Eating Disorder

Eating disorders are becoming more widespread and increasing in the Western countries. Research has shown that about one percent of young women between the ages of ten and twenty are starving themselves, and around eighty percent of people are unhappy with their appearance. Eight million people suffer from an eating disorder and are dying to be thin. I watched two shows, The Tyra Banks Show and The Real World Key West, which revealed someone with an eating disorder.

Scarlett Pomer, an actress on the TV show Reba, suffered from an eating disorder. Over the Christmas holiday, she gained a little bit of weight and wanted to get back to the weight she had before. When she was losing the weight, she started getting a lot of attention. She started her eating disorder when she was getting a lot of compliments and satisfaction from other people.

Scarlett did some research, looking for tricks and tips from other anorexia articles. She constantly had food in her mind and was always questioning what she looked like. She was in denial and didn’t think that she had a problem. Her behavior progressively got worst, and she quickly got sick and lost a lot of weight. Her family finally forced her to go to a treatment facility. She didn’t want to seek help because she thought she could stop whenever she wanted to. Another reason why she didn’t want any help was because she didn’t want the press to pick up on her story.

A teenager named Amy was also on The Tyra Banks Show. She was currently suffering from an eating disorder and got inspired by Scarlett to get help. Amy was suffering from both bulimia and anorexia and always had food in her mind when she woke up. She would feel like she conquered the day when she hadn’t eaten all day and would constantly tell herself that it would be the last time if she did binge. Amy would keep junk food in her room in case she did feel like eating. She binges on any food and doesn’t even taste it since she eats it so fast. Amy has had the problem for seven years that she actually thinks that she’s supposed to live like this. She has never liked herself, and whenever she looks in the mirror, she hears a voice saying, “You’re fat!”

Her parents were there for support on the show. Her dad is a doctor, and it was frustrating for him that he couldn’t even help his own daughter with her sickness. Amy’s parents just didn’t know what to do anymore since Amy had gone to so many treatments and still had an eating disorder. They had a feeling of hopelessness. Amy’s eating disorder has definitely impacted her family. Her parents have to lock up the fridge sometimes because she would eat her younger sibling’s sack lunch. Her younger brother would even put a note on his food saying, “Don’t eat this.” Amy confronted her parents saying that she needed more support and be more understanding. She didn’t want them to hate her because she already hated herself for her sickness.

In The Real World Key West, one of the roommates is named Paula, and she is suffering from an eating disorder. In the very first episode, you can tell by looking at her that she has an eating disorder, and she’s even considered the anorexic girl by her roommates. Paula says that she constantly thinks about food and doesn’t like anything about herself. Everything she says about herself on the show is negative. She watches all her roommates eating all the food that they want, and she feels so jealous and questions how they do it. Paula calls herself weak and says that if she does eat something like pizza, she would gain so much weight and get fat.

Her roommates are real concerned about her because she doesn’t eat anything. She definitely can’t hide her problem in the house because she lives with six other roommates. They encourage her to eat and try to tell her that she needs to seek help. Paula did say that she would be willing to get treatment because she doesn’t think she could get better by herself.

Eating disorders usually involve depression, division of foods, and irritability. Paula from The Real World had signs of this. She was never happy about herself and always had emotional problems whenever they went out. It frustrated her that her roommates could eat anything they wanted, but she couldn’t. Her roommate encouraged her to eat a hotdog, but she knew too well what she could and couldn’t eat. Paula told her roommate that she would eat the hotdog, but without the bun.

For bulimic individuals, they feel out of control when they eat, swear to never binge again, and frantically tries to undo the binge. Amy from The Tyra Banks Show experienced the same things. She keeps on telling herself that it is the last time and swears that she will not do it again. Amy gets so hungry that she eats so fast and doesn’t even taste what she’s eating. She actually video taped