Eating Disorders Affecting American Women

It has been found that eating disorders are most common in the western and industrialized culture where food is abundant. This is because these individuals attach a lot of importance to their physical appearance and are willing to do anything to get the dream figure. An eating disorder is not just watching what one eats and exercising on a daily basis but is rather an illness that causes serious disturbances in eating behaviour, such as great and harmful cutback of the consumption of food as well as feelings of serious anxiety about their body shape or mass. They would start to stop themselves to go out anywhere just so that they could work out and burn all of the calories of a meal or snack that they had scoffed earlier. Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The regular description of a patient with either disease would be a youthful white female, with an upper social standing in a predictably socially competitive environment.

Food. It is essential for survival. Without it, people die. However, oddly enough, many struggle to live without it to accomplish the standards that our culture has created for us. We are taught that being thin is perfection and will lead to a happier life. However, lurking are the health risks that one pays for obtaining the “perfect body”. Still, along with a distorted body image, others struggle with keeping weight down and fall into the diet fads that the world parades. From movies, magazines, and television, the media also sends us messages that being fat is bad and unhealthy while being thin and beautiful is acceptable. The impact of such influences has increased eating disorders in America. These disorders do not

In America today, there are unrealistic beauty standards women must face daily. When women can not meet this idea of perfection pushed by society, some women will risk their health just to fit a cultural stigma. Women are held to an insanely high criterion when it comes to beauty which tends to lead to negative body image. Ten percent of women in The United States of America report symptoms consistent with eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Which concludes that a total of 75 percent of all American women endorse some unhealthy thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to food or their body image-UNC Medical Department Although eating disorders are not subjective to women only, after reading “Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism” Marni Grossman and “Feminism and Anorexia: A Complex Alliance” Su Holmes, I will discuss how eating disorders coexist in the lives of women who struggle with body image, and what feminism can do to give these women a second chance.

She explores the reality of eating disorders, the misconceptions often held behind it, and provides information on various prevailing reasons that lead to them. According to Bordo, eating disorders “have to do not only with new social expectations of women and ambivalence toward their bodies but also with more general anxieties about the body as the source of hungers, needs, and physical vulnerabilities [are] not within our control” (par.5). In addition, as a Professor on Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky, Bordo is likely familiar with the causes that push women, and even men, to change aspects and features about themselves based on the changing themes and views of society and culture. In consideration then, some people probably develop eating disorders as a result for their correspondence to the current trends of society. Consumer culture is among one of the aspects of society that frequently undergoes change. Bordo builds on this likely candidate and explains how consumer culture is a likely link to eating disorders. She remarks that consumer culture is “continually encouraging us to binge on our desires at the same time as it glamorizes self-discipline and scorns fat as a symbol of laziness and [a] lack of willpower” (par.5). By tying

The two most common eating disorders are bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Both disorders, primarily affect young women, therefore the majority of the research on eating disorders has been done with women subjects. The onset of bulimia is between adolescence and early adulthood while the onset of anorexia is between early and late adolescence. Not only is the onset different but the disorders are unique. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by loss of control over eating which leads to food binges. These episodes are interspersed with episodes of purging, such as vomiting or laxative abuse, to keep weight down. The goal of anorexia is also to keep weight down , but to a

Bulimia has cost the lives of many around the world, but it still does not seem to stop spreading its influence. This type of eating disorder shares similar emotional triggers found in those suffering from anorexia and excess fasting. “This illness is associated with premorbid perfectionism, introversion, poor peer relations, and low self-esteem.” (Garfinkel) Of course, these characteristics are a direct result of the person’s environment. As stated by Pigott once she got back home from her trip to Africa, “ I reverted to my natural state: one of yearning to be slimmer and more fit than I was. My freedom had been temporary. I was home, where fat is feared and despised.” (Pigott, C., pg.93) Bulimia, unlike anorexia, is characterized by a person binge-eating, or consuming a large amount of food in a short time lapse, but then “purging” themselves by either “self-inducing vomiting, taking enemas, or abusing laxatives or other medications.” (“The Eating Disorder Foundation”) This eating disorder is known to cause depression, kidney damage, dental damage, and anxiety disorders if left untreated. (“The Eating Disorder Foundation”) Despite its devastating effects, bulimia cases worldwide are increasing rapidly, showing the public’s ignorance in choosing to conform with the norm rather than taking care of themselves.

Eating disorders have become an increasing public health problem once thought to be an affliction amongst young women, now an epidemic across culture and gender boundaries. Anorexia gives rise to serious socio-economic and bio-psychological circumstances of our ever vast, growing society. Awareness of eating disorders have increased but perhaps only in proportion to its advancement of its research and treatment. That which still leaves us in a position for a much greater demand for education and heightened awareness of this perplexing disease.

Eating disorders may not seem like it’s that big of a deal. In America, we hear about a lot about people who contract illnesses such as cancer, but eating disorders isn’t talked about much. Over thirty million people suffer from these mental illnesses, such as anorexia or bulimia. Even though these disorders have the highest life span of any mental illness, they can lead to death due to organ failure, heart failure, starvation, or even go as far as committing suicide. Things such as peer pressure, sports, body image, and low-self esteem can drive teenagers towards eating disorders.

Bulimia is categorized as “frequent episodes of binge eating, followed by frantic efforts to avoid gaining weight.” (Barston). People will throw up, use laxatives, and/or excessively work out to avoid gaining weight. Many people who diet fall under what is called the binge and purge cycle. It starts off with strict dieting, which leads to tension and cravings.

The woman in this video meets the DSM 5 criteria for bulimia. She engages in binges for 6-10 hours where she will go to multiple restaurants to eat or binge at home where it is common for bulimics to consume 3,400 to even 10,000 calories per episode. Bulimics also engage in compensatory behaviors in order to relieve the uncomfortable feelings of fullness and reduce anxiety attached to binge eating. This patient engages in these compensatory behaviors by vomiting in order to undo the effects of a binge. Lastly, a bulimic pattern will begin after a time of dieting. This woman said her bulimia began after one of her diets ended. She felt happy when she vomited because it helped her to maintain the weight she had struggled to lose.

According to the DSM-5, eating disorders are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating–related behavior that results in non-normative eating patterns which leads to impaired physical and psychosocial functioning, (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating with inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Binge eating is described as eating an amount of food definitely larger than normal with a sense of lack of control. Compensatory behaviors include misuse of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, diuretics, fasting and excessive exercise, (Comer, 2014) . Another key feature is

Binge eating disorder (BED) is a “severe, life-threatening and treatable eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food (often very quickly and to the point of discomfort); a feeling of a loss of control during the binge; experiencing shame, distress, or guilt afterwards; and not regularly using unhealthy compensatory measures (purging) to counter the binge eating” (NEDA 1). This disorder effects people of all genders, races, and ages. This disorder also happens to be the most common eating disorder among the people of the United States. Often times people get this disorder mixed up with another eating disorder called Bulimia. The difference is that with bulimia people purge after every meal they eat (by means of vomiting, excessive exercising or with the use of laxatives). But people with BED usually do not do unhealthy things, such as purging. Instead they feel guilty about the amount of food they ate and will not eat for an extended period of time, which can cause more binges to occur.

Studies have shown that three percent of males and eight percent of females who were in high school said that they have either purged or took laxatives to lose weight (3). The symptoms of bulimia are tooth erosion, swallowing problems, esophagus problems, and acute stomach distress (“Eating Disorders”). However, binge eating disorder is completely opposite from anorexia and bulimia. Binge eating is when a person over eats in a short period of time. According to Susan Frissell and Paula Harney, two percent of the population suffers from binge eating disorder (27). Studies show that depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and stomach pain is found in many people who suffer from binge eating disorder (Elkins 45; Kittleson 4). Many people will develop binge eating disorder because they want to distract themselves from a painful event that has happened in their life (Frissell and Harney 27).

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that can be caused or triggered by psychological factors. These factors usually have to do with the victim’s need for control. A bulimic person is likely to have episodes of binge eating followed by their own method of weight control. Some of these methods include vomiting, extreme exercise, fasting and excessive uses of laxatives. The bulimic will binge eat, then vomit, then repeat the cycle as often they feel is necessary. Although bulimia occurs in males, it is most commonly found in girls of later adolescence and early adulthood. As girls become older and hit puberty, many emotions and concerns about their body figure begin to develop. Society can make girls feel like they need to lose weight in order

Bulimia Nervosa is another eating disorder discussed in the DSM-5 (2013), that is most prevalent in later adolescence and young adulthood in females (p. 437). In order for one to be diagnosed, one must meet four criterion. Criteria A is recurrent episodes of binge eating characterized by the following; eating in a discrete period of time (2 hours), and amount of food that is larger than most individuals would eat in a similar period and the second a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (DSM-v, 2013, p. 346). Women who are bulimic tend to eat a vast amount of food in a short period of time just to purge as a result. This intensity it of consuming, must happen in a moderate amount of time in order to be considered bulimic. Better understood by Abraham (2008) she states,” an episode of binge eating occurs when the woman’s resistance to eating fails and she has an irresistible desire to eat” (p. 280). This type of behavior represents a sense of lack of control. Women who binge have a hard time stopping and controlling what and how much they are consuming.