Introduction
An eating disorder is an illness caused by the abnormal eating of food either through excessive consumption of food or the insufficient food consumption. This causes a disturbance in the consumption of everyday food to a person with an eating disorder. The victim usually starts eating small amounts of food or vice versa and eventually the conditions spins out of control into a health condition.
These eating disorders are affecting young people and especially teenagers who are concerned with their weight or body shape. Eating disorders are accompanied by other mental illnesses such as depression, substance abuse, or anxiety disorders .
Eating disorders are caused by idleness among the teenagers’ who mostly lock themselves up in their rooms and play video games or spend most of their time on the internet. In most cases, the eating patterns of children may be influenced by the media and, thus, media content may be a cause of eating disorders to children.
Both men and women may develop eating disorders. It has been observed that eating disorders mostly affect children. However, older people especially those in the mid-30s, have also been showing increasing levels of eating disorders. This has been evident among successful women with settled lives. Eating disorders when manifested at a tender age, it can lead to serious health and mental problems such as stunted growth and isolation of the victims from other people. Examples of eating disorders include:
- Anorexia nervosa- This type of eating disorder is characterized by the overall lack of appetite and an intense fear of being obese and a continued pursuit of being thin .Symptoms include thinness and development of a dry, pale yellow skin and brittle hair and nails.
- Bulimia nervosa- This type of eating disorder is characterized by victims eating too much food mostly food rich in calories then they vomit it all out. Persons suffering from this type of eating disorder appear somehow thin but not excessively thin as persons suffering from anorexia nervosa. Symptoms for this eating disorder include: swelling of the glands located on the neck and jaw, the development of kidney problems and sore throats.
- Binge Eating Disorder-This is a type of eating disorder where persons suffering from it consume large amounts of food and frequently and this may lead to health problems such as obesity and diabetes.
Eating disorders have become a global problem among teenagers who are obsessed with fashion and increased peer influence. It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder and that 10-15% of people with eating disorders are males. This growing concern on the increasing eating disorder prevalence in the US throughout the world has led to the development of counseling forums by organizations and hospitals. According to , eating disorders are the leading cause of death among all the deaths attributed to mental health problems. This fact, therefore, stresses on the need for corrective measures to be taken to avert further increases in cases of mental health disorders.
Some of the Institutions involved in the fight against eating disorders include;
- National Eating Disorders Association which is located in New York, USA
- Eating disorders Coalition which is located in Washington DC, USA
- Binge Eating Disorders Alliance (BEDA) which is focused on improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Binge Eating Disorder.
These organizations have been developed as a result of the growing concern on eating disorders among teenagers in the United States and they are aimed at providing scholarly, medicinal, and psychological assistance to persons with eating disorders or are affected by a person dealing with any of the above conditions.
My research aims at determining the main causes of eating disorders, its prevalence in the United States and possible mitigation measures to this problem by examining different theories and previous works by researchers on the same.
My research is aimed at answering different research questions about the menace of eating disorders among teenagers and married women. In addition, I also aim to establish whether there is a relation between people’s lifestyles and the factors that increase the likelihood of the development of eating disorders. I examined various theories that are related to this particular research problem by comparing different researches done by people from the US and other countries.
Process
I examined different theories that account for the processes that lead to eating disorders among teenagers by finding a common factor that relates to all the works that I examined. One of the sources I examined is an article written by Neumark-Sztainer and others in the year 2002. In this article, Neumark and his friends discussed some of the concerns that adolescent children. They also discussed about some of the behaviors potrayed by over-weight children and those portrayed by children who were not overweight.
According to , weight related concerns and behaviors were a determining factor in development of eating disorders among their sample population. On their article, the research was not only based on the weight concerns but also through height, body fat composition through the two sexes. The principle objective of the research was to examine the relationship between weight-related concerns and behaviors across sex and weight status. The research focused mainly on adolescents in the United States.
The research focused mainly on binge behaviors that lead to obesity among young (16-19yrs). The research indicates that a high number of the adolescents examined portrayed high levels of body dissatisfaction, weight control practices that were unhealthy as well as other irregular eating patterns. This was mainly among adolescent girls who are actually affected by unhealthy eating practices in the name of “maintaining shape”. Most of the teenagers who were interviewed had one thing in common, and that was the concern of the status quo about their shape and weight.
On their research which mostly consisted of a sample size of 4467 teenagers with a mean age of 14.9 years, the measures used were, weight disparity, body satisfaction, and perceived weight status. However, parameters such as sex, race and socioeconomic status, school level and ethnicity were used to develop the report as a method to narrow down the conclusion.
The results indicated that the percentage of girls and boys who were underweight was 4.6% and 5.7% respectively; on the other hand, the percentage of overweight girls and boys was 12.6% and 16.6% respectively. This outcome clearly indicates that boys are the most affected by weight disorders, both anorexia and binging. However, according to the conclusion drawn from their research, depicted that adolescent girls reported a high prevalence of weight related issues, concerns and behaviors. Many overweight adolescents reported themselves as being overweight and cared about controlling their weight.
This research clearly shows that the growing concern on weight control measures among teenagers should be addressed efficiently. The information gathered by this survey is useful and can be used to develop strategies for dealing with abnormal eating behaviors among teenagers. Owing to the credibility and professionalism of research and the method of carrying out the research, conclusions drawn from this research are useful in determining the teenage group that is most affected by obesity and extreme thinness.
In addressing the issue of abnormal eating habits and its related health and mental problems, the research addressed only overweight and underweight problems among teenagers. The research focused mainly on binge behavior and anorexia nervosa. However, the research clearly defines the teenage groups that are affected majorly by eating disorders but does not provide a solution to the problem. It outlines the need for better and efficient methods of dealing with eating disorders.
Source 2:
The second source was a research carried out in the year 2000 to determine some of the risks that faced individuals who had eating disorders. According to (Celio, et al., 2000), Excessive weight concerns, dissatisfied body image and disordered eating habits are commonly exhibited by adolescent females. This research is aimed at providing a solution to bad eating habits among teenagers by evaluating between classrooms based psycho education program and online based methods of delivering psycho-education. The research’s main objective was determining the situations that cause teenagers to develop a negative feeling among them. The conclusion to these two methods is based on their performance and ability to fulfill the objectives of the study which is reducing the risk factors that lead to eating disorders.
The reason for deciding on this article is that it focuses on the identification and reduction of valuating between two eating disorders by evaluating between two methods of delivering psycho-education to teenagers. Depicts that, disordered eating habits lead to loss of self-esteem, shame, confidence, and shame and other psychological related problems.
This research was carried out in a school and involved different student bodies whereby the online students were supposed to post the situations that trigger a negative image of themselves on an online confidential journal. On the other hand, the classroom based students were supposed to present their views to their co-coordinator on a weekly basis. This was done classroom based sessions which lasted 1-2 hours were meant to, orient the students diagnosed with an eating disorder. The measurers used in this survey were weight and shape concerns.
Odea and Maloney have repeatedly claimed that some of concerns harbored by people who were overweight include the fear of adding more weight, worry of the development of bad body shape and the feeling of being fat. Such fears had a bigger effect on teenagers. It was observed that most teenagers ended up looking for information from various sources such as the internet and consulting friends on how to curb further increases in their weight, However, information from such sources is not always correct. In this research, the results indicated that an internet based program student’s body was the most effective in reducing body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitude and behavior among college-age women.
The most improvement was seen at the follow –up stage where the students showed more commitment and dedication and thus reflected to the weight and shape parameters. However, the internet based program had confidential issues which led to, the drop-out of more students at the post treatment stage. Most of the overweight students showed dedication and more motivation to achieve to achieve a healthier weight through healthy means. This has not been the case in most eating disorder surveys carried out.
Most college-age women are well educated and are determined to achieve a healthy weight by using credible and healthy means. This is not the case in high school teenagers who mostly depend on advice from their peers and online articles of achieving a healthy weight and body shape. Reiterate that, information posted on the internet by random individuals is often misguiding and it is thus a factor which leads to eating disorders and mental depression after they realize that the methods they adopted do not work.
This article through strategic and uncontrolled methods of dealing with eating disorders has clearly shown that using online forums between the affected parties and health counselors. These produces better results compared to the face-to-face sessions with moderators’ since it reduces the shame felt by the persons dealing with eating disorders as they don’t have to face anyone. The survey showed that overweight persons are well aware that they are overweight and would like to achieve a healthier weight through counseling sessions and proper eating habits.
Conclusion
Eating disorders are a growing concern among teenagers in developed countries who engage in unhealthy eating habits which affects not only their social life but also their education and their economic status. Most teenagers and middle age persons enroll in forums for dealing with eating disorders but end up dropping out after they realize that the results they are looking for are through long-term dedication and change of lifestyle
Eating disorders also affect old people, and especially males, but it is rampant in adolescents and college individuals. A major source of concern is the fear that teenagers suffering from teenagers have often been shy to seek professional help on how to cure their disorder as a result of fearing stigmatization the community. Such shy teenagers, therefore, end up using the wrong methods of tackling their eating disorders. This in turn leads to, the development of these eating disorders leading to mental illnesses such as extreme depression and end up locking themselves away from their peers and family. Conclude that the online method of guiding and treating patients with eating disorders is more efficient than the face-to-face method. Research should be carried out to improve this online method and provide better solutions to the classroom based technique. The organizations involved in dealing with eating disorders should also aim at providing quality information to the people at an affordable price since the majorities affected are teenagers who do not work and are afraid to ask for funds from their parents due to low self-esteem.
Better, efficient, and timely methods of dealing with eating disorders should be developed to reduce the cases of death due to problems associated with eating disorders e.g. obesity and diabetes. Integration of both online and face-to-face techniques should be used to determine the best method of reducing these risks. Educating the public should also be done to them on better eating habits and the way of living. Eating disorders are treatable and psychological and medicinal methods should be adopted
Another solution for dealing with eating disorders among teenagers is the elimination of behaviors or thoughts that lead to unhealthy eating, and preventing relapse. Patients diagnosed with any eating disorder should continue with counseling sessions even after they feel that they are healthy again to ensure that they do not undergo a relapse. This is a method of ensuring long-term and lasting results to patients treated of eating disorders.
Works Cited
Celio, A. A., Winzelberg, A. J., Wilfley, D. E., Eppstein-Herald, D., Springer, E. A., Dev, P., et al. (2000). Reducing risk factors for eating disorders: comparison of an Internet-and a classroom-delivered psychoeducational program. Reducing risk factors for eating disorders , 650–657.
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Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., Hannan, P. J., Perry, C. L., & Irving, L. M. (2002). Weight-related concerns and behaviors among overweight and non-overweight adolescents: implications for preventing weight-related disorders. Weight-related concerns and behaviors among overweight and non-overweight adolescents , 171.
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