Eating Disorders Can Be Generally Characterized By Any Range Of Abnormal Or Disturbed Eating Habits

Eating disorders are mental disorders that can have a serious physical complications. There are two main types of eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. These are complex disorders focusing on issues of eating, body weight, body shape. People who intentially starve themselves suffer from an eating disorder called anorexia this disorder usually begins in young people around the time of puberty, involves extreme weight loss due to starving themselves . People with bulimia consume large amounts of food and then rid there bodies of the excess calories by vomiting abusing laxatives, taking enemas or over exercising.

Eating Disorders we think about are, Anorexia Nervosa, and Bulimia Nervosa. Binge Eating Disorder is lesser known however all three can affect males and females (Gray & Zide, 2013). A definition of an eating disorder is an illness that is characterized by irregular eating habits and an obsession with body weight and shape. This leads the person to develop habits surrounding inadequate or excessive food intake. Eating disorders may develop at any age, but typically develops during teen and early adult years. Eating disorders frequently coexist with other disorders such as, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and depression.

Anorexia is an eating disorder that struggles with the fear of gaining weight and refuses to be healthy. Another eating disorder is Bulimia, which is when you overeat followed by forced vomiting and excessive exercise. Binge Eating is one of the most common eating disorders along with Anorexia and Bulimia, Binge eating is when you lose control over one’s eating. All of these common eating disorders all suffer from guilt or depression. “Individuals with bulimia and binge eating eat large amounts of food to reduce stress” (CEDC). They also could have risky behaviors, such as dealing with drugs or alcohol or even death. People with Anorexia or Bulimia are very concerned with being overweight or in other words fat.

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.

The movie “Dying To Be Thin” follows the lives of multiple different girls who are suffering through an eating disorder. The movie shows how extreme an eating disorder can be and how serious this addiction is. We were also able to see different types of treatments that can be used to help these girls. There are many different types of eating disorders and Dying To Be Thin shows the characteristics of each different disorder.

Eating disorders are characterized by gross disturbances in eating behavior and include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorders not otherwise specified(NOS), and binge eating disorder. Also, several researchers have coined the term anorexia athletics.

According to the DSM-IV-TR the Diagnostic criteria for eating disorder are broken into two major disorders. The first disorder, Anorexia

To briefly summarize, “Dying to Be Thin” was a documentary sharing the stories of young females suffering with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is an emotional disorder where an individual starves themselves in order to lose weight. Bulimia nervosa is another eating disorder where the individual binges enormous amounts of food at a time and then forces vomiting. In both cases, the diseases are very harmful to the human body and can ultimately lead to death if untreated.

Walking into the library at most high schools brings to the eye an array of fashion magazines in the front shelves. Most schools acknowledges that fashion has a large audience, but the skinnier and skinnier models have created a large group of people with eating disorders and bad self-images. In her article “What’s Wrong with Skinny?” that discusses eating disorders linked to the fashion industry, Lisa Hilton states that women are “so pathologically stupid that they are unable to distinguish the fantasy of the runway from the realities of their own bodies”. Fashion is something that many girls let influence them into changing how they dress, feel, and eat; the skinnier the models are (or are “retouched” to look), the more it supports eating

Women in the American society become so obsessed with the idea of being thin and looking like the magazine models that they will go to extremes in order to achieve their goal. In other words, the obsession can sometimes lead them right into an eating disorder. However, solutions to these illnesses do exist.

Television make it clear to see that if one is not thin, he hardly can be noticed. Iт many films, there are scenes, where the girl eats at first, but later vomits. This disorder is called bulimia. As a reason, many of girls consider this way as the best one in order to lose weight. Moreover, television and magazines present a lot of ways and medicines for people to be thin. As a reason, people are ready to buy anything to be thin, that, in further, may destroy their health. Furthermore, magazines with thin stars on the cover page do not encourage young people to love themselves in the way they are. Eating disorder as anorexia may in further lead to a number of medical conditions, including dangerously low blood pressure, damage of the kidneys and liver. In conclusion, any of eating disorders request a long treatment, support of the family of the patient and a great desire of the patient to recover. That is needed in order to start a new life and take a fresh look at the problem without a need to be loved by other people, but to be loved by oneself at

In our modern culture, thin is in as the beauty standard. There has been an increase in eating disorders mainly in women with an increase in men. Through the media we see many thin women and that is seen as healthy and beautiful. In the modeling industry, being bone thin is seen as beautiful when in reality is a very sick and dangerous weight to be at. Through Hollywood and the media we are seeing many women who do not fit in this “beauty glove” as overweight and they shame them for it. This message is exposed and sometimes thrust into the faces and brains of children and teenagers. Many women are not happy with their current weight and would like to lose weight because they are unhappy with their body image or are being shamed for not fitting into the beauty standard

Anorexia nervosa- Lack or loss of appetite, Also a mental condition made by the person. Many women, children, and young men suffer from this. Bulimia nervosa - an emotional disorder involving distortion of body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight, in which bouts of extreme overeating are followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. is 1.5% in women and 0.5% in men. This translates to approximate 4.7 million females and 1.5 million males suffer from bulimia nervosa.

According to the National Eating Disorder Association the media has a major influence on what a woman’s body should look like. Every print and television advertisement suggests that the ideal body is extremely thin. However, most women cannot achieve having a super-thin body that the media favors. The resulting failure leads to negative feelings about one’s self and can begin a downward spiral toward an eating disorder (National Eating Disorders Association).

The HBO documentary, “Thin,” takes place at a Renfrew Treatment Center and goes into the lives of four women with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Through the challenges of weigh-ins,