Today in class we watched a movie about Emily, a young woman suffering from anorexia. In the documentary we watched Emily's daily life and the struggles that she has been fighting for the past 8 years. Using the information that you learned today in class about drive reduction theory explain how Emily reduces the drive of feeling overweight and restores her body back to homeostasis in her mind. Use specific examples in your answer and make sure you explain drive reduction theory. Also explain how a drug addict and Emily's battle with anorexia are similar and different. Also, tell me what Emily's drug is.
Please answer all the questions to receive full credit.
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Emily had a severe struggle with anorexia. She was motivated to lose weight and eat as little as possible as a result of not wanting to gain weight. Doing this was her attempt to restore her body to homeostasis. This is an illustration of the Drive Reduction Theory. The theory states that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension inside the body to sate of homeostasis. Emily’s addiction is similar to a drug’s addicts because they both abuse their bodies in order to control and hide their emotional and mental pain. Also they are killing themselves in the process of their addiction and are addicted to the result of what they’re doing not to the substance or in Emily’s case being thin. However they are different because drug addicts get addicted to the “high” from drugs and Emily was addicted to the feeling of being in control.
Drive-reduction theory states that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension inside the body to a state of homeostasis. Emily, a woman who suffers from anorexia, does many things to reduce her drive of feeling overweight and to return her body to homeostasis in her mind. For example, she works out constantly every day, and she eats less than 800 calories a day. When she eats, she does it in an extremely specific way that involves many numbers and a lot of time and tedious work. These things make her feel better on the inside, and they reduce her drive of feeling overweight.
Emily’s battle with anorexia is similar to a drug addict’s battle. Triggers cause the “disease” in both cases, and co-dependence is also evident in both. Emily actually has a drug, and it is control. She likes being in control at all times, and she tends to freak out when she isn’t. Control is what keeps her sane, just like the drug that a drug addict takes keeps him or her sane. Without the drug, the person could go insane due to withdrawal. However, Emily does not have a literal drug that she takes like a drug addict does. She could go crazy without control, but she wouldn’t suffer from symptoms of withdrawal.
Meredith Peacock
Emily is a young woman dealing with anorexia. She has a drive telling her that she is overweight even though she is extremely underweight. Emily uses the drive reduction theory to return her body to a state of homeostasis. The drive reduction theory is the theory that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension inside the body to a state of homeostasis. Because Emily’s drive is feeling overweight, she has to return to a state of homeostasis by not eating until absolutely necessary. Emily will wait until very late at night to eat and when she eats she has to count everything that goes into her mouth. Emily is also always exercising, even in the shower. She is addicted to not eating until absolutely necessary and exercising all the time because she wants to be in control; therefore being in control is Emily’s drug. She craves being in control of something and feels that her body is the one thing she can be in control of completely. Emily and a drug addict are alike because they are both in denial of the situation that they are in, but they are different because Emily does not go through the same withdrawals such as throwing up and hallucinating as a drug addict.
Emily uses the drive reduction theory in her life by exercising hours a day. She also starves herself and when she does eat it’s all in a ritual. She feels like she doesn’t deserve to eat or feel any pleasure and so instead of finding pleasure in food, she punishes herself by making every bite an unpleasant ritual. Emily is like a drug addict in that being an anorexic is from pain in her life. She is also convinced this is the only way to live and if she doesn’t live like this, life is going to stop or go horribly wrong. Drug addicts are convinced they can only survive with the drug and the high they get from it. Emily’s drug is being in control. There were many things in her life that she couldn’t control, so she started looking for something she could control: her diet and exercise habits.
Emily is a young woman that deals with anorexia. This is a disease where someone does not eat and starves themselves because they feel the need to be skinny. What people like Emily don’t realize is that they are already skinny enough and they don’t need to be starving themselves to look a certain way. There is a drive inside Emily which tells her she is fat and overweight when in reality she is the complete opposite. The Drive-Reduction Theory explains Emily’s train of thought. In her mind she is telling herself that she needs to lose weight because she is overweight. This unpleasant thought that is constantly is Emily’s head is telling her she is overweight, so in order to get rid of this unpleasant thought, she only eats when it is absolutely necessary. She also exercises constantly to help her burn more calories and in turn loose more weight. When Emily does eat she has to do it in a very orderly and controlled manner. For example, she has to eat all of the celery first and then she can move on to another item. This is because she doesn’t feel like she is in control in other areas of her life. So she makes herself be in control of the one thing she can control which is her body. She doesn’t like to be told what to do but she thinks people can’t make her eat so that’s why she doesn’t eat because she has control over it and can show everybody that she does have control. Emily is similar to a drug addict because she is in denial of her problem. When drug addicts are confronted about their problem, most of the time they say they don’t have a problem and they could quit anytime they wanted which is absolutely not true. Emily is the same way. She thinks that she is fine and it also seems like to her that everyone is trying to take control away from her when they tell her she needs to stop starving herself. Emily is different from a drug addict because drug addicts that are addicted to substances go through withdrawals such as headaches and they can even hallucinate. Emily does not have these specific types of withdrawals but she does have withdrawals of her own when she does not feel in control. For example, when she is not in control she starts to get anxious and then has a low tolerance for other people around her that are trying to tell her what she should do.
Emily has a consistant drive to be thin. She is worried that if she eats or doesnt exercize she will become over weight. She is like a drug addict in the the sense that she is harming herself with not eating. She is causeing herself to have health problems and lead to death just like someone that uses drugs does. Her "drug" is control. So many things hav ehappened in her life causeing her to feel like her life was out of her control, that she developed this sickness to feel in control again.
In the Intervention movie that we watched in class Emily was a young woman who was anorexic. When Emily starts to have a biological need for food she would go through a drive reduction that go get rid of the urge or a sickly pain from not eating for a long period with a series of exercises and take showers to get her body back to its homeostasis. Just like the addict is addicted to the rush or high a drug gives while Emily is addicted to being in control. In comparison with the drug addicts, Emily suffered from mental pain as a child. Emily’s biggest problem is having control. Her mother was very controlling with her and in Emily’s mind in order to gain control of herself she have to do it in the processes of how much food she will intake. The difference between the two would be the fact that if Emily ever decided to stop being anorexic then she would not go into a withdrawal that could kill her.
Gabriella Borden
Drive Reduction theory is a theory that states that certain behavior is acted on in an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension inside the body to a state of homeostasis. In class we watched an intervention dealing with a girl named Emily. Emily battled with severe anorexia on a day to day basis. This is an illustration of the Drive Reduction theorey because Emily was motivated to workout and eat very little in order to keep from gaining weight, possibly lose weight, and return her body to a state of homeostasis. In Emily's mind, she was extremely overweight, when in reality she weighed very little. Emily was constantly working out throughout the day, ate less than 800 calories a day, and when she ate she made herself work for what she ate. Emily's "drug" was control. She felt the need to have control of everything she ate and had a very hard time letting go of that control. Emily's addiction is similar to that of a drug addict's because they are both slowly killing themselves. She is addicted to the results of her "drug" just as any drug addict is. The difference between their addictions is that they are addicted to a real "object," where as Emily is addicted to something like control.
-Sarah Cook
Emily is a young woman dealing with the eating disorder anorexia. By reducing her drive, Emily eats less than 800 calories and is constantly trying to burn them off. Drive reduction is the motivation to behave in a certain way to get rid of unpleasant tensions in the body. Emily was terribly afraid of becoming over weight so she controlled everything about her diet to prevent that. Emily ate once a day, and there was a specific way of doing this. She had a certain count and pattern to her meal, and everything was in her control. Emily was addicted to control, like a drug addict to drugs. It allowed her to live her life in the state of homeostasis. She, like a drug addict, didn’t see that anything was wrong. It all seemed okay to her because she was in control. In reality, her drug was killing her and she needed to let go.
In Emily’s attempt to bring herself to a state of equilibrium in her mind she compensated for feeling overweight by over exercising. The ironic thing was that in an attempt to reduce one drive she created anther, which is the drive to exercise. This would be an example of drive reduction theory; that states that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce tension to a state of homeostasis. The whole point of Emily’s anorexia was to give herself control of one aspect of her life. The need for this starts with her relationship with her mother. Emily’s mother was a control freak and she critiques everything that her family does. Another crucial point in Emily’s life was that she was raped in college which caused an even greater loss of control in her life. This resulted in her watching what she ate until the point when she almost stopped eating and also developing rituals in how she ate the foods that she did. This shows how Emily’s drug did not want to be skinny, but it is that she wants to be in control.
This behavior represents the behaviors of a drug addict. A drug addict takes a certain substance that produces a desired effect. This effect could be hallucinations or general euphoria. What is important though is that it is not that a person for example likes the feeling of smoking or air duster, but rather the after effects of performing this action; which is again general euphoria or an alter ego like Dr. Doom who by the way is extremely underground and now sober.
In Emily’s attempt to bring herself to a state of equilibrium in her mind she compensated for feeling overweight by over exercising and not eating the proper amount that she is suppose to. This is an illustration of the Drive Reduction Theory. The theory states that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension inside the body to sate of homeostasis. Emily has an almost exact copy of how a drug addict acts. She abuses her body to hide the emotional pain that she feels. Her drug is being in control. So by starving herself emily feels more in control.
-Shaun McCool
Hannah Adams. The drive reduction theory is when someone "overrides" their natural instinct to eat or drink by the idea that thy don't need it to survive. Their body tells them that they need to drink because thy are dehydrated, but they've trained themselves to think that they don't need what their body is telling them. In Emily's case her body was telling her that she needs to eat because she needs the calories and sugar to survive. But she was telling herself that she doesnt need it because it will make her fat (she had a messed up perception of herself). By telling herself that she doesnt need to eat her brain remembers that and so she doesn't notice those signals that she needs to eat. Emily's disorder is similar to that if a drug addict because after a while she gets "addicted" to the idea that she is fat so she can't stop thinking about herself that way. A drug addict will get addicted to the drugs and convince themselves that they can't live without them. The difference though is that Emily's disorder is all mental and a drug addict is more physically addicted to the drug. Her addiction is not like a drug that you can just take away from her; it's more like a mental thought process that she needs to eat a certain diet so she won't be fat. Her rehab would be different from that of a drug addict because she needs more encouragement that she's beautiful and that she doesn't need to be anorexic to solve her problems so that she can bonion control.
Emily is a young woman who has been dealing with anorexia for eight years. To reduce the drive of feeling over weight Emily does may things each day. One thing she does is exercise for a while after she gets up she is so concerned about staying skinny she will even exercise in the shower. She also only eats 800 calories or less each day. When she does eat she does it at and night and takes a long time to get it ready so she feels like she is not eating that much. In her mind she is getting her body back to homeostasis. By doing these things Emily is using the drive reduction theory which states that motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce the unpleasant tension in the body to the state of homeostasis. Emily’s disease is like a drug addiction because it was caused by a trigger. Her trigger was always feeling like she was less than her sister, she was raped, and her parents divorced. She feels like her anorexia is her identity. Emily actually does have a drug. Hers is control. She feels like she always needs to be in control. Without being in control Emily would go crazy. Her control gives her a high and keeps her sensible. This disease is not like a drug addict because if she were to gain weight she would not suffer from the symptoms of withdrawal and would not die. It would instead keep her alive.
Emily struggled with the eating disorder known as anorexia. Emily has a twin sister and has always had to sort of "compete" against her and has never felt like she is as good as her sister. In college, she was raped which made her feel unworthy and undeserving of anything that was supposed to fulfill pleasure. This sort of "triggered" her anorexia. Emily eats as little as she can and exercises constantly. Her biggest fear is becoming fat. Her drive of keeping herself from becoming overweight, when she is really underweight,takes her back to homeostasis when she feels better abouth herslef when skipping meals and eating very small portions. This is what they call the Drive Reduction Theory. A battle with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, can be compared to that of a drug addict. Both have an addiction to the "high" feeling of something. Emily gets a high from her "drug" which is the feeling of being in total control of her body.
*Kailey McGee
Emily struggled with the eating disorder known as anorexia. Emily has a twin sister and has always had to sort of "compete" against her and has never felt like she is as good as her sister. In college, she was raped which made her feel unworthy and undeserving of anything that was supposed to fulfill pleasure. This sort of "triggered" her anorexia. Emily eats as little as she can and exercises constantly. Her biggest fear is becoming fat. Her drive of keeping herself from becoming overweight, when she is really underweight,takes her back to homeostasis when she feels better abouth herslef when skipping meals and eating very small portions. This is what they call the Drive Reduction Theory. A battle with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, can be compared to that of a drug addict. Both have an addiction to the "high" feeling of something. Emily gets a high from her "drug" which is the feeling of being in total control of her body.
*Kailey McGee
In class the other day, we watched a video on Emily, an anorexic who believes that she is perfectly fine, or she is too fat, although she is pretty much just skin and bones. In the video, she explained why she almost never eats, and that explains the drive of her body. A person’s drive is a certain need that the body needs to supposedly survive, and when that drive is not met, it makes negative tension that increases the drive. When that drive is satisfied, then the drive begins to reduce and the body believes it does not need anymore of what it wants. Emily’s body had a drive for food, and she did not like that, so she replaced that drive for food, with a drive to workout. Emily starves herself, and her drive, by working out all the time. Emily is somewhat like a drug addict, because her drug is wanting to look skinny all the time, but because of anorexia, she sees herself as fat, so she keeps working out to be small and skinny. I believe that Emily’s drug is her drive to be independent, because when she was growing up, she was almost always controlled by her mother, and now that she is out of the house, she is free to make any decisions, such as eating or working out.
Emily is a young lady that is struggling with anorexia. She is susing the drive reduction theory as her motive. She is trying to return to a state of homeostasis in her mind becaue in her own eyes she is overweight, even though in reality she is a walking skeleton. Emily is similar to a drug addict because she has started this habbit because of certain triggers from earlier in her life. She also is addicted to the feeling of being "empty inside" just like drug addicts are addicted to the high that they get from their drugs. She is dependent on her rituals and way of life just like drug addicts, and she feels if she goes without these rituals then she wont be able to live any longer. Emily's drug is control, she feels like she has to control every aspect of her life or she breaks down emotionlly and detaches from everything. - Ben Small
Emily uses the drive of feeling overweight to motivate her to lose weight. She over exercises every day, even in the shower, and doesn’t eat a proper nutritious meal. Her attempt to stay skinny is a way of keeping her homeostasis. Drive reduction theory is when your body needs something, and the tension that is caused when that item isn’t obtained. When your body gets that need, than homeostasis is restored and the problem goes away. For example, she does hundreds of jumping jacks then eats an apple all day. Emily is like a drug addicted in ways like how she is killing herself to stay skinny. She also has co-dependants, and she continuously denies her addiction. The difference between her and a drug addict is that she doesn’t receive a high. Emily’s addiction is control.
Megan Eastergard
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