Eating Disorders: The Role Of Anorexia In Social Media

Although it may be difficult, when ex- anorexics come out about their experiences, it helps anorexics struggling with themselves and social media. Kerry Hooton, aged 19 at the time, told the Daily Mail about her story while being an anorexic. She exclaimed, “’I have never compared myself to celebrities, it has always been the average person and I believe social media has heightened the ability to allow myself and others to do this’” (Waterlow). Hooton described her main cause of anorexia was the photos that she was seeing on her social media feed. In that moment in time, she didn’t see that it would have been easier to unfollow them because she thought it was motivation for her to be that skinny. At the same time an ex- anorexic, Emma Woolf,

Anorexia is a terrible disorder that ravages the body as it seems to bring comfort to the mind. A female anorexic tends to lose mostly body fat. Men primarily lose muscle tissue and tone. As this is destroyed it takes its toll on the body. Bone loss, heart muscle loss, and anemia are just a few of the ways this disorder affects the body. The two main causes of death with Anorexia are cardiac arrest and terminal dehydration. These are typically brought on by complications of starving the body of required nutrients for long periods of time.

Various studies have demonstrated that when women are shown both photographs or TV commercials with extremely slender models they indicate an increase in dissatisfaction with their body (Crouch & Degelman, 1998). A study regarding social media specifically, was conducted by researchers at the University of Haifa on 248 girls ages 12 to 19; they found that the more time girls spent looking at pictures on Facebook, the more they suffered from eating disorders such as Anorexia, as well as other conditions including a heightened urge to diet and lose weight (University of Haifa, 2011). Media access is

When I first heard about this idea of anorexia, I thought it was some magical formula that could make you skinny without doing any work. Of course that work was actually starving yourself, but everything I read made it seem effortless. That is something that Osgood brings up in her book. Being a Millennial, the internet was always just a click away. I was able to come across countless testimonies of people with anorexia and how it really did change their lives. What is shocking, however, is the amount of chat sites, websites, internet forums, and social media groups that actively promoted eating disorders, as well as images and links to thousands of “thinspiration” posters and quotes. Like Osgood states, the community glamourizes eating disorders into something that is not harmful to the body and easy to do. I remember finding how-to sites on being anorexic with one site even giving a step-by-step guide on how to hide the signs of eating disorders from your family, how to overcome feeling faint, and making the most out of your starvation. Looking back now I realize I how absurd and harmful they actually are, but at the time I actively followed their recommendations. Some of

An analysis done by the National Institute of Health revealed, that plenty of Pro-Anorexia or "Thinspiration" websites and blogs support extreme weight loss and eating disorders, masquerade as fitness inspiration websites. This caused plenty of body dysmorphia sufferers to restrict their diets, which is potentially hazardous as the content should supposedly be devoted to healthy pursuits. Social media is also an outlet where a person can be exposed to body shaming, which serves as a trigger for those already suffering from the

Eating disorders affect many childrens, teens and adults around the world. This a serious illness that people are not happy about their appearance and wishes to change their body figure in order to have the perfectation body shapes. Some may change their figures for themselves or for their peers. It is sad to see an anorexic person with an health issues that they only sees themselves as obese but, in reality their are underweight. Losing weight to make themselves be obsessed to what is define as a beautiful body type. They sees others as normal and beautiful but to themselves, they are unhappy and want to do almost anything to reach their goal of happiness. People with this illness need all the support because it is

There are many causes behind why people suffer from anorexia. The first one would be that it is genetics that involves the risk for some sort of eating disorder. This would make a person more vulnerable to having this mental illness more than someone without these genetic factors. Another common cause is that someone in a person's family suffers from anorexia. This allows a person to become adjusted to this mental illness, thinking of it as a social norm. They don't understand the risk factors involving anorexia. Although social media does have an effect on some types of eating disorders, it has been proven that anorexia is indeed a biological illness, and the best treatment that can come from this is a biological approach.

Eating disorders are defined as any range of psychological disorders, characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits. And in today’s society these disorders are fairly common. Anorexia is a disorder characterized by a desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. And bulimia is a 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. Statistically the disorders found highly in today’s youth are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Sadly 1 in 200 women suffer from anorexia and 3 in 100 suffer from bulimia. Even more disappointing than that, 86% of teenagers feel less confident about their bodies after looking at social media. Social media may not be the cause of all eating disorders, but it is definitely adding fuel to the fire, making more and more teenagers insecure about themselves. Although people, especially teens, have always been obsessed with the physical aspects of other people, comparing themselves to unrealistic beauty standards has become a lot easier, With the help of the media, young adults have many resources for “thinspiration” or “thinspo”. “Thinspiration” being the use of body images to inspire, usually unhealthy, weight loss. Popular places to find “thinspo” excluding the common google search are: Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

What is anorexia? Is it just skipping dinner? Or maybe not having that last slice of pizza? It is a disease that can’t be cured with any medication because it is an idea. The idea that if you don’t lose the weight you will never be loved by anyone. It isn’t something people joke about or even talk about in reality. You hear stories about people who die from it, but it does not stop newbies from succumbing to the idea.

Eating disorders are horrible illnesses, but I find anorexia especially disturbing. It just scares me that people with this disease would intentionally starve themselves. Even when they are clearly malnourishes and nothing but skin and bones, they still see themselves as “fat”. In addition to family support, medical treatment is often needed to restore normal weight.

Furthermore, Anorexia is the most common eating disorder (Klein 12). It is self-starvation until the victim is gaunt and emaciated, which leads to many detrimental health problems. Some physical effects of Anorexia are; dry skin, wasting muscles, brittle bones, weak heart, dizziness, downy hair growing on back and arms, menstruation stopping, possible infertility, and even brain damage, kidney and heart failure. As well as physical, there are also mental/psychological effects of Anorexia. Some of these mental effects are; low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, and distorted self-image, as many anorexics believe they are still fat even after losing much weight and becoming emaciated. Anorexia is a disease of the brain, and these effects connect with this. Ultimately, Anorexia has many negative effects on the human body, physically and

The first main effect of developing eating disorders starts with a dieting plan that most of the teenage girls use unhealthy weight control way such as, vomiting, skipping meals, and laxatives. In the today’s society, teenage girls who do not overweight also an effect from this kind of advertisement. Elanor Tyler described, “pro-ana sites harmful influences and contradictory messages and question the ethics and morality of allowing the sites to exist” (Wagner, Viqi 137). The pro-ana sites are filled with forums and discussion boards targeting girls who share the same philosophy. Pro-ana sites portray thin celebrities (dubbed “thinspirations”) such as Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, and Kate Moss as role models; and links to other sites such as Skinny Secrets, Fasting Girls, Hunger Hurts but Starving Works and Dying to Be Thin help to normalize anorexia in readers’ minds (Wagner, Viqi 147). Penn State University study claimed that: “The mortality rate associated with anorexia is 12 times higher than the death rate of other cause of death for females 15-24 years old” (Wagner, Viqi 149). Even though, the pro-ana websites present the argument by posting on the articles like, if you eat less, you can live longer. This kind of websites sends the message to the public has right to choose their lifestyle like someone would change a style of

Due to the advance in technology, many teens are more easily brainwashed because they spend more time in the internet and believe everything that they see in it. Pro-eating disorder websites can easily be accessible to anyone regardless of their age encouraging their visitors to start an account with them that it will not only motivate them but they will also be rewarded by fitting in this new type of society. Lauren Cox, a reported of the ABC medical news clarifies that more than an 80% of 180 active pro-eating disorder

Anorexia may involve the use of laxatives, diet pills, r self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Victims may deny their hunger, chew excessively and choose low calorie food (http://news.bbc.co.ukhi/english/health). Anorexics do all these things to become thin, when reality, it makes their body better at storing fat rather than burning it. Starved bodies ache all the time. The skin bruises, muscles cramp and deteriorate, and the bowels stop working on their own. The mouth dries and the eyes fog and some actually go blind from food deprivation (http://anorexicweb.com). For women, menstruation stops, body hair starts to grow especially on the face and arms, and the hair on the head falls out. Dehydration, osteoporosis, kidney stones and kidney failure are not uncommon among anorexics. An irregular heartbeat develops because of a change in heart muscle, which can lead to heart failure and even death (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/English/health). It can also cause osteoporosis. Along with anorexia one might have mental health problems and increased risk of suicide (http://www.meddoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Only one third of anorexic victims fully recover;

Social media sets these unrealistic body images in the girl 's mind. Looking through pretty much any social media and look up the word, “thinspo” and a bunch of pro anorexia pages start to pop up. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr. They have it, if you’re looking for a way to lose weight the fastest way possible. Once girls start they become addicted to it because they’re starting to see that they’re losing weight, when in reality when they slowly go back to their old way of eating they will gain weight back maybe even more. Social media makes girls think that if they starve themselves that people would like them because they’re skinny. Some of the time these are have boyfriends and they think that in order to be good enough you have to weigh certain number. There’s even an app for Apple