Teenagers And Eating Disorders

Along with the unrealistic body images on social media it drags along obsession with dieting, food, and appearance in young adolescents creating eating disorders. “Adolescents diagnosed with serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia often report that their symptoms can be linked to the bullying they received from their age peers as well as the unrealistic media images presented as an ideal for them to follow.”(www.phycologytoday.com) The unrealistic body ideal that they feel they need to follow has a big impact on the way teens look at what they are eating, and their weight and shape which can lead to serious eating disorders. “Adolescent females who are unable to conform to the ideal being put forward by movie, television find themselves taking extreme measures to be more like their role models.” (www.phycologytoday.com) Teens feel that it is important to become like their role models that they see on social media and go to extreme measures to become the ideal weight and shape

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.

About one in 200 persons in the United States will develop anorexia nervosa at some time. Ninety Percent are women (Anorexia Nervosa—Part 1 1). Anorexia is defined as an emotional disorder characterized by refusing to diet or eat. This is targeting young girls all across the world! This calamity is struck by something every person loves, social media. The media realm needs to be ceased from the websites that support dieting, celebrities displaying perfectionist bodies, and the social media world: their main victim to such disease are young teens. In particular media plays a role in anorexia in young teens because of social media and celebrities, the model industry, and the “thigh gap”.

In today’s society, it has become hard for the average person to fit the high expectations and perfect mold that has been created by being connected to the internet. With the pressure so high, and competition so intense everyone is striving to become perfect to fit the mold. Eating disorders have become common in many people as a way to change their body image or gain more control over their life, caused by the stress of trying to be one’s best. But it has been overlooked for many years and a lot of people don’t understand the significance of eating disorders and how they affected the lives of not only young women but everyone. Eating disorders are a serious problem that affects the lives of many people and, should not be overlooked.

In the United States alone, 40-60% of girls in elementary and middle school are worried about gaining too much weight and not being accepted by anyone ("Prevalence vs. Funding" 1). Adolescents and women are surrounded with the idea of culture’s “perfect body type” where girls are stick thin and gorgeous. Culture is obsessed with outer beauty and being as flawless as you can be, and often leave out how important inner beauty is. This idea of outer beauty often results in women trying to warp their body image to please the people around them ("Prevalence vs. Funding" 4). Adolescent girls use the media to help figure out how they should look and act, which consequently mirrors how their eating patterns change and evolve. Adolescent girls are targeted by culture, pressured by their peers surrounding them, and taunted by their own self-consciousness, often leading up to acquiring an eating disorder. When the eating disorder is acquired, it often had many damaging physical effects on the person’s body.

Stereotypes Eating disorders are complex illnesses that are affecting adolescents with increasing frequency. These illnesses are abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake and which have as consequence the detriments of the individual's physical and mental health. We live in a society in which is shown that happiness and success come on thin and gorgeous people. Skinny models in fashion magazine and on publicities are one of the main causes of eating disorders on teenagers. During adolescence, a particularu vulnerable time to the development of an eating disorder, the influence of peers are very important.

Eating disorders: noun. A group of psychological ailments characterized by intense fear of becoming obese, distorted body image, and prolonged food refusal (anorexia nervosa) and/or binge eating followed by purging through induced vomiting, heavy exercise, or use of laxatives (bulimia nervosa).These ailments are not pretty. In this society, where only the fit and thin bodies are accepted and appreciated, eating disorders are more common than they should be. Children, starting at a young age, see skinny people on television and in magazines. They hear comments on how their bodies look, then hear the same people turn around and make nasty comments on someone else’s figure. This is not okay, because it is teaching young people that anything

As many as 20 percent of those who suffer from anorexia will die early from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. While there are many possible causes and triggers for these disorders, the media’s influence on body image cannot be overlooked. "My problem is the top of my legs and my bottom, which sticks out. I would like a smaller bottom because I find it difficult to fit into some jeans." Harriet’s obsession with her body scares her mother, sadly Harriet is not the only one who faces this problem daily. 40% of girls aged between 6 and 12 want to change their appearance. Don’t you think this is wrong? Kids who should be worried more about spelling words and math problems are being wrapped into the Medias image of a perfect body. Teens are more afraid of gaining weight than they are of cancer, nuclear war, or losing a parent.

Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out and a leader development specialist at Smiths College, argues in her article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” that social media has become a way for teens to critique themselves and can create poor eating habits, leading to pro-anorexia due to the increase of “wellness” industries. It has long been understood

Ever since the development of the media such as television, the internet, various fashion magazines and commercial advertisements, society focused more and more on personal appearances. Not only were runway models becoming slimmer but the viewers that watched and read about them were becoming more concerned with their weight. In the past fifty years the number of adolescent girls developing eating disorders increased just as television, advertisements, and magazines were becoming a social norm that was easily and often available. Today, more than ever, adolescents are worrying about weight, shape, size and body image and. It does not help that these children are growing up in a world filled with media material emphasizing dangerously

Today, more than ever, teenagers and adolescents have many concerns about their weight, shape, size, and body image. Studies have suggested that eating disorders among adolescent girls have increased over the past fifty years. Approximately 1% to 5% of young girls meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa (Johnson, Chandra). Although the media’s emphasis on diet and fitness was designed to help people become healthier, it influences bad eating habits, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders.

Over the last few generation, society has fabricated an existence where the influence of media on young adolescents and children is inexorable. Children are now broadcast by their parents on every social media platform, establishing a need for acceptance based on how “cute” the child is long before they are mature enough to voice their own thoughts. While traditionally media has been know to promote a specific body standard—proven to contribute to the development of eating disorders among young adults and pre-adolescents—a new trend in media has introduced the “body positivity” movement which has begun to successfully influence people of all generations and body types.

Anorexia nervosa is a deadly eating disorder that has been an increasing problem over recent years for this generation, especially in adolescent females. Since almost everyone can access the media whenever and wherever they want, our society has been constantly shown images that have shaped our standards of beauty in which we then pass down to adolescents. In a society where mass media is so easily accessible, it 's not hard to see why images of extremely thin models can have a major impact on the minds of adolescent females who want to be accepted. Though the causes may be hard to change or impact, there are many possible treatments for those with anorexia nervosa ranging from psychological, biological, social and many other different treatments that target key components of this disorder in order to help those in need.

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.

Famous actress and model Patricia Heaton once said “Plastic surgery is like the big elephant in the Hollywood living room,” (Brainy Quotes). For celebrities, a plastic surgery operation is just another trip to the doctor’s office. After all, in this day and age, image is everything. We see this in high profile professions, and in large cities across the country. However, recently in Beverly Hills, California, girls as young as 16 are getting nose-jobs as a “Right of Passage” to fit in. This is a trend that has moved beyond the big city, and with 250,000 teens getting cosmetic surgery a year, it’s becoming all too normal. Bullying, media, and just plain vanity are causing children and teens everywhere to go under