Leva med anorexia - En kvalitativ undersökning om hur anorektiker upplever sina liv

Sammanfattning: Abstract Author: Ellen Andåker Title: Living with anorexia - a qualitative study on how anorexics experience their lives. Supervisor: Anders Giertz The aim of this study was to create an understanding for how it is to live with the disease anorexia nervosa and how the anorexics feel about their living conditions within the areas family, employment, health and social life is affected by the disease. The study highlights how it feels to live with the disease from an anorectic point of view. It also mentions the social-environmental affects. Anorexia nervosa is a symptom diagnosis, where clinics all over the world use the DSM IV method, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, to create the diagnosis. Persons who have been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa have an intense fear to gain weight or becoming fat, even though they are underweight, and have a disturbed body image. The empirical material in the survey consists of two semi-structured interviews with anorexics and four autobiographies written by anorexics. The interviews and the autobiographies have been analyzed by using the sociologist Anthony Giddens’ structuring theory about modernity and the conditions for identity development and social everyday life. The anorexics who have participated in the study mentions both positive and negative aspects of the disease. They experience that their families and the environment have been influenced by the development of the disease. The relationship between anorexics and its parents becomes strained and fights are common. Anorexics feel that their social life is affected by the disease because they often isolate themselves. They integrate with the disease and experience a fear of being seen in public and private environments. They feel like they fail to succeed in school and are not able to handle a full time job, because of the lack of energy and concentration. Anorexics feel unwell both mentally and physically and their health is largely affected by the disease. The positive feeling regarding the disease, from an anorectic point of view, is that they feel that they have control and feel secure. Without the protection and control of the disease an anorectic had not managed to keep on living because of the feeling of chaos. Anorexia nervosa is a disease which makes you feel lonely and frightened. It is a terrible disease which at its worst can create death.