Eating Disorders

You Need To Eat Something

Eating disorders among adolescents is a continuously growing problem. The two main eating disorders that are reported are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Both of these disorders are used to keep a thin appearance. Many young people confuse physical and emotional states of ‘feeling fat’ with actually being fat. In addition, they start to scrutinize and pick at different aspects of their body shapes and only focusing on what they do not like about themselves. People with eating disorders end up overestimating their size and others actively try to avoid seeing themselves because they think they look fat and unattractive. In addition, many of these adolescents might end up constantly checking their weight focusing on daily fluctuations and having that be their main concern.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder most known where a person stops eating food. “In restrictive anorexia nervosa, a person severely restricts caloric intake, and often exercises excessively because of an overwhelming desire to lose weight” (Kreipe, 2006). Bulimia nervosa (BN) as an eating disorder that is most known where a person vomits their food after it has already been eaten. “In bulimia nervosa, a person is afraid of gaining weight, but ingests large amounts in a brief period (binges), then tries to rid the body of the effects of the extra calories by fasting, vomiting, exercising, or using laxatives immediately afterward” (Kreipe, 2006). In addition, there is actually a third group of eating disorders called “eating disorder not otherwise specified” (EDNOS), but it does not meet the requirement for either anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa and it is still prevalent within adolescents. Within this paper, I will be talking about the causes of eating disorders among adolescents, some physical and mental effects, long term effects on the body, treatments for two of the main eating disorders, and effects of social perception about the eating...