Eating Disorders Among Children And Teens

Topic: What is causing young adults and teens to develop eating disorders and how can we help them?

In the past few decades researchers have focused on eating disorders, the causes of these disorders and how they can be treated. However, it has mainly been in the last decade that researchers have started looking at eating disorders in children, the reasons why these disorders are developing at such a young age, and the best recovery program for these young people. To understand this growing problem it is necessary to ask a few important questions:

Many young women suffer from eating disorders. Criticized and shamed by the many for their body, weight, and looks, insecurities are abundant in these women. Especially female celebrities, whom are constantly held to unreachable standards by the public. These insecurities can lead to a plethora of psychological problems or disorders, including eating disorders. An eating disorder is defined as “an illness that causes serious disturbances to your everyday diet, such as eating extremely small amounts of food or severely overeating” by the National Institution of Mental Health. In the past few years, many celebrities have come out as suffering from an eating disorder, one of the more recent to be the pop star Kesha.

Many children and adolescents not only express dissatisfaction with their figure, shape and weight, but also exhibit disordered eating behavior, such as binge eating (eating a large amount of food with a sense of lack of control), food restriction, laxative abuse and vomiting. For children and adolescents, eating disorders can overlap in many instances. As an example, some children alternate between periods of anorexia and bulimia. Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood. However, research has shown that they can start in childhood, too. Females are much more vulnerable. Only an estimated 5% to 15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male. With binge eating, the number rises to 35%

Forty-three published abstracts were retrieved from PubMed database and three were retrieved from CINAHL database, for a total of 46 articles for potential inclusion in the review. Three duplicates were then removed, yielding 43 articles for potential inclusion. Two articles were excluded because they are commentaries. Three articles were excluded because they are reviews. One article was excluded because it is a case study. 14 articles were excluded because they do not include a mindful eating intervention. Two articles were excluded because they do not focus on weight or weight-related co-morbidities. One article was excluded because it focuses on anorexia nervosa or bulimia. One article was

In 2010, Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, age 18, began a hard journey of rehabilitation due to the eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, which causes one to binge eat and then purge because of poor body image. She has suffered since she was a child with bulimia nervosa because of heritability and social pressures. Demi’s mother and grandmother both suffered from bulimia, so it became Demi’s way of life. Not only was her eating disorder influenced by her genetics, but also because of the beauty pageants she participated in when she was younger. Eating disorders among celebrities aren’t out of the ordinary because of the constant fear of being removed from the public eye due to unsightly weight gain. They must hold up a certain image to stay “on top” and many believe they can’t without either remaining a constant weight or losing the excess.

The four sections that follow review the article “A qualitative study of transgender individuals experiences in residential addiction treatment settings: stigma and inclusivity” by Lyons, T. Shannon, K., Pierre, L., Small, W., Krüsi, A., Kerr, T. (2015).

I thought the chapter in the textbook about eating disorders was very interesting. This is a very real and current issue in our country today. And as I learned in the reading, it affects many countries throughout the world, not just the United States. According to the PsychWatch section on page 281, “Eating Disorders Across the World”, non-Western countries are starting to be exposed to more Western and United States television and magazine advertisements, and this is resulting in more cases of eating disorders in these countries. Both men and women are affected by anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. The statistics show that more women than men have these eating disorders. But it is hard to say if this is true, or if just more women seek help.

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.

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.

Eating disorders are one of society’s most debilitating physical and psychological problems faced today. In the 1950s Marilyn Monroe was society’s role model, but would now be considered a plus-sized model and somewhat unattractive in society’s eyes (Steinem 5). Now in 2013, Demi Lovato, a pop singer, plays a huge role as a role model for young people, but has recently told the media that she suffers from anorexia nervosa and embraces it, ultimately showing adolescents that eating disorders are socially acceptable and even often encouraged (Cotliar 80). The psychological effects that eating disorders have on a patient can be very detrimental to themselves and often push the patient farther into the disorder than she could ever have

Brewerton, Timothy D. "Eating disorders, trauma, and comorbidity: Focus on PTSD." Eating disorders 15.4 (2007): 285-304.

Lady Gaga said she has had bulimia since she was 15. She said ¨I lived with people who had eating disorders when I was a teenager. I went to an all girls boarding school and somebody very close to me suffered from bulimia for many years. It’s a much misunderstood disease. Because people who have bulimia don’t lose as much weight as those suffering from anorexia, it’s difficult to spot. But there are signs¨ lady gaga (i did copy paste this because its a qoute)

What is the definition of an eating disorder? Why does it affect so many of American young teens? Many individuals would believe that an eating disorders are a fad diet or an experiment to lose weight, but they are serious complex disorders that can take many years to recover from. Per statics eating disorders affect five percent of women and one percent of men in the United States. The South Carolina Mental Health Department reports that five to ten percent of girls with eating disorders will die within ten years of having the disease ("Eating Disorder Statistics," 2006). Individual whom is concern about their body imagine and low self-esteem the individuals will turn to food by over eating or not eating at all. Moreover, Doctors and Scientist have shown that eating disorder is a mental illness that individuals develop over an extend period.

In the article by Christopher Fairburn and Paul Harrison, it summarizes what is an eating disorder, what types are there, and how it can start or happen. The article says that there are three types of eating disorders; the first type is Anorexia Nervosa, which is describes someone with a desire to reach a very low weight by restricting food intake. The second type is Bulimia Nervosa which is described as after attempting to restrict food intake, one losses control and consumes an unusually large amount of food, the repeatedly binges. The last type is Atypical Eating Disorder which doesn’t have an exact definition, but is often a variation of the two or even a mix of both anorexia and bulimia; Fairburn and Harrison claim that there hasn’t been