Medical treatments for anorexia are available in most hospitals across the United States. In general, comprehensive medical treatment involves weight restoration, motivational treatment strategies, and education for both the patient and the family. A discharged patient commonly goes home accompanied by physicians, a psychiatrist or psychologist who knows the disorder well, and a registered dietitian that can help keep track of the food intake of the patient (Andersen et. al. 2005).
Patients are also under continuous observation, and as such they are required to come back to hospitals or clinics for follow-up check-ups. Regular meet-ups with doctors are required in order to monitor the patient’s weight gain or loss, including his or her bodily nutrient. Results of these regular check-ups need to be well-coordinated to other clinicians involved in the patient’s case. However, even with the effectiveness of out-hospital setting, it is still advised that positive progress is more likely t be achieved in an in-hospital setting (Andersen et. al. 2005).
Available Therapies Other than Medical treatments, there are also therapies made available for people with anorexia nervosa. A therapy that is showing positive progress these days is called the Maudsley Method. Developed by Doctors Christopher Dare and Ivan Eisler, the therapy includes family as its main focus and point of improvement. Unlike other treatments which exclude family, the Maudsley therapy use the family to encourage patients, especially the adolescents, to face whatever fears and confusion they have on adolescence, which led them to the development of anorexia (Lock 2001).
Studies support this idea as facts point that eating problems commonly emerge as a response in changes like fat accumulation during the puberty stage. Other related events are teasing and pressure from peers, inability to discuss issues with parents and acculturation to the Western values. It is believed that through the therapy, the patients will gradually understand what seems to have confused them and finally be able to give up starvation (Lock 2001). Before the patient goes through this therapy, the family is first briefed, warned about the dangers of their child succumbing to the illness.
As this may also cause anxiety to the parents, counseling for acceptance, and communication of support is also done. In this way, the parents may successfully convince their child to give up previous beliefs, which have led to the development of the disorder (Lock 2001). In this method, the family which is also believed to be a factor for the development of anorexia nervosa, is used as a tool for rehabilitation. Aside from the family and the medical society, history, and culture may also help in the treatment of this seemingly adolescent epidemic.
There are also ways in which culture can change what may have been a product of its modernization. Culture, Society, and History As previously mentioned, there was a time in history when thin women were considered ugly and poor. They were believed to be unsuitable for marriage because their form may not be able to support childbearing. However, as modernization emerged in history, the society’s culture changed. Body fats, especially for women, became undesirable and being thin became the ideal (Thompson 1996). Today’s culture is permeated with thin men and women.
Size zero movie actresses are the ones favored by fans and a size two is already considered fat. Fat men play loser roles and muscled-physique guys are commonly the heroines. Models dressed in the most fabulous fashion of today are anorexic, almost dried up, skinny women. They are said to be today’s women of power, but power cannot possibly come from a deteriorating health (Hall 2007). As such, culture, society, and history responded to the call for a comprehensive treatment for the disorder that followed the trend.
The Spanish fashion designing and modeling icons were the ones who prompted the call to ban skinny models from walking the ramp. The Spanish fashion authorities no longer wanted to see sickly-looking models on the ramp on their biannual fashion celebration. This was their way of rebelling against anorexia, a treatment hoped to encourage both men and women, young and old to live with fuller body sizes and weight that is well-proportioned to their height (Hall 2007).
Unlike the therapy where the family and loved ones are the ones to push the patients to wellness, painting a new picture of the perfect man and woman is the solution that the society and culture proposed. Through endorsing the women with more flesh than bones is better as compared to dead-skinny ones. A line of full-bodied women looking fabulous in trendy clothes that used to fit only anorexics is used to make patients believe that even with increased body mass, they may still look beautiful.
This may hearten them and somehow push them to quit restricting themselves from eating (Hall 2007). The pursuit to completely ban corpse-thin women in the fashion and entertainment scene is continued until today. Paris and New York, the fashion capitals of the world, are on its way to drafting laws against skinny models as it encourages the drive against eating disorders. Both are now pushing for men and women with bodies curved by ample fat in the right places (Hall 2007).