Eating disorder

Eating disorders are illnesses like any other, with patients experiencing thoughts and feelings that disrupt their eating habits. These people develop obsessions with their body weight and food as a result of their poor eating habits, which cause them to be overly concerned or distressed about their shape, weight, image, and so on. This is a disease that affects a large number of people, the majority of whom are women. It involves eating in excess or insufficient amounts. Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa are the two most common eating disorders. Another condition, known as binge eating disorder, is still being researched. The onset of this condition can occur at any time in a person's life, but distinctive appearance starts to be noticed in one’s teenage years or early adult years. Different types of eating disorders have different forms of treatment since they vary from one to another. Just like most forms of illness, this condition, if not treated, may lead to severe health conditions such as heart problems and others.

Boston Children's Hospital. Understanding Eating Disorders: A Guide for Parents and Families. 2016. Book.

The author articulates that eating disorders end up affecting the emotional and physical health of a person. They are forms of illness which when left unattended to eventually results to more consequential health issues. They come in some types, and sometimes people tend to confuse one type of eating disorder with another. Anorexia Nervosa: This is a condition in which “the victims deny themselves certain types of foods” or they are not eating (limit food intake). The reason is that they fear to gain weight, which in some cases they may be losing weight, or they are even underweight. This condition can occur at any age in an individual’s life but in most cases in adolescents earlier years or late teenage years. Bulimia Nervosa: People who are suffering from this eating disorder experience episodes of eating a lot of food in short time intervals. They then end up adopting behaviors of actions to counteract the excess food intake. These may include the use of laxatives, exercising excessively and induced vomiting. People with this condition have feelings of lack of control, guilt, and shame since they eat secretively due to fears of weight gain. Binge Eating Disorder: In this condition, the author states that individuals eat a lot of food in short time intervals, only that unlike in Bulimia Nervosa where excessive food compensation behaviors follow, here no food compensation is present. This eventually leads to obesity and other health conditions such as cardiovascular complications if not early attended to. Boston Children Hospital is an established hospital in the United States, and is the highest ranking children’s health hospital in the United States.

Ekern, Jacquelyn. Eating Disorders: Causes, Symptoms, Signs & Treatment Help. 1 May 2017. Web Page. 5 November 2017.

The author, Jacquelyn, who has a Master’s degree in psychology and is also the founder and president of Eating Disorder Hope & Addiction Hope, among other issues, engages in factors contributing to eating disorders. These are “complex disorders, influenced by a facet of factors.” She states that it is a condition caused by many factors, with main causative factors still unknown, the factors may be environmental, psychological and biological. Environmental factors that may result to this condition include certain sports requirements such as maintaining streamlined bodies and careers that require certain types of bodies such as modeling. Psychological factors contributing to the same include low levels of self-esteem and thoughts about a person’s body image, and eventually, biological factor being deficiency in nutrition, an individual’s genetic orientation and irregularity in hormones. The way the article references other articles makes it viable to be used as a reference.

Mail Online: JENNY HOPE MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT. One in ten teenage girls has an eating disorder and boys as young as ten are also at risk. 20 May 2017. Web Page. 5 November 2017.

Here, the author, Mail Online, an established digital news platform, echoes medical research which shows that eating disorders are common in teenagers and that in teenage girls, every one in ten has this condition. “In teenage girls, eating disorders are now second only to depression as the most common new mental health problem they will be diagnosed with.” The number of boys experiencing the condition is also increasing with time. The main issue is because teenagers are under pressure to look “cool,” which ends up affecting their eating habits. Boys tend to experience the condition much earlier than girls, in ages of 10 to 14 compared to the age bracket of girls which is 15 to 19. The author states that the pressure from the society is the main reason for the increasing statistics among the teenagers, environmental and genetics also contributing but the main cause of eating disorders is still unknown.

Salafia, Elizabeth , et al. "Perceptions of the causes of eating disorders: a comparison of individuals with and without eating disorders." Journal of Eating Disorders (2015): 3-32. Web Page.

The authors, among others, Elizabeth Salafia, who is a member of the Department of Human Development and Family Science at North Dakota State University, present a research conducted on individuals with the condition and those without. They proceeded and analyzed the results obtained from the research. The main issues addressed were the causative agents of eating disorders. There were codes which were generated according to the responses from the individuals who took part in the research. The persons suffering from eating disorders exerted more weight on psychological issues as being most influential in causing the condition, with media and genetics being less active. Those without eating disorders stating the same, only a small difference, that the media should not be blamed on people’s eating disorders. “Additionally, while both groups highly endorsed psychological/emotional problems, there was a noticeable stigma about eating disorders among those without eating disorders.” This is a research that was conducted on individuals in collaboration with North Dakota State University and therefore the findings are reliable.