Eating Disorders Within Our Society
... Society encourages young girls to have an obsession with thinness that can lead to eating disorders. ... One might wonder how the media can lead to eating disorders, truth is that is NOT the only cause. In trying to understand the causes of eating disorders, scientists have studies the personalities, genetics, environments, and biochemistry of people with these illnesses. Most people with eating disorders share certain personality traits: low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness, and a fear of becoming fat. In anorexia, bulimea, and binge eating disorder, eating behaviors seem to develop as a way of handling stress and anxieties. ... People who develop bulimia and binge eating disorder typically consume huge amounts of food to reduce stress and relieve anxiety. With binge eating comes guilt and depression. ... Eating disorders appear to run in families, with female relatives most often affected. The genetic factors may cause some people to develop an eating disorder. Other influences may play a role in causing an eating disorder as well. One recent study found that mothers who are overly concerned about their daughters’ weight and physical attractiveness may put the girls at an increased risk of developing as eating disorder. ... Parents who control what their children eat end up with kids who are poor at self-regulating their eating, and are fatter. ... Mothers who regulate their own eating very closely tend to end up with poor-self-regulating girls. ... Another cause of eating disorders is being an athlete. ... For every 5 gymnasts, 3 of them have had an eating disorder at one time or another. ... No matter how well any of those cause are, eating disorders are truly caused by using girls in the media. ... All I cared about was what I looked like and every time I lost weight I always still thought I was still fat in society’s eyes, because I was still not model pretty and model skinny. ... This leads to eating disorders because the average 13 year old girl is still developing so it is difficult to lose weight during puberty. ... This can set a big stage for an eating disorder.