Brief_Overview_of_Eating_Disorders

Molly Miller Ms. Datisman Senior Culminating Project I-search paper Eating Up the Media Propaganda Essential Question: How can my understanding of eating disorders help those afflicted' Eat the food. Don't eat the food. Eat the food. Don't eat the food. A battle in my brain. I sit at the kitchen table with my sandwich. No one is home to see me cut it into half inch squares. I move them around my plate with the knife. Half a ham sandwich. I am about to enter the eating contest of my life. After struggling with a mild case of anorexia nervosa in my early high school years, I formed an interest in eating disorders. Many studies have been done on the importance of physical health and being thin is all over the media. Being over-weight isn't good. Ways to stay skinny. Lose 50lbs in three easy steps. What people don't focus on is the danger of being too skinny. Worldwide there are magazines, newspapers, and other forms of media that show girls that are unnaturally skinny. The influence the media has on young people is phenomenal. When I asked Elijah Hauff his thoughts on the media in terms of its impact on people he said, “I think that they feed the need to be thin. They make you want to be the most thin and most ripped person so you can get a good looking partner or whatever else. They make you feel horrible about yourself.” Despite the huge impact the media has on young adults, there are many companies that photo-shop their models into looking much thinner than they are. Seeing those thin women sets an ideal for the public that is way out of proportion. Although Americans are progressively becoming more obese, the ideal for girls is progressively becoming thinner. Using my favorite on-line tool, I found that an eating disorder is “any of various disorders, as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, characterized by severe disturbances in eating habits” (Dictionary.com). As there are so many differing varieties of eating disorders with differing severities, it can be hard to tell if a person does indeed have an eating disorder. A few signs of eating disorders are odd eating habits: refusing sugary, or high calorie foods; refusing to eat at certain times of the day; refusing to eat a normal or large amount of food along with many others. Those with eating disorders may bring up the topic of weight frequently, or jokingly mention being over weight to friends and family. Oftentimes, they are being completely serious, but are afraid to tell the truth. Those are just a few of the warning signs of an eating disorder. Because they are caused by so many things, eating disorders can be hard to prevent. Besides the media and their push for abnormally thin women, peers are cruel and demand perfection. Peer pressure is not in any way a new concept. People run rampant with judgment throughout all stages of life and especially those in the younger groups such as middle school, high school, and college. “Attractive people are desired and coddled in our society; they have an easier time getting jobs, finding boyfriends and girlfriends, getting parts in music videos, simply getting the average waiters' attention”(15 Martin). A more true statement could not have been said in terms of how we treat each other. To be beautiful, one must be thin. That is embedded in our minds from an early age through the media, our parents, and our peers. As our society makes us believe we must be skinny, so do our own minds. A lot of the eating disorders are caused by low self-esteem. I doubt there is a single person alive who has never compared themselves to someone else. Young women tend to do this much more than any other age group, and not surprisingly, they are also the group with the largest percentage of eating disorders. Self-doubt is easily the main cause of eating disorders. With all “diseases” there are some people who are more likely to fall victim. Eating disorders are no different; there is a predisposition to them as there is with alcoholism and other habit type “diseases.” People with eating disorders have compulsive personalities; the rituals they create are safe and familiar places to reside. Many of the rituals revolve around food and body image, such as arranging food on their plates, excessive exercise, eating systematically, looking in the mirror, and obsessive calorie counting. Some behaviors are not food related, such as always knowing where the nearest bathroom is, avoiding people, lying, keeping secrets, kleptomania, and compulsive shopping. (Hall and Cohn 52) Besides the chemical make up of people making them more prone to eating disorders or not, many people are put in circumstances where they are more likely to obtain an eating disorder. Being a model might come to mind, or perhaps entering a beauty pageant. Those are some fairly obvious places society sees eating disorders as beginning. An eating disorder is no less fatal to a model than it is to anyone else, but almost anyone can see when a model is thin as a rail. I personally am not a model and have no intention of ever being one. There are many over-looked people who form eating disorders based on their surroundings. One of the most deadly factors of eating disorders is the ability to hide them. I found that athletes are not always the healthiest among us and can hide an eating disorder much easier than someone who is not competing in a sport. “Identifying athletes with eating disorders is not easy they are often secretive or blame their eating and exercise regimen on their training goals,” said Jennifer Malone, Clinical Supervisor, The Renfrew Center of Tennessee (Gold Medal). Although society views them as exercising a healthy amount and eating a healthy amount, it is common for athletes to suffer from eating disorders. These eating disorders often go by unnoticed, or are accepted as necessary training and part of the sport. When I asked a very athletic friend of mine at the high school, Jackie Johnson said, “I have been in a lot of sports in my life, and so many of the people don't eat days before their weigh-in and exercise a huge amount that is probably more than healthy in a short period of time, but nobody takes any notice because it is excused as part of their sport” (Johnson). Due to society's lack of recognizing eating disorders among athletes, they are the deadliest of all eating disorders. I personally think being an athlete may be one of the riskiest things in life and one of the most dangerous choices a person can make. “If the pressure to lose weight or perform better does not come from the sports environment, it tends to come from within the athlete” (Pearson and Rivers). There are traits in people that cause them to be more prone to eating disorders, and many of those traits are also found in athletes. According to Pearson and Rivers, “These characteristics include high self-expectations, competitiveness, perfectionism, compulsiveness, drive, self-motivation, and extreme pressure to be slim and perform well.” Even without the added on pressure of society, parents, peers, and coaches, athletes tend to push themselves to the extreme. Because eating disorders are often secretive, certain actions are not noticed as eating disorders. Take for example chewing and spitting. With chewing and spitting, a person puts food in their mouth, tastes it, chews it, and then spits it out without swallowing. By not swallowing, they hope to get some of the pleasurable flavor of the food, but not any of the weight that comes with eating. Chewing and spitting is most commonly done with junk food and other foods high in flavor, but bad for the body. Some people however do this with all types of food. Chewing and spitting may seem minor compared to many other eating disorders, but I found that it can actually harm your mouth almost as much as other more severe eating disorders like bulimia. Taking part in chewing and spitting further supports the concept of not eating and could easily blossom into something more serious like anorexia. As an eating disorder with one of the highest mortality rates, anorexia nervosa is also one of the most well known eating disorders. Much of the research I found was true for me personally when I was struggling with my eating disorder. I found that “. . .anorexia nervosa is a multidetermined disorder that involves individual biological and psychological factors as well as environmental influences” (Brumberg 161). A person who suffers from anorexia often is “weak with hunger while they describe physical sensations of over-fullness that make it physically uncomfortable for them to swallow” (Tyre). There are two main types of anorexia nervosa: restrictive and binge-eating(often called purge style anorexia). In restrictive anorexia, a person limits the amount of food they eat and does not actively use laxatives, or other ways to rid themselves of things they have eaten. People with this type of anorexia sometimes suffer from over exercise as well. A person who is in the binge-eating purging style of anorexia nervosa is a person who has the behaviors of over use of laxatives, self vomiting, enemas, etc. The binge-eating purging category of anorexia nervosa is somewhat similar to bulimia. Bulimia nervosa is a “serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge-eating” (Learn Basic Terms). Bulimia is as well known as anorexia, but possibly more deadly due to the damage caused by self-induced vomiting. Vomiting destroys the stomach, throat, and teeth due to the acidic bile along with the lack of nutrition and other vital things needed to live in a healthy manner. Similar to bulimia, except without the vomiting, is binge-eating. Binge-eating is when a person eats a large quantity of food and doesn't stop until they feel uncomfortably full. Binge-eaters are most often obese. They tend to have troubles with over-eating and body weight. Compulsive over-eating [called binge-eating] is often referred to as an addiction to food. When a person goes on a binge, it is often followed by feelings of guilt, shame, self-doubt, and depression just like with many other addictions. Being overweight is both a mental and physical strain on the body like any of the other eating disorders of the opposite style. I knew that being obese can cause many health problems, but I learned that it doesn't cause as many problems as being too thin such as with the eating disorders first mentioned. Not eating, especially among athletes can cause many, many problems among young girls. Pearson and Rivers state: Physical symptoms include fatigue, low blood sugar, thinning hair, slowed metabolic rate, and in severe cases, an absence of regular menstruation, bone loss, a weakened heart, and even death. Depressive symptoms such as withdrawal, irritability, and insomnia are also exhibited. . .physical symptoms include dehydration, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, bad breath, damage to vital organs, and blisters in the throat. There are rare, but potentially fatal complications, such as esophageal tears, gastric rupture, and cardiac arrhythmias. Depressive symptoms or mood disorders are common, as well as anxiety and substance abuse. Despite all of the horrible outcomes of eating disorders, the media and society will not stop their pressure on people to be thin. Looking at the cover of a magazine, most people do not realize that the people have been edited to look thinner and more like what society sees as the ideal person. Many companies use photoshop and other similar programs to thin their models. Even their skinniest models who suffer from things such as anorexia and bulimia are not the ideal thinness and are edited to become more of what the ideal is. What I asked myself is, how are normal, everyday people expected to fit into that fake thin cut-out' There are a few people who are beginning to fight the media and their quest to make the whole world abnormally thin. One example comes from the tennis star Serena Williams. “Before the recent Australian Open, she was criticized for being heavier than usual. She went on to win the women's tournament. Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sport Foundation, hailed Ms. Williams for her 'in-your-face redefinition of what a strong woman should look like” (Taking a bite). More people should be taking action to fight the media and prove that being super thin isn't the ideal. Eating healthy and exercising (with moderation) are very important: not the weight you are, or how you look. There are many risks involved with eating disorders, and yet because of pressure, the number of people suffering from them are increasing every year. A shock came when “Last March, Ms. DeVinny died from cardiac arrest related to her starvation. She was 20 and weighed roughly 70 pounds” (Scott). Ms. DeVinny was a young female track star, and her life tragically ended due to an eating disorder. A prime example of what can happen when athletes are not watched for eating disorders. The summer after she won the title, Ms. DeVinny, from Racine, Wis., began to run even harder and eat even less. When she came out for cross-country in the fall, she looked frail and underweight. Her coach was concerned enough to prevent her from competing in several meets, but he allowed her to do two-thirds of her training. He never asked about her menstrual periods and did not know about her anorexia. (Scott) If someone has talked to her about her anorexia and over exercising, might she have lived' This is a question many people ask themselves after the death of a loved one suffering from an eating disorder. I hope to lessen the amount of deaths from eating disorders through spreading the knowledge I have gained. Overall, I found that eating disorders are a problem within society. Although some people know they exist, most people never talk about them. The lack of recognizing eating disorders in athletes makes those people at the highest risk of death from an eating disorder. I think that how people view eating disorders makes a difference with how lethal they are. While anorexia and bulimia are seen as potential death, an athlete not eating for days before a match, race, or weigh-in is not seen as a threat of any sort. Sneaking extra workouts might mean an athlete is dedicated to their goal, but it could also mean that they are dedicated to another goal: getting thin. I discovered that a person who has gone too far and passed the line between healthy exercise and verging on compulsive over exercising and not eating may not be noticed due to the person being an athlete. In my opinion, people will die because of this. In my search about eating disorders, such as the one I was plagued with earlier in my life, I found bountiful information. I was very shocked to find so many studies having been done on the topics of eating disorders. Combined with the obvious impact of the media, I do not why we haven't changed how the media portrays people. Lately, a few companies have made the effort. Dove for example, now shows television commercials with more normally proportioned women. My hope is that more companies will follow in their footsteps toward accepting people as they are. As a single person, there is little I can do to stop the spread of eating disorders. It mostly relies on the media and large companies who shape the views of society. I think there should not be an increasing number of eating disorders if there is so much knowledge about them and how harmful they are. Although I cannot change the views of society, I know about eating disorders and can recognize the symptoms in those around me and help them get through their own struggles. People are more aware than they were previously, and yet the problem continues to grow larger. As a person trying to stop the spread of eating disorders, I find this very discouraging. My fear is that those with eating disorders, especially athletes, will never be confronted and because of this, they will lead a life of pain, and depression, if they don't die first that is.