Worker I interviewed was Michael McBride.

Question 1 - Did you work the election last year?

Answer - Yes I did. I work here every year.

Question 2 - How is this year different than 2009?

Answer - There is a smaller turnout this year.

Question 3 - What is the Best part of being a Poll Worker?

Answer - I get to see neighbors I don't always get to see.

Question 4 - What is the most difficult part of being a Poll Worker?

Answer - Dealing with the weather is always the worst.

During my trip there I was not able to go inside the building where they were voting because I was underage, so I took a picture of the outside of the building. While I was there only one other person went to go vote, the polling place was almost deserted.