Eating Disorders
Eating Disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society because of advertisements and media images that associate beauty with weight. People who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa have very low self-esteem issues that result in a inexorable need to control their surroundings and situations. Since this is a nearly impossible task, sufferers often take to obsessively controlling the one thing they can, what they eat. Sometimes, sufferers are gripped with the fear of being perceived of as fat or of becoming fat. No matter how much weight they lose, this fear is always rampant in their minds.
It is important to note that both men and women, boys and girls, are diagnosed with these disorders every year. Bulimia Nervosa often starve themselves like Anorexics do, however, they have frequent episodes of binging and then purging where they consume a very large quantity of food at once and then forcefully throw it all up.
Signs and symptoms for both Anorexia and Bulimia can include a dramatic weight loss in a short period of time, obsession with calorie and fat percentages in all types of food, over exercising, self-starvation, refusing to eat with others, hiding food and flushing it down the toilet. Sometimes these restrictions cause hair to fall out, a pale grey coloring to the skin, and dizziness and headaches. Long term effects can include heart and liver damage, low blood pressure, the loss of their menstrual cycle in girls, and depression.
Inspirational Quotes
"The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others." - Madame De Maintenon