Anorexia and Bulimia

Anorexia and bulimia are eating disorders that affect millions of people every year all over the world. These two types of eating disorders can be caused by stress, peer pressure, the media and negative body image resulting in severe health problems or even death. These disorders are thought to be caused by women trying to fulfill a cultural image of being thin because they feel, to be accepted, you must look like everyone else. Men also suffer from these problems, although not to the same degree as women.

Thousands of men and women see themselves as fat when the rest of the world sees them as mere skeletons dwindling away to almost nothing. This debilitating illness is called anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight or getting fat. “Anorexia is an addiction, and like most addicts, people with anorexia tend to deny they have a problem.” They see themselves as healthy individuals while others see the damage their body is going through. Anorexia tortures almost every part of your body. Not eating can cause “low blood pressure, heart failure, weak muscles, swollen joints, kidney failure, bone loss, growth problems, and trouble getting pregnant.

Anorexia is often triggered by anxiety, stress, and unhappiness, but not all sufferers feel this way. “With a low self-esteem and need for acceptance they will turn to obsessive dieting and starvation as a way to control not only their weight, but their feelings and emotions”.

Teenagers are among the majority of people to develop an eating disorder because most teenagers are high school students, who either play sports or are involved in activities. “When teenage boys develop an eating disorder it is usually because they are in a sport that emphasizes weight, such as wrestling”. Wrestlers compete based on weight classes which make them feel pressure to stay within their desired weight class. Sometimes teenage girls “involved in certain sports, like ballet, gymnastics, and ice-skating, might feel they need to be thin to compete”. Girls who are involved in these activities are more likely to develop an eating disorder because they know their bodies are being watched closely, and they are always attempting to make their bodies “perfect”. Peer pressure and acceptance is also a huge cause for these eating disorders.

Men and women who live with Bulimia perform binge and purge episodes. When you see someone eating large quantities of food in a fairly short period of time and then either take laxatives, force themselves to vomit or perform compulsive or excessive physical exercise, these are obvious signs that a person is likely suffering from bulimia. Bulimics do this because “they feel overwhelmed in coping with their emotions, or in order to punish themselves