Eating disorders

Although eating disorders are a health condition that can afflict anyone at any age, the problem usually begins in adolescence, making young individuals more susceptible to the illness. Millions of teens suffer from eating disorders just in America. 95 percent of those affected by the illness are between the ages of 12 and 25. (Campbell & Peebles, 2014).
Despite the fact that eating disorders and the ideal physique do not correlate, there is no general agreement on what the root cause of this issue is. The common belief is that the disorder occurs because of biological, social, and behavioral factors that include peer pressure, genetics, unpleasant trauma or experiences, and teasing among others. Some individuals may adopt unhealthy measures, which are focused on sustaining their weight loss.
The common eating disorders, which are present among the adolescents are anorexia, binge, and bulimia. Teenagers who are suffering from anorexia tend to adopt extreme measures, which are focused on controlling and avoiding the quality and quantity of the consumed food. As such, these individuals could abnormally become thin, but still, depict that they feel fatty (Dalmaso et al., 2016)
Thus, they may continue dieting at such a time when their body image becomes distorted. The common signs of anorexia include social withdrawal, discarding or hiding of food, distorted shape, size, and body weight, regular calories count, denial of hunger feelings, excessive or compulsive exercises, and emotional changes that include anxiety, depression, and irritability. The physical signs entail weight loss, feeling weak and tired, irregular menstrual cycles among the females, feelings of fainting or dizziness, and expression of lack of interest in relationships (Garcia-Ruiz & Fernandez-Checa, 2013).
Binge eating disorders are associated with excessive eating, which is not controlled that is followed by feelings of guilt and shame. As such, the teenagers become overweight. Common signs of the disorder include rapid eating, various diets experimentation, secret eating, and feelings of stress on how to cope with the situation. There are also signs of high blood pressure, weight gain, heart disease, skin disorders, irregular menstrual cycle, and diabetes (Bannatyne & Stapleton, 2014).
Bulimia is characterized by the behavior of overeating, which is followed by compensating act of vomiting, excessive exercising, fasting, enemas, and laxatives. These behaviors are common in the night and evening hours. The signs include bad breath, discolored teeth, fatigue or weakness, irregular menstrual cycles, and scarring or calluses of hands. Further, the affected individuals depict activities of excessive fasting or eating, consuming large food amounts without any weight change, and hiding of food wrappers and container (Racine & Wildes, 2013)
Emotional and Physical Aspects
Anorexia nervosa is handled in duo different manners that help manage the condition among the victims. The disorder can be initially be tackled through the "restrictive" method. This entails a situation where the patient is compelled to refrain from eating excess or more. There are a myriad number of symptoms that help to determine the presence of the disorder in an individual. The individual portrays the weight that is below the normal value. The person experiences a perpetual loss of weight as a result of not taking food regularly and in the correct quantities. The rate at which the weight is lost in the individual is quite alarming. The victims tend to come up with a habit of undertaking excessive exercise with a view to offset extra calories. They always have the tendency to have a deep preoccupation with thoughts about food and s/he ponders consistently about the calories and eating. The individual happens to harbor a good deal of urgency to be cooking for others (Huber, 2017). S/he develops some weird rituals in relation to the type of food s/he can identify with. That may involve cutting food into small pieces or taking ages when ingesting meals. The low self-esteem that dominates the adolescents' results to there is numerous chains of reactions in their bodies and thoughts. The overall impact on them is that they feel out of place and inadequate in their performance. They are a number of delusional and unrealistic thought process that they people embrace. They consider themselves being in good conditions as long as they remain slim. Any slightest increment in the weight results in worries that are insurmountable on the side of the victims. They develop character traits that are laced with thinking in extremes and adopting a habit of perfectionism. The adolescents who happen to be suffering from anorexia have the tendency to set given performance limits within which they operate. Anything below the par is considered incompetence. That drives them into feeling low and relapsing into emotional fits. They feel down in the dumps because of having not met the standards they set for themselves.
The second way of dealing with the menace is through purging or binge eating. This encompasses ingesting huge chunks of food material rapidly and it is done chiefly I secret of hidden environments. That is because the individual tries to avoid the stigma that comes with a situation where people getting to discover the abnormal behavior of one in connection with feeding habits. The insatiable appetite of the adolescents in question is not accounted for since they claim that they cannot control their eating habits. Some adolescents show the character of purging in order to ward off the possibility of gaining weight. They puke heavily after meals in a bid to ensure that the stomach little enough to provide calories for sustenance and not excess energy that may trigger off cases of overweight or adding any excess Basal Metabolic Index in the individual. Such a negative mentality concerning adding of weight has been superimposed by the media. The media strives to hail the slim ladies as the ideal ladies who are more beautiful, more elegant and modest. The discrepancy in the reasoning of various individuals has caused significantly low self-esteem in the adolescents who dread becoming stout. The slim ladies have taken to be the standard for the best ladies for matrimony or other aspects (Tao, 2013). This tends to create some sort of isolation in the females whereby the fat ladies feel marginalized and inadequate. They strive to lose weight in so many ways so that they can get to meet the standards that are set in the "beauty or fashion market". Some of the effects that are manifested due to vomiting that is self-induced or over-exercising.
Fifty percent of the victims of anorexia nervosa always binge after purging. One in two-hundred youths in the current generation experience symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is more prevalent in adolescents because the youths are more conscious of themselves than other cohorts. It is also hypothesized that it may be as a result of the rich stimuli of pressures that are rife in the immediate environment. The current society tends to be more inclined to appreciate the ladies individuals who are slim while the ones who are fairly endowed are significantly met with some bit of negative reactions while they interact with the members of the society. There are reports that have been presented that indicate that the majority of the adolescents who find themselves with the anorexic condition tend to fall between the age brackets of eight to fourteen years of age. The condition transpires just before the onset of puberty among children. This is brought about by the different changes that occur in the youth that entail hormones and other environmental factors. Ninety percent of the adolescent patients happen to be females. This is because the female fraternity is subject to the ecological pressure that dictates them to slim so that they can be accepted as modest and acceptable to the society. That is enhanced by the kind of negative pressures that are rampant in the immediate environment that leads to females feeling demeaned. The information that is propagated by the media concerning the slim adolescents has polarized the society for having portrayed them as the ideal ladies for the trending fashion (Meczekalski, 2015)
Bulimia nervosa is another condition that has been manifested the majority of the youths. It has been shown by the symptoms or regular consumption of large amounts of meals and then compensation is observed afterward. The compensation that is represented by fasting or purging is geared towards avoiding the probability of experiencing the gaining of weight in a particular individual. The victim conducts herself or himself with decorum coupled with utmost good faith but the repercussions are detrimental and grave serious to the individual in question. There are many symptoms that are shown by the individuals who have bulimia. The individual has an incessant feeling that s/he has no control over the eating habits and there is a phobia that s/he may not eradicate it. The individual makes numerous attempts to avert the gaining of weight via the purging characteristics which include rigorous exercise and the trend of fasting. All those moves are meant to avoid the excessive accumulation of food in the body which may exacerbate unnecessary weight gain. The adolescents who happen to be in such conditions portray signs of average range weight. Their weight tends to fluctuate over a given duration of time. There is an average of one to three percent of the female adolescent population and young women fraternity that strives to combat the condition of bulimia nervosa in the society. This is such a significant value that it becomes vital and necessary to handle the situation before the numbers plummet to result in a crisis.
There are other aspects where the diagnostic techniques employed fail to identify the given type of eating disorder where the condition is termed as Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). That is a situation where the diagnosis for both bulimia and anorexia fail to give positive results. That is registered when one experiences purging just after eating but s/he does not binge in eating.
Causes
The disorders are exacerbated by various factors that range from individual to cultural factors. Individual factors are those aspects that emanate from the person who is affected. They are the predisposing factors that create a fertile ground for the proliferation of the disorder. That entails perfectionism among the adolescents, the considerably low self-esteem among the youths, and the self-doubt that plagues the adolescents. The youths have a low ability to cope with the peer pressure that is significantly rampant in the environment. The extreme anxiety that results from the pressures bombarded from the polarized society causes the disorders to worsen with time. The cultural factors are the other aspects that tend to make women find it hard to cope with the trend in the society. The females are anticipated to be assertive, and modest by all means. The moment they fail to meet that is that they feel demoralized and disappointed. This bears on the general welfare and that culminates in the disorders that affect their appetite. The women are given the motivation to take up new opportunities and then become super mothers. The mass media material such as covers of magazines, Televisions, movies, and billboards tend to portray the slim ladies at as the most beautiful. The negative externality of dieting is that it results in becoming thin (Allan & Goss, 2014).
Treatment
The treatment of the disorders is designed in such manner that needs and the age of the youths is given priority. The entire process of therapy is based on the biopsychosocial model that helps to integrate all the means and avenues that will help to reduce the impact of the disorders in the society. It encompasses the nutritional and medical counseling which is essential for the recuperation process from anorexia, bulimia, and binge. The best treatment method has been the one involves a one-to-one session with the therapists or counselors. Both parties share their experience and the recuperation is a step by step process. There are various means that are used to treat the disorders (Allan & Goss, 2014).
Cognitive Therapy
The cognitive therapy that employs the behavioral aspects of the individuals is used to arrest the bulimia nervosa. The therapy exploits feelings, thoughts, and behaviors as well as their correlation. The comprehensive study of the aspects helps to harmonize and integrate the impact and then come up with a more accomplished means of combating the disorders. There is an emphasis that has been placed on the essence to take note of the counseling from parents, family therapy, and marital therapy.
Emotional Therapy
The therapy that has been said to be the most effective and efficient is the one based on the family. It helps to offset conditions of anorexia nervosa in adolescents and youths. That has proven the fact that parents harbor the capacity to enable their children to recover faster due to the leverage that they have over their kids as opposed to the therapists who just offer passive attention to them (Allan & Goss, 2014).
Conclusion
The eating disorders need to handle in order to avoid the suffering and discomfort that result from the disorder. A concerted effort is needed from every quarter to make the quest a success. The efficient and effective tackling of the problem will help prevent the adolescents from perennial stress that denies them the peace to concentrate on their work.
References
Allan, S., & Goss, K. (2014). Eating disorder beliefs and behaviors across eating disorder diagnoses. Eating Behaviors, 15(1), 42-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2013.10.002
Campbell, K., & Peebles, R. (2014). Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents: State of the Art Review. Pediatrics, 134(3), 582-592. doi:10.1542/peds.2014-0194
Dalmaso, M., Castelli, L., Scatterin, P., Carli, L., Todisco, P., Palomba, D., &Galfano, G. (2016). Altered social attention in anorexia nervosa during the real social interaction. Scientific Reports,6(1). doi:10.1038/srep23311
Eating Disorder Statistics • National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
Garcia-Ruiz, C., & Fernandez-Checa, J. (2013). To binge or not to binge: Binge drinking disrupts glucose homeostasis by impairing hypothalamic but not liver insulin signaling. Hepatology, 57(6), 2535-2538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hep.26423
Huber, M. (2017). Anorexia nervosa und Bulimia nervosa. Der Nephrologe. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11560-017-0205-3
Meczekalski, B. (2015). Long-term consequences of anorexia nervosa. Maturitas, 81(1), 116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.02.050
Racine, S. E., &Wildes, J. E. (2013). Emotion Dysregulation and Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa: The Unique Roles of Lack of Emotional Awareness and Impulse Control Difficulties when Upset. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 46(7), 10.1002/eat.22145. http://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22145
Sidiropoulos, M. (2007). Anorexia Nervosa: The physiological consequences of starvation and the need for primary prevention efforts. McGill Journal of Medicine : MJM, 10(1), 20-25.
Tao, Z. (2013). The relationship between Internet addiction and bulimia in a sample of Chinese college students: depression as partial the mediator between Internet addiction and bulimia. Eating And Weight Disorders - Studies On Anorexia, Bulimia, And Obesity, 18(3), 233-243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40519-013-0025-z