History of Anorexia
In 1684 Anorexia was identified for the first time but it was not until 1870 that it was identified and described as a ‘new disease’ with its own diagnosis. Psychologists and behavioral scientists have known about anorexia for many years but the public did not become aware of it until end of the twentieth century. It was in the beginning of the seventies before the American media began to write about anorexia. In 1974 there were stories about young women that refused to eat but it was not stressed how serious this disease really was. One young well known singer, Karen Carpenter was one victim of this disease. She first started her diet in 1967 because as a teen she had been a little chubby, according to her brother Richard. Karen began to have health problems when she got down to 80 pounds. She passed out on stage during a concert in 1975 and was taken to the hospital. After that she began treatment for anorexia and was slowly gaining her weight back and some thought she was going to recover completely. She was still suffering from the lack of food and people did not know that. In 1983 she was found unconscious by her mother and rushed to the hospital where she died within an hour from heart failure. Karen is just one example of what anorexia can do to its victims. When that much weight is lost the organs in the body are damaged so much that some of them are not repairable.
Hilde Bruch published a book about anorexia nervosa in 1978 after three decades of studies on the disease. The book was called “The Golden Cage” and included the testimonials of 70 real cases of people, mostly women, who suffered with the disease. She also noticed that anorexia was a big problem in most of the American colleges and universities. The western countries have been led to believe that thin is important and necessary in order to ‘belong’ or succeed in life. Anorexia is related to the culture we live in. Since the 80's there has been a lot of literature published about anorexia and other eating disorders. There are many doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists who are qualified to treat anorexic and bulimic patients. The main objective is to catch the disease before it gets to the point permanently damaging the organs. The public needs to be aware of the problem so they can spot the symptoms when they see them and have an idea what it is. This can help them get help for those near them that they suspect is suffering from the eating disorder.
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