*This a project for a high school AP Psychology course. This is a fictionalized account of having a psychological ailment. For questions about this blog project or its content please email the teacher Chris Jocham: jocham@fultonschools.org

1. Anorexia
By: Mariella Marie
*This a project for a high school AP Psychology course. This is a fictionalized account of having a
psychological ailment. For questions about this blog project or its content please email the teacher
Chris Jocham: jocham@fultonschools.org

2. About Anorexia
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder in
which someone takes dangerous measures to
lose weight. These measures may include:
skipping meals, using laxatives, avoiding food,
intense and compulsive exercising, and eating
food in unreasonably small quantities.

4. Symptoms
• Fear of gaining weight, even though
underweight
• Intense resistance to being at healthy body
weight for age and height
• Infrequent or absent period, or delayed onset
of first period
• Denial of the severity of disorder

6. Treatment
• Treatment of anorexia requires a specific
program that involves three main phases:
• restoring weight that has been lost to severe
dieting and purging
• treating any psychological disturbances, such
as distortion of body image, low self-esteem,
and interpersonal or emotional conflicts; and
• achieving long-term remission and
rehabilitation, or full recovery.

8. Who’s At Risk?
• Females make up 95% of the anorexic
population
• Most are also teenage girls
• Caucasians more affected than any other race
• More common in middle and upper classes

9. According to the statistics these girls are at higher risk for
developing Anorexia Nervosa.

10. Causes
• Dysfunction in hypothalamus which controls
metabolism
• Feeding problems or general under eating as
an infant
• Maternal depressive symptoms
• Peer pressure to look a certain way
• Poor self image

12. Health Risks
• Low blood pressure
• Abnormally slow heart rate
• Constipation
• Abdominal pain
• Absence of menstrual periods

13. Low Blood Pressure Abdominal Pain
Absence of Period

14. Health Risks (cont.)
• Decreased urination
• Potassium deficiency
• Bone density loss
• Anemia
• Electrolyte imbalance

15. Anemia
Bone Density Loss Potassium Defficiency

16. Alanis Morissette Mary-Kate Olsen Victoria Beckham

17. How Anorexia Affects Me…
Having Anorexia, I feel unconfident in myself
and have very low self-esteem..

18. Sometimes I’m scared I might die because of my
condition, but I’m even more afraid of being
overweight.

19. I Have a strong aversion to food, I have since I
was a little girl.

20. I hate looking in the mirror…

21. Food is all around bad for me, I don’t even like
to as much as smell it.

22. When I do eat, I eat bland foods like rice and
crackers.

23. The only beverages I drink are Right Size
Smoothies and water.

24. Along with my eating disorder comes
depression…its hard when you’re never
satisfied with yourself as you are.