Eating Disorders
By: Caitlyn Lyles Every teenager out there wants to be accepted in society, it’s in our human nature. From the latest dieting plans to the newest celebrities, our goals in life are to be the best we can possibly be. I’m sure that the television/magazine ads don’t intentionally tend to place people at their lowest points, but sometimes their message can come off in the wrong direction. Teens, especially girls, are susceptible to the luxurious ads of beautiful models with perfect features and of course, the skinniest and most toned body. Seeing these models and celebrities can cause teen girls to reach their weight goal by doing extremely harmful things to their bodies. An eating disorder is an unhealthy relationship with food and weight that interferes with many areas of a person’s life. People, especially teens that struggle with eating disorders have unrealistic thoughts, self-critical thoughts about their body image when they may not be close to obesity at all. Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder that involves self-starvation and excessive weight loss. Anorexia has many symptoms but some of the most primary are: resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, intense fear of weight gain or getting “fat” even though underweight, disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, and loss of menstrual periods in girls. There are many negative consequences to the health of the body in pursuing anorexia. Some including: abnormally slow heart rate and blood pressure, bone weakness (osteoporosis), muscle loss and weakness, severe dehydration and many more effects that can damage the body. When people see these advertisements with celebrities that have unrealistically perfect bodies, they don’t realize that most of them are computer enhanced so they look more beautiful and people will buy whatever they’re selling. All these victims see are the facts that they don’t look like that and go to extreme measures by starving themselves and losing a great amount of weight. These terrible symptoms and effects to the body need to be looked out for in people that could possibly be going through this disorder. Bulimia nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder that involves a cycle of bingeing and behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo the effects of binge eating. Stress, anxiety or unhappiness may cause an episode of bingeing to occur. Some warning signs that can be watched out for are: rapid food consumption followed by tremendous feelings of guilt, a feeling of no control over their eating behaviors, regularly engaging in strict diet plans and exercise, excessive use of diet pills or laxatives, and a constant concern with body image. The effects of bulimia can be just as threatening to the body as the effects of anorexia. Some of the effects can be: loss of water, salts, protein and fat, the body not working