...spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention. There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister's volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin. Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting...
Words: 1366 - Pages: 6
...Another eating disorder that is growing rapidly is bulimia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa is another fatal eating disorder if left untreated. “Bulimia is when people have recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feel a lack of control over the episode.” (National Institute of Mental Health). The excessive eating is then followed by forced vomiting, laxative use, fasting, and excessive exercise. People with bulimia usually maintain a healthy weight but they also fear gaining weight, want to lose weight desperately and are unhappy with their body image. The binge eating can occur from several times a week to many times a day. Some other symptoms of Bulimia are sore throat, swollen salivary glands, acid reflux, and...
Words: 1022 - Pages: 5
...To me, compulsive overeating is a disease where a person has no control over their food intake. It's a constant eating, a wanting for a more and more. You can't get enough, sort of like a junkie looking for the next high. That is my relationship with food. And I have no control. People that suffer from Compulsive Overeating have what can be labeled not only as an eating disorder, but also as an addiction and even more so as an illness. There are many reasons why people become addicted to food, many using eating as a way to cope with problems or stress in their lives. Eating can also help them conceal their emotions, to fill the emptiness that they feel inside. Food is used as a narcotic to not deal with their feelings or emotions. The tendency for people with this eating disorder is overweight because of the abnormal eating habits. People that do not suffer from the epidemic can and won’t empathize with the victims because of the common stereotypes, stereotype such as greed, gluttony or lack of disciple. Simple suggestions to a sufferer such as “Just slow down or go on a diet” are equally insulting as telling a person suffering from Anorexia to “eat something”. Not only are the words hurtful, but this disorder will negatively bleed into the body and causes health risks. A sufferer with this Compulsive Overeating disorder is prone to high blood-pressure and cholesterol, can develop kidney disease or kidney failure, arthritis, deterioration of the bones, strokes, heart attacks,...
Words: 17730 - Pages: 71
...Eating disorders, generally defined as negative feelings and/or thoughts towards one’s body and/or food, have a wide assortment of types and variations. The most recognized are anorexia and bulimia, but the term “eating disorder” also encompasses disorders such as binge eating and body image/dysmorphia. They are common among adolescence, and can begin with mere concern. Especially today, with the abundance of media all around us, kids can start to feel concerned (and sometimes obsessed) with the way they look by simply seeing pictures in magazines or actors on the screen. Eating disorders are also common among people who already have a mental disorder, such as anxiety or even OCD. A big part of the prevention of eating disorders has to do with...
Words: 366 - Pages: 2
...not aware of the conditions in the Jackson home is maybe since the kids were home schooled nobody really paid attention to the four kids. It fell upon a neighbor’s call when she saw the oldest son digging through the garbage for something to eat, because he was hungry from being undernourished from the Jackson family. From the information provided I think justice was served by firing the nine members of the Division of Youth and Family Services staff. If they had been doing their job it shouldn’t have taken a call from neighbor, the kids should have been long gone from the Jackson home. What touches me the most is the total weight of all four children was 136 pounds with the oldest Bruce weighing in at a eye-popping 45 pounds. Justice was served in this case, they were lucky to be informed by the neighbor in time or the children might not have made through their tuff situation. I think the whole situation should have been avoided when the first caseworker came out to the house to check on the children, because we all know that these kids have not been eating for quite some time. It said in the study that the Jackson family said that the adapted kids had an eating disorder maybe the caseworker should have found out for themselves by taking the kids out for a little while and seeing first hand if they wanted something to eat or not. If they didn’t want anything to eat then they should have been treated for an eating...
Words: 272 - Pages: 2
...look up to. One of those people is Michelle Obama. Mrs. Obama has made a great deal of society want to become healthier, mostly focusing on children and teenagers. Mrs. Obama and many other people feel that it is essential to make sure kids are getting the right nutrition. School lunches have become healthier, having a greater variety of fruits and vegetables available, rather than cookies and other sweets. School lunches have helped my health now and will be helpful in the future. From school lunches I have tried so many new things I would never think of trying like humus, brussels sprouts, and squash. All of these things are...
Words: 684 - Pages: 3
...Throughout the average kids childhood, children are taught to respect education, and that appearances do not define a person. However, beauty pageants interfere with this mindset. There are 2.5 million girls that compete in the hundred thousand beauty pageants held each year. Child pageants were first started in 1921 when the Atlantic City hotel owner came up with the idea that would help tourism. The Little Miss America pageants began in New Jersey in the 1960’s.Originally pageant were designed for ages thirteen to seventeen, but since there were too many people, they had to make age groups. By entering a child in pageants, parents are teaching children that they have to go far and beyond to look better than everyone else. Although beauty...
Words: 1544 - Pages: 7
...Nowadays, we can see people who are suffering from eating disorder by either eating too much or eating too less. Both of these eating disorders harm our bodies and are socio-culturally related. Binge eating, compulsive eating, and anorexic paradigm are formed by the society and culture. The way of teaching what to eat and how to eat, the image of what is consider aesthetic bodies, and the economy and social status have great influences on the way we eat and eating disorders. Margaret Mead’s “Why Do We Overeat?” discusses that people tend to overeat during holidays or daily. We usually have the dilemma of wanting to eat and knowing we cannot eat that much or that food is not healthy. The moral attitude of adults should “care about they exercise...
Words: 558 - Pages: 3
...Eating disorders are a huge problem many people face on a daily basis. The National eating disorder associations states that eating disorders are conditions that arise from factors including physical, psychological, interpersonal and social issues. Most eating disorders tend to occur in people between the ages 12 and 18 but are possible at any age. Eating disorders are serious problems that can lead to many health issues and possibly death. Eating disorders are hard to avoid and harder to overcome, for some people it seems impossible, its a way of life not a choice (source 1). According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc., without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, 2 – 3% of people with anorexia die. Statistics on anorexia show that mortality rates from anorexia are the highest of any psychological disorder. Anorexia statistics show that with treatment, only 60% make a full recovery. About 20% make a partial recovery, meaning that they may be able to hold a job and maintain some superficial relationships but remain very focused on food and weight. They may continue to abuse laxatives or diet pills. They remain underweight. The final 20% stay dangerously underweight. They are seen frequently in emergency rooms, mental health clinics, inpatient hospital units, and eating disorder treatment programs. Statistics on anorexia show that between 1 – 5% of all female adolescents and young women are anorexic. Statistics...
Words: 2018 - Pages: 9
...Everywhere you look throughout the world, on television, radio, magazines and even billboards, you can see that people are encouraged to try to be thin. Females are especially affected by this type of advertisement. The television commercials tell us that we can be thin by taking one little pill. Teenagers are taught by television and magazines to watch your figure by watching what you eat. Some teenagers get really depressed about the issue. Once they get depressed sometimes they develop eating disorders. The eating disorders can be a really large problem. This is when it gets to the point where the person needs help for the safety of their life. On television teenagers watch shows that have good looking guys and girls in it. Along with their looks they are also thin. The teenagers watching these shows want to be like the person depicted on television. In magazines you see articles all the time on how to lose weight. These articles tell people how to try to lose weight and keep it off. And on the radio and bill boards you see this men and women advertising some type of drug that made them lose weight. All of these things that teenagers see in life leaves an impression. That impression is that they want to be thin. The teenagers that read these articles in magazines on how to get thin try to follow them. They try to obey different diets and exercise to try to lose weight. For some people it may actually shed a few pounds. Also for some people it does not help them. Some...
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...I. Introduction A. Attention Getter – I know most of us as kids like putting anything we find in our mouth whether it is dirty or clean, but with pica we eat anything we see because we have a craving for the unexplainably. B. Tie to the Audience – Remember how when we were small at the playground our parents let us play in the sandbox. Since we were curious little kids and we love the texture and the feel of the sand we wanted to taste the sand and see if it tastes as good as it feels. We took up a whole heaping and put it in out mouth to taste it, but it doesn’t taste as good as it feels. Pica is similar but you cannot control what you crave to eat and it can be deadly. C. Credentials – pica disorder effects children and adults, the effects...
Words: 1050 - Pages: 5
...purge disorder, it’s a deadly mental disorder that affects 1 in 4 college aged women. This disease affects both the mind and body, and eventually does severe damage to both. The fear of gaining weight and the need to have a perfect body has led many down the self-destructive pathway of bulimia. This is a secretive eating disorder characterized by frequent episodes of excessive eating, followed by self-induced vomiting to rid the body of food. Bulimics also frequently use laxatives, diuretics, and diet pills to lose weight. Unlike people with anorexia nervosa, you cannot easily identify people with bulimia based on their weight and public eating behavior. A lot of times body weights are somewhere in...
Words: 990 - Pages: 4
...Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia Nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder. People with Bulimia Nervosa tend to eat large portions of food but later on they get rid of the food through an unhealthy way. They usually get rid of the food by vomiting or excessive exercise. Some people even purge after just eating a snack or a normal size meal. Bulimia can be categorized in two ways. Purging bulimia which means, the person regularity vomits or misuses laxatives, diuretics or enemas after bingeing. There is also non-purging which involves methods to decrease the calories for example the person can get into a strict diet or also they can exercise excessively. Signs of this disorder can be, always having to worry about your body's shape and weight. Living in fear of gaining weight, feeling that...
Words: 670 - Pages: 3
...their bodies are not meant to handle such as anorexia, bulemia, and binge eating. In recent studies (Smolak, 2011) 40-60 percent of girls starting at the age of are worried about becoming overweight and continue to worry about it for the span of their life. The detrimental part about this is the fact that it is causing health problems to young innocent boys and girls that are under what they think is a microscope of their peers. There is so much pressure on the people that are worried about what they look like and worried about what others think about them that they turn to a horrible option in eating disorders. Not only do eating disorders cause muscle loss, reduction of bone density, lack of nutrients, and fainting but it also can result in death. A change in this i think would be more advertisments showing that you do not have to be super skinny to be considered attractive or to be a super model. commercials and magzines could put girls that are bigger than the normal cover girl or bigger than the thin super model that everyone is used to seeing on the television. i think that this change could be execiuted by public speaking in schools all over the country to targer the younger population before eating disorders can be an issue. Also i think that educating parents in what to look for and signs that might signal that their child may be going through some troubles and could possibly going through eating...
Words: 503 - Pages: 3
...In 2014 I sat in on a group therapy session to support one of my close friends that was struggling with anorexia. Hearing everyone’s stories really hit home. After that day I wanted to learn more about eating disorders and how they are made and how they affect different people in different ways. Too many young people commit suicide or die from eating disorders. My goal is for everyone to know to basic keys signs and to know a good simple explanation of each disease. Eating disorders having been a growing concern with young people and teenagers. Our everyday society can be to blame for that also. Body image is a very sensitive subject to both boys and girls. You cannot escape it, television, magazines, billboards and the Internet in general. You follow models and famous people on Instagram and twitter and see their lives everyday. “I want to look like that” “She is perfect” both of these maxims can hurt a self-esteem and how you look at yourself in the mirror. Wanted to change your body can be a cause of anorexia and bulimia. An eating disorder is a mental illness. Many peers and adults do not even see it happening. For another example, bullying in school can push kids over the edge. Many girls and boys are going through puberty and their body is changing. Just because they are different than other they get made fun of. Those mean words get stuck in those heads of the bullied. They will do whatever they can to change so they will be considered normal. Skipping meals or getting...
Words: 314 - Pages: 2