Eating disorders The shocking truth

eating disorders effect 1 person out of every 100 in the U.S. 95% of those with an eating disorder are the ages 12-25 and 10% of people with eating disorders are male. Over the years eating disorders have become a growing problem among young men and women in america. One of the biggest reasons this problem has become so seriouse is because of society's view on body image and the endless photographs of stick thin models and wieght loss campaigns have put the idea in young adults minds that being thin is more important than being healthy.
Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. those suffering with anorexia control their weight and emotions with extreme dieting and startvation. Many of thosewho have anorexia have low self esteem, a need for acceptance, and a variety of internal and external conflicts. these conflicts include stress, anxiety, unhappiness, a need for control, past or presents physical, mental and sexual abuse, death and many other extreme situations. Anorexics are often ashamed when they eat, and many times they avoid situations involving food all together. the very thought of gaining weight and eating terrifies and disgusted anorexics. When put in situations when they are expected to eat anorexics often hide food they had clamed to had eaten, and they often use diet pills to control their hunger. 20% of those suffering with anorexia die from complications like suicide and heart failure. Many times anorexics feel its better to be dead at a weight of 98 pounds than alive at a healthy weight of 120 pounds.
Studies say that 2-3 out of 100 american women are bulimic. Bulimia is a disease in which a person goes through cycles of binging and purging. They also often abuse laxatives and diet supplements. As you can imagine people with bulimia have very low self esteem. Many times they binge and purge to punish them selves. It's also possible that they seek these episodes of binging and purging to avoid and let out feelings of anger, depression, stress, and or anxiety. Unlike anorexics those who are bulimic are often well aware that they have an eating disorder. It's hard to tell how many people are suffering from bulimia because it is such a secretive disease. Often they hide food they eat during episodes of binging and they almost never binge in the presents of other people.
A recent distubing movement in the world of eating disorders are pro ana (pro anorexia), Pro Mia(pro Bulimia) and Pro Ed (pro eating disorder) groups. Those who are pro Ed believe that Anorexia and Bulimia are not diseases but life styles. Most pro Ed Material is spread through tight knit support groups centered around web forms and most recently found on social networking sites like face book and myspace. These support groups share crash dieting techniques and give advise on the best ways to indule purging and the use of laxitives. Along with giving advise on how to have an eating disorder these groups also give tips on how to hide them as well. These forums also sound like an AA meating agaisnt weight gain rather than the use of drugs and alcohol. Girls will discuss and congradulate each other for loss of weight and long periods of fasting, its almost like their all each others sponsors. Many of those familiar with pro ed sites find eating disorders glamerouse. In April 2008 a bill was tabled in the franch National Assebly outlawing material wich provokes a parson to seek excessive thiness by encouraging prolonged restriction of nurishment. Roselyn Bachelot argued in favor of the bill stated that "giving young girls advice on how to lie to their doctors, telling tham what kinds of foods are easiet to peurge, encouraging them to tourture themselves whenever they eat any kind of food is not a part of liberty expression".
It is estimated that 8 million Americans have eating disordersseven million are women and 1 million are men. As the years progress our societys views on body image is going to become more and more shallow and our media is going to feed on that by writing more stories to feed amercas un healthy obsession on body image.If society doesnt relize how their shallow ways are effecting the youth of america, the amount of Amercians livving with eating disorders is going to increase drastically over the next decade.