Eating Disorders Among Young Adults

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.

Eating disorders are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes an individual to change their eating habits and their behaviour. There are several types of eating disorders that can effect an individual physically, psychologically and socially. The two eating disorders which I will be discussing is anorexia and bulimia.

According to The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website, eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses causing serve disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. People with eating disorders often have obsessions with food, their body weight, and their shape. There is, however, a difference between an eating disorder and a diet. It is important to know the difference. Eating disorders are a daily struggle for 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States (Eating Disorder Hope). An eating disorder is a compulsion to avoid eating in order to lose weight while a diet is cutting down eating or healthier eating in order to lose weight. The three types of an eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. All three disorders are important and they all deserve immediate treatment. No matter what eating disorder someone has, it can resort in organ damage and sometimes even death.

An eating disorder is an illness some people suffer from due to an obsession with food, body image, or weight. These people struggle to have control over their bodies even if it means making decision that affects their overall health. Having a severe disturbance in eating habits and related thoughts and emotions can lead to death. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness according to Eating Disorder Statistics. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are two of the most common types of eating disorders in the United

Eating disorders are very dangerous disorders that affect mostly women. Women are very insecure about their bodies and will do anything to stay skinny. With women trying to remain skinny, they starve themselves or even vomit after eating. Women are taught from a very young age what their bodies are suppose to look like. From supermodels to celebrities, they portray a skinny and pretty woman, which gives little girls a false sense of what a woman should look like. A girl is very impressionable and instead of maintaining a healthy body weight, she starves herself to fit the image of what others want. Society instead of portraying healthy bodies are set on the thought that skinner is better and that healthier is not the way to go. Eating disorders

Eating disorder affects the man, woman of all age, race and background. Food which we consume provides nutritional support for the body. It contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are necessary for the body to function properly. Not eating enough or overeating leads to serious illness. When the calorie intake is more than requirement leads to overweight or obese and less than requirement leads to underweight or malnutrition. It is very important to make a balance between all these nutrients to maintain proper body shape. So, we can say that eating disorder directly affect our body

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.

Eating disorders are complex illnesses that are affecting adolescents with increasing frequency [1]. They rank as the third most common chronic illness in adolescent females, with an incidence of up to 5% 1, 2 and 3. Three major subgroups are recognized: a restrictive form in which food intake is severely limited (anorexia nervosa); a bulimic form in which binge-eating episodes are followed by attempts to minimize the effects of overeating via vomiting, catharsis, exercise, or fasting (bulimia nervosa); and a third group in which all the criteria for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa are not met. The latter group, often called “eating disorder not otherwise specified” or EDNOS, constitutes the majority of patients seen in referral centers treating adolescents [4]. Eating disorders are associated with serious biological, psychological, and sociological morbidity and significant mortality. Unique features of adolescents and the developmental process of adolescence are critical considerations in determining the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of eating disorders in this age group. This position statement represents a consensus from Adolescent Medicine specialists from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia regarding the diagnosis and management of eating disorders in adolescents. In keeping with the practice guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association [5] and the American Academy of Pediatrics [6], this statement integrates evidence-based medicine,

The three main types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating, are complex pschyatriac disorders. The classification and diagnosis of each disorder is challenging because diagnostic symptoms and behaviours overlap. These disorders consist of various biological, psychological and sociological factors. They frequently coexist with other illnesses such as depression, substance abuse, or anxiety disorders. (ANAD) Eating disorders are commonly associated with young women, however up to 24 million people of all ages, genders and ethnicity suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S.

Young girls that look up to models have a warped sense of beauty as the models are heavily photo shopped along with being far too thin to be considered healthy. Some other possible factors for developing anorexia “…range from genetic predisposition to advertising, peer pressure, the need and wish to be perfect and much more” (Schwartz, 2011). The need to be perfect can be a major cause for not only developing an eating disorder but also to develop other mental illnesses such as depression. The symptoms of anorexia “… are ultimate attempts to cope with seemingly unmanageable emotions by achieving perfectionism and control” (“Anorexia symptoms and effects”). Some reasons why people do slowly starve themselves and develop anorexia is because

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.

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.

From an extremely young age, the media engraves into our heads that skinny is the only pretty. Everywhere you look there are advertisements trying to make you change yourself. "Get rid of cellulite now!" "Lose 10 pounds in less than two weeks!" "Get rid of wrinkles with this anti aging cream!" All that on top of all the stick thin, clear faced models exclusively being displayed in magazines and beauty commercials then the actresses always portraying the protagonist that finds love. It all sends a sad message: you're worth a whole lot less if you're not thin and society's perception of beautiful.

Eating disorders incorporate physical and emotional harm caused by awareness put on eating and food complications by men and women, having potential life-threatening results on both sides. The different sorts of eating disorders consist of: Anorexia- An eating disorder causes people to obsess over their weight and what they are consuming. People with this disorder usually starve themselves and they lose an excessive amount of weight. The effects of this disorder are:

Eating disorders, body image and gender remain as a very complex interlinked web. Eating disorders affect people from all demographics and are caused by multiple factors. They arise from a combination of a long-standing biological, behavioural, emotional, interpersonal, psychological as well as social factors. Research also suggests that eating disorders impacts some segments of the LGBTQ populations as well.