Adolescent Eating Disorders

Eating disorders, a range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits is a growing problem. The three most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and Bulimia Nervosa. Eating disorders currently affect 25 million Americans. (allianceforeatingdisordes.com) Children under 12 who were hospitalized for an eating disorder increased by 119% between 1999 and 2006 (Fox News). While males are affected by eating disorders, 75% of people affected are female. One group of the population that is largely affected are teenage girls.

Eating is a basic survival behavior. To many people eating is a way of life, brining families together, creating relationships and bonds between people and is an expression of feelings and emotions. But there are negative aspects to food as well, such as obesity and other eating disorders. Eating disorders are very dehabilitating and misunderstood disorders that affect an unbelievable amount of the population; they not only put strain on the body, but also on the mind, and often the families of those with an eating disorder. There is a wider range of eating disorders in childhood and adolescence than is commonly realized, and these are frequently either not recognized or misdiagnosed. With children as early as age seven showing

The United States has a high incidence of obesity, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Obesity also known as overweight is having excessive body mass above the normal weight for the child’s age and sex. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia is an emotional disorder characterized by body imagines and the fear of gaining weight. However, people who are anorexia refused to eat in order to control their weight. On the other hand, people who are bulimia consume a large amount of food within a short of period of time. Then they begin to purge, fast or exercise right away because they feel shameful or guilt for eating an abundance of food. Overall, there are cultural influences that contribute to eating-related disorders in teenagers.

America is a society obsessed with focusing on weight, as we should be since we have the highest obesity rates in the world. However, damaging things can occur from this obsession with maintaining the ideal weight and demanding to be thin. This is a crisis for adolescents especially since they are in a state of imaginary audience which causes them to be extremely self conscious (Beck, Myer). With the constant fear of being judged many will develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Psychology Today reports that “Eating disorders were reported to be the third most common illness classified as ‘chronic’ for adolescents in 2000”. All of these disorders can be life threatening to adolescents especially since South Carolina Department of Mental Health found that, “95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25”, with anorexia nervosa being extremely popular among those ages.

Many people suffer from many different types of disorders. But one that is on the rise is Binge Eating Disorder or B.E.D. for short. Binge Eating is caused by many different factors such as biological, social, and physiological problems. It is important to understand these causes because they lead to many negative effects. Some of these effects include obesity, low self-esteem, and depression. Binge eating creates a vicious cycle that a person usually cannot escape from.

In America, many teenagers are suffering with multiple eating disorders. Once they begin to monitor what to eat, they tend to perform many exercise routines followed by the lack of not eating, these situations should be alarming to the parent that something is not right. Thus, what can we do to resolve this situation among teens? Parents should first become informed towards the issue which their child is facing and take action immediately to save their child from the dangerous activities. It is important for them to realize that their child is in great danger once they begin to do any of these tasks. Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are psychological problems which mostly affect teenagers and causes them to become conscious about their

This research task is based on the prevalence of eating disorders amongst teenage girls in our School amongst the ages of 15-18. This is a valid topic as being a teenage female in an all-girls school; it is a very easily relatable topic. I am interested to find out about the prevalence of eating disorders in my school and ultimately in helping the girls who are suffering from a disorder and are not getting the sufficient help that is needed when one if suffering from Bulimia or Anorexia Nervosa.

For many years now people think that being really skinny will make them more successful and attractive. People tend to think this way because of the media. We see models and celebrities who are all very skinny and also attractive and successful. With our society seeing famous people look like that it makes people take drastic measures to become skinny like them. Some people just don’t eat, others eat too much and then they make themselves throw up, and others don’t eat and then go exercise too much. Also we live in a society that is surrounded by food. In the United States there is a fast food restaurant on almost every corner and yet there is still an issue with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating.

Eating disorders in children and teens cause serious changes in their health. Eating disorders are characteristics and cause by eating behaviors, also people with this disorder use eating, purging or restructuring with their issues. Eating disorders is divided into three parts as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating, etc (Eating Disorders,n.d.).Eating disorders can overlap between and alternate of anorexia and bulimia. Eating disorders around the adolescence, but it can also start in childhood. Girls with bulimia nervosa fall within their normal range of body weight, but to them some girls feel that they are overweight. Almost 25 percent of females have bulimia in their lifetime. There are many celebrities who suffer from eating disorders while coming up in Hollywood or currently battling the disorder. Like, former pop singer/ performer Lady Gaga struggled with bulimia and anorexia while beginning her career. Another singer name Kesha, has recently been treated for an unspecified eating disorder (n.d.). Karen Carpenter, a former singer, died from cardiac arrest at the age of 32, for years she suffer from severe anorexia. Another singer name Demi Lovato, has become one of the most outspoken about her mental issues within her eating disorder (n.d.). Sharon Osbourne, wife of Ozzy Osbourne and former ‘The Talk’ host, Sharon has struggled with bulimia for over 30 years. Another famous daytime talk show host, Oprah Winfrey is a sufferer of disordered eating.

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that involve an obsession with food, extremely unhealthy eating behaviors and a distorted body image. They are complicated, serious disorders. The group that eating disorders affects the most are typically girls through the ages of sixteen and twenty years old. Although teenage eating disorders are typically believed to be caused by depression or genetic factors, social media has worsened the problem by the huge increase in peer pressure girls endure due to the widespread use of sites such as Twitter and Instagram.

According to Melinda Smith and Jeanne Segal (2017), a person suffering from binge eating disorder overeats regularly while feeling out of control and powerless to stop. Sufferers may eat to the point of discomfort, then will have feelings of guilt, shame, or depression afterwards, they beat themselves up for lack of self-control, or worry about what compulsive eating will do to their body. It is a common eating disorder and typically begins in late adolescence or early adulthood. Binge eating is a vicious cycle. People who have this disorder eat large amounts of food to feel better, later on feeling even worse and then turning back to food for relief. The worse they feel about their apperance, the more they use food to cope. (Melinda Smith,

Today every girl wants to be “perfect” or be close to perfect. One of the requirements is to have a nice body. It is easy for any girl to reach this goal by changing their diet. Girls often have to deal with many different issues such as eating disorders, low-self esteem, body image issues and so on. Many of these issues are influenced by all the advertisement on social media. Some girls are not aware of the consequences that they will have to face after “fixing” their bodies. There are different ways teen girls harm their bodies such as eating and then purging which is called bulimia nervosa. Another eating disorder is starvation which is known as anorexia nervosa. Anorexia in teenage girls is very important to be aware of because young women

Eating disorders a common problem among many teens across the United States. This mental disease not only affects young teen girls, but also grown women and men of all ages. There are four different types of eating disorders; bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, binge eating and eating disorders not specified.

In July, 2014 an education article was written by Michael W. Roberts, DDS, MScD and Travis M. Hicks, DDS, MS called “Warning Signs”. Both show similar research interests in the risks and the management of adolescents with eating disorders. The funding provided was supplied by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry. The ultimate goal of this research was to educate dental professionals on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and how to identify the predisposing factors.

Teen obesity is a major issue in the world that is rapidly increasing especially in the United States. It has now become one of the most serious health challenges of the 21st century according to unitypoint.org. In the last 3 decades, teen obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled among adolescents. Why you might ask. Well, children become overweight and obese for a variety of reasons. The most common causes are genetic factors, lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these factors. Only in rare cases is being overweight caused by a medical condition such as a hormonal problem says webmd.com.