What are Eating Disorders?

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

A majority of the people who suffer from eating disorders are young adults and teenagers. This can be linked to the pressure put on them to have what society declares the “ideal” body image. For most of history, the ideal female body was plump and voluptuous. This was before the neolithic people settled down and created some of the first civilizations. Women with large hips were “valued” because it meant that birth would be easier for them. They had “birthing hips” as they are called today. This meant there was a higher chance that there wouldn 't be complications during birth. When civilizations started to take root and grow, body images began to change. In Ancient Egypt, thin slender women were preferred while in Ancient Greece, plump women with curves were still the ideal. In fact, in Ancient Greece, women didn’t have a “body image” to live up to, it was men. This is one of

Imagine waking up every morning, struggling to get out of bed and hating to look at yourself in the mirror. Girl’s will look into the mirror for hours and criticize every last inch of their body with the words “fat, ugly, worthless” echo in their head. They think their body isn’t good enough and want to look skinner like the other woman in magazines or people they see on TV. The media has a big part in self-image toward young woman. The message being sent to these women on the media is that they are not pretty enough or thin enough. Which results in people having an eating disorder.

Girls are indoctrinated at a very young age that the well known Barbie doll is how a woman is supposed to look, which includes no fat, but large breasts, and due to that false view of a woman’s body, it is more than likely that young girls today will approach puberty with a negative body image. Although children can develop eating disorders as early as 6 years old, it is typically the teen years where it becomes out of control. Dr. Jonathon Rader says that “more than half of teenaged girls are, or think they should be, on diets. They want to lose all or some of the forty pounds that females naturally gain between 8 and 14. About three percent of these teens go too far, becoming anorexic or bulimic” (Rader). Almost everyone has heard of the terms “anorexic” and “bulimic” whether it was on TV or in a magazine, but not many people know the true facts and dangers that go along with them. They also might not even realize that there are other types of eating disorders that people are dealing with, some of which are not even specified. Exactly what are eating disorders?

For Jennifer Keagan, high school was a thrill. She was one of the most popular girls in school. She was valedictorian, homecoming queen, student body president, an honor roll student, and the list goes on. She always strived for perfection. Life was easy for Jennifer. She always got what she wanted. Unfortunately, this all came to a halt when it was time for her to face an all new reality: college. Jennifer was no longer around her friends and family. She was on her own now, and realized that college wasn’t as easy as high school like she thought it would be. It was all too overwhelming for her. She became lonely and couldn’t adjust to the college lifestyle. Eventually food became

We live in a society where people are judged on the way they look. This urges people especially women to try and look their best. Magazines, social media and tv show that girls have to be skinny to be happy. This is what causes eating disorders in some people. “No one knows exactly what causes eating disorders, but a growing consensus suggests that a range of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors come together to spark an eating disorder.” (Neda 2017) Eating disorders are not when people start to watch what they eat and exercise. Eating disorders are mental illnesses which are psychological and physical in nature. Eating disorders are characterized by

“Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.” (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, n.d.) It’s hard to believe isn’t it? That one-half of teenage girls and one-third of boys use unhealthy weight loss techniques, because they are unhappy with the way they look and their weight. If I’m being entirely honest I do not blame these teenagers for wanting to lose weight. Because predominantly everything we see, even as children, shows us that to be happy we have to be white, good looking, and thin.

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.

“Michelle M. Lelwica author of The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight declared that ‘Thinness is worshipped in American culture. Unrealistic body images are promoted in the media and entertainment resulting in greater numbers of women and men who feel ‘too fat’ and suffer from eating disorders’” (Shell 1). Eating disorders are characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Eating disorders have several causes including behavioral, psychological, and social factors, and they frequently appear during adolescence or early adulthood, but it may also develop earlier or later in life. In today’s culture media has a more powerful presence than ever before; this causes the individual to be constantly bombarded by what the media portrays as a “good” body. The mass communication transmits both positive and negative messages about body image to the public. The general public unaware of what a positive or negative body image can do in mental and physical health end up trying to meet those unrealistic standards, thus, so inducing harmful lifestyles. Eating disorders can be caused by sociocultural incitements such as unrealistic standards, set by society and culture, and lack of knowledge about positive and negative body image, but regulations and education must be established to help reduce the problems.

One of the basics things people are taught growing up is that eating gives you the energy you need for the day. Growing a little older and a person becomes aware that eating too much causes you to grow bigger (or fatter). Then if a person wants to become thinner, the most logical place to start would be the diet. A study conducted by Duke University showed that 40% of all nine and ten year old girls have already been on a diet ("Self Image/Media Influences"). Surveys by the Centers for Disease Control in 2004 reported that in adolescents approximately ages fourteen through eighteen, more than 59% were trying to lose weight and that 18% of girls had gone without food for twenty-four hours (“Body Image”). Children at their pinnacle of growth development are destroying their bodies to achieve a ridiculous beauty standard. And it is not just children who fall for this. Over 90% of women surveyed at a college campus admitted to “attempting to control their weight through dieting” while 22% of those admitted to “dieting often or always” ("Eating Disorder Statistics").

“The incidence of anorexia nervosa among 10 - to - 19 year olds during a 50 year period found that it parallel changes in fashion and idealized body image and young women who have greater body dissatisfaction have earlier onset of smoking” (Huffington post) Girls would rather skip meals to lose weight than be comfortable and secure in their own bodies. 58% of college-age girls feel pressured to be a certain weight, and approximately 91%. women are unhappy with their body and resort to dieting or more severe methods to achieve that shape. They think they are not good enough just the way they are, and they have to look like the women they see on T.v, when in reality the women they are trying to look like do nott even look like that in real life. “Only 5% of women in the entire world, naturally look like the body type portrayed in media” (11 facts about body

Eating disorders are subjective to each individual’s personal experiences, with that said; there are common influences which may contribute to the disorder. The transition into adolescents can be a confusing time for the individual, both physically and mentally. As the adolescent’s body begins to rapidly change during puberty, this physical transformation can lower self-esteem and raise self-consciousness. Adding to this confusing time for the adolescent is pressure from society. Adolescents are exposed to various media outlets where the ideal body image is promoted and often times reflect a thin or smaller appearance. This exposure leads to the adolescent comparing their changing physically appearance to the standard set in the media.

Teens today are always surrounded by advertisements of images of thinness. When they turn on the TV, read magazines or go on the internet. These advertisements are usually promoting something to sell by using images of thin and beautiful people that seem unreal. Both boys and girls feel societies’ pressure to have “the perfect body” so they go through extreme measures like self starvation or over exercising to achieve their goals of the “perfect image”(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt,page 26). Eating disorders are mostly developed by women. Although men also develop eating disorders but they only make up 5-10 percent of those affected by eating disorders, leaving women with a huge majority of 90-95 percent affected(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt, page 8). Girls who develop the eating disorder anorexia are usually Caucasian and middle to upper class, and are also

Searching for what society sees as the perfect body has caused a risk of eating disorders. Anorexia is where someone doesn’t eat at all or very little, one way a girl would accomplish ‘’the perfect body’’. When one has anorexia it can cause them to die from starvation. bulimia is where someone will eat then will proceed to make themselves throw up. If someone is to go into bulimia it causes their insides to be destroyed. Depression is where one is unhappy to an extreme and has self conflict. That can be the start of anorexia or bulimia . This brings a lot of pressure on girls to have perfect bodies and the public doesn’t help them.

In 1935, Paul Schilder gave the term body image in his book named The Image and Appearance of the Human Body. Body image refers to self perception and to develop a view of own physique with respect to others.Throughout history, the human body has been a topic of concern among people. Various standards of an ideal body had been set and is continuing till modern times. But what's regarded as body standards, might not correspond to everyone and may bring unpleasant consequences.This essay will cover underlying causes which raise the concern for self image and abnormal behavior arising from them.