Millions of people daily battle to lose weight, but what happens when it gets out of hand? Eating disorders are very serious illnesses, which usually occur in teenage girls. Anorexia Nervosa is where a normal weight person diets becoming 15% or more underweight, but still feels fat so continues to starve themselves (Myers 445).
Bulimia Nervosa is another eating disorder, but in this case they overeat and followed is vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercising (Myers 445).
Now that the eating disorders are explained, let’s explore why they occur. What makes girls starve themselves until they end up in the hospital? Well, some factors are believed to be family environment, genetics, and popular culture. Some believe the environment or atmosphere a child grows up can cause eating disorders.
Those who have families who suffer from alcoholism, obesity, and depression can subject them more to eating disorders. Also, those who grow up in competitive families and receive too much criticism may be more susceptive to eating disorders. Sometimes parents can be too hard on children and this can result in not only eating disorders, but also low self-esteem and depression. Although, family environment is not the only factor that may contribute to eating disorders.
The Term Paper on Eating Disorders 23
... 29). Some patterns that have been identified in certain eating disordered families include an overemphasis on appearance, social isolation, emotional ... express themselves and interact with others in a supportive environment. The goals of treatment are to help the ... Psychoeducational and cognitive-behavioral group therapy provides a natural environment for patients to learn the facts about anorexia ...
Genetics is another contributor to eating disorders some researches believe it may be inherited. I believe family environment and genetics go hand-in-hand because it forces a person to be more prone to these disorders. Maybe those who have eating disorders genetically inherited a lack of neurotransmitters putting them at a greater risk than the normal person. Genetics may not be a known cause at this time, but it is definitely an interesting concept that we will hopefully find more correlation.
Now we come to what I believe is the biggest leading cause to eating disorders and that is popular culture. Hollywood flaunts these stick figured models on the red carpet, and a teenage girl automatically thinks, “Wow look at Co lista Flockhart she’s a size zero that’s what I should look like in order to be pretty.” When this is far from the truth and in all reality the size zero models are the abnormal ones. Hollywood needs to be held accountable and tell these teenage girls the truth. A person doesn’t have to be a size zero to be beautiful and it is not healthy or worth it..
