Adolescent Behaviors and the Challenges in Society Today

Eating Disorders are a set of serious disorders with underlying psychiatric foundations. An eating disorder occurs when exercise, body weight and shape become an unhealthy obsession (Stein, Merrick, & Latzer, 2011). People with eating disorders take physical concerns to the extremes that they take on abnormal eating habits. There are a variety of cases that lead to an eating disorder and can affect both men and women, however its prevalence primarily occur in adolescence (Ison & Kent, 2010; Stein et al., 2011). The complexity and challenges that occur during adolescents predisposes teens to developing an eating disorder. The period of adolescence is one of intense change, which can bring with it a great deal of stress, confusion and anxiety (Allen, Byrne, Oddy & Crosby, 2013). According to Wade, Keski-Rahkonen and Hudson (2011) 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). There are three main categories of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Individuals with AN loose more weight than what is considered to be healthy for their particular height, age, gender, and development (Allen et al., 2013). In BN individuals binge eat and purge to compensate for the excessive eating. Purging may include induce vomiting or intake of laxatives that lead to bowel

In certain cases, some adolescents develop an eating disorder. They forget that being healthy is the most important thing during this time of their life. A lot of adolescents go through puberty and if they do not eat properly, it can cause harm to their growth. In the movie, Regina wanted to lose 3 pounds. She did not eat and decided to only eat the protein bars that Caty gave to her. Regina thought the protein bars would help her lose weight. However, adolescents do not know that a healthy diet and exercise can actually help them lost weight. Instead, adolescents choose to become anorexic or bulimic. Anorexia is when an individual “voluntarily undereat and overexericis, depriving their vital organs of nourishment” (Berger, 2008, p. 459). The National Institute of Health states that “Young people with anorexia nervosa, for example, have difficulty maintaining a minimum healthy body weight. Anorexia affects one in every 100 to 200 adolescent girls and a much smaller number of boys” (National Health, 1999). Bulimia

First, psychological consequences of being overweight or obese eating disorders such as binge eating, bulimia and anorexia. In “Bare Bones” (310), Emily Wierenga tells a powerful story of a 12-year-old girl named Carolyn who suffers from anorexia based on her fear of becoming fat. Wierenga’s purpose is to inform the psychological aspects that obesity evokes on one’s body. Anorexia may begin with a desire to diet to lose a few pounds, it also can be a fear of being overweight, but it occurs when the person becomes overly involved in the diet and limits food more than is healthy. In addition, being overweight also causes depression. Many times, people who suffer from obesity often feel they have a low quality of life. Obesity can cause poor self-image, low self-esteem, and social isolation, all known contributors to depression. People experiencing depression overeat or make poor food choices and avoid exercising. Depressed people experience decreased levels of the serotonin have a tendency toward obesity they tend to self-medicate by overeating and restore their normal serotonin levels. Also, obesity also causes lowered self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, most obese individuals feel ‘ugly’ or unattractive. This greatly affects their confidence to interact with people. Psychological issues play significant roles in both the development and consequences of

Girls especially are told that they are supposed to look how famous people look, but are not told how vastly edited and corrected the models in the pictures are. Today, women as young as 11 and 12 have began developing eating disorders due to the constant media bombardment telling them to look a certain way—incredibly skinny—which forces them into starvation. Psychologists have coined the new disorder ‘”body image disturbance syndrome” or BIDS. BIDS is characterized by the incessant feeling of being ‘fat’ when someone is perfectly healthy usually turning to one of two options: anorexia or bulimia. Anorexia is the act of not eating to achieve a body image, but this often results in gross malnourishment. On the other hand, bulimia is characterized by binge eating large meals followed by self-induced vomiting. The motivation behind bulimia is that if they keep the food in their body just long enough to absorb the nutrients, they can vomit the actual bulk of the food that makes them look overweight. The sad reality of the fact is that not only are the nutrients not completely absorbed until they reach the intestines, but the stomach acid brought forth with their vomit virtually rots away their

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), as many as 60 percent of children between ages 6 and 12 worry about weight gain, and half American teens think they’re overweight. (Turner, 2014) Girls want to lose huge amounts of weight because they think they will feel prettier when all there doing is damaging the inside of their body. Among adolescent girls, 1% to 3% have bulimia and 1% have anorexia. Only 5% to 15% of all people with anorexia or bulimia are male. (Harris, 2004) Most young females and males go through some type of eating disorder. A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that more than half a million teens have an eating disorder. (Turner, 2014)

Along with the unrealistic body images on social media it drags along obsession with dieting, food, and appearance in young adolescents creating eating disorders. “Adolescents diagnosed with serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia often report that their symptoms can be linked to the bullying they received from their age peers as well as the unrealistic media images presented as an ideal for them to follow.”(www.phycologytoday.com) The unrealistic body ideal that they feel they need to follow has a big impact on the way teens look at what they are eating, and their weight and shape which can lead to serious eating disorders. “Adolescent females who are unable to conform to the ideal being put forward by movie, television find themselves taking extreme measures to be more like their role models.” (www.phycologytoday.com) Teens feel that it is important to become like their role models that they see on social media and go to extreme measures to become the ideal weight and shape

With children as early as age 7 showing dissatisfaction with their body, and as young as 9 starting dieting, eating disorders are a serious issue in our society. Taking a look at perceptions, behaviors, and medical issues associated with the disorders of anorexia and bulimia, scholars have tried to categorize and find answers to the problems which certain adolescents suffer. In this paper I focused on the two major eating disorders of anorexia and bulimia.

(Gale) However, health issues are not the only challenges an overweight child or adolescent often faces. Obese children often must also deal with many psychological and emotional challenges such as a loss of self-esteem, depression, anxiety. Not only can obesity in childhood create difficulties with social development and interfere with education, but it can also create the opportunity for the children to become victims of harassment and bullying. In addition, as pre-teens hit puberty, obesity can become especially challenging. (Gale) A girl’s concerns about her appearances increase as her body develops and she becomes more aware of society’s views of the “perfect body” as portrayed in the media. Obesity also allows pre-teen girls to be more susceptible to developing an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating. Crash diets or over-excercising can also become an option to pre-teen girls facing obesity. (Gale) From physical to psychological consequences, obesity in children can be especially dangerous for their well-being. Although obesity rates in children and adolescents are over half less than obesity rates in adults, many children are still at high risk. The rates can increase if changes are not made over time and for many, it will develop into adult obesity.

When looking or glancing at a child it may not be seen that they have a behavior disorder. It may be noticed right away. Adolescent behavior disorders can be learned, developed from natural causes, or developed as a result of unnatural stress within a child's environment caused from the parents. To many, a behavioral disorder is not noticed by looking at a child. It is noticed by their actions or speech, observation and how children react in certain situations. Learned behaviors can be from children observing different behaviors within their everyday environments. Naturally developed behaviors can be something a child is born with. Situational or environmental behavior can range from transitioning from place to place or into different routines.

Some adolescents have problems with eating. Several teenagers eat a lot (binge eating), and many of them do not eat enough, which leads to anorexia (Rathus, 2016). Anorexia is an eating disorder that causes the body to experience effects similar to malnutrition and can ultimately lead to death. This eating disorder starves the body of from the things it need to regulate and operated of maximum capacity (Rathus, 2016). Eating disorders has led to schools to have adolescent nutritional

Eating disorders take the lives of millions of teenagers and adults each year, recently becoming the highest mortality rate of any mental illness – but why? Choosing not to eat appears to be a problem with an obvious solution; how could so many Americans be suffering from something that could easily be avoided? The answer is simple — eating disorders are not weight-loss plans gone wrong; they are serious illnesses that pose great health risks. Simply skipping meals does not begin to describe the different aspects of this disease. Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and binge eating are only a few of the many types of eating disorders that effect millions of individuals each year. In most cases, the victims of these illnesses have extremely low self-confidence and view themselves as overweight, regardless of their actual size. Researchers and scientists have gathered different statistics on the causes of abnormal eating habits. While there is no obvious or direct motive, these dietary issues can be the result of

Stereotypes Eating disorders are complex illnesses that are affecting adolescents with increasing frequency. These illnesses are abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake and which have as consequence the detriments of the individual's physical and mental health. We live in a society in which is shown that happiness and success come on thin and gorgeous people. Skinny models in fashion magazine and on publicities are one of the main causes of eating disorders on teenagers. During adolescence, a particularu vulnerable time to the development of an eating disorder, the influence of peers are very important.

Young girls are more easily attained to anorexia and said to be more influenced by an obsession of appearance and thinness. Due to fashion icons, friends and self esteem. Young boys who engage in sports where weight is a main concern and has limits, also may be compelled to restrict food intake to make “the weight.” Eating disorders are a series of emotional and physical addictions. They show conditions of food obsession, weight appearance to where it affects their job, daily routine and relationships. Causes can be mood swings, physical, and mental problems. Aswell, as death(eatingdisorderfoundation,n,p) Eating disorders has affected about 10 million females in the U.S of all ages(eatingdisorderfoundation,n,p). Whether a person restricts food intake, binges, abuses laxatives, excessively exercises or overeats, they often develop a dangerous impulsive and self destructive behavior that leads to psychological damage. THe Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published results proving that children under 12 years of age with an eating disorder doubled between 1999 and now. It is an obvious yeary growing issue that must be

The lack of exposing young people to this information has caused teens to not seek help.“Suicide is the second main reason for 13-19-year-old deaths.”

From a sociological perspective the reason for why an adolescent is involved in delinquent behavior is because they lack the attachment to the parents. Certainly, Hirschi theory involves other three components to social theory and of course they play a role towards the delinquent behavior. An adolescent just doesn’t act upon a delinquent behavior without having any reason to it. As a child grows up mostly all parents help aid their child to follow into a good path. Not everyone is so fortunate to be given that help. Some children lack the guidance to behave in a positive way. Not having someone to guide them in way to do good in school and life can have certain consequences like being involved in delinquent behavior. They would think that no one cares in what their involved. At the same time they may be around peers that are not a good influence on them. Not to mention, adolescents go through a phase where they intend to misbehave. This certainly, contributes to them getting involved in delinquent behavior. Teens are usually hanging out together with friends and at time get peer pressure to do stuff that isn’t good. If, they have someone to guide them in the direction in not being involved in that type of activity is good both for the parent and child.