Is it an obsession with thinness, health, nutrition, or just a young adult in search of their identity?.
Despite the fact that eating disorders among teenage girls is low, young ladies who do develop them are at high risk for other emotional problems. Young men also suffer from eating disorders, but the numbers are a lot lower, when compared to young ladies. .
Young men with this affliction should receive equivalent treatment because the needs are the same, but usually do not. After all, how many young men want to admit to a problem that is labeled a female disorder. .
Studies have found that young adults with eating disorders were twice as likely to have a mental problem as a group of "no-eating-disorder" kids -- and that rate was approaching 90%. And among the kids with eating disorders, more than 70% of them continued to still have psychological problems in early adulthood.
With respect to symptoms and unhappiness with their lives, there was little difference between young men and young women with eating disorders. Both sexes suffered similar rates of distress depression, phobias, panic disorder, and dependence on alcohol. Both groups were also unhappy with how things were going in their lives than persons with no eating disorders. Studies support the theory that anorexia and bulimia are virtually identical diseases in both young men and young ladies.
It has been suggested that because pediatricians are custodians of health for young adults, that they should routinely screen them for eating disorders during physical examinations. Especially when the young adult has displayed signs of psychological problems. At the same time one should take into consideration that the two do not always go hand in hand. One expert says it's hard to say whether all eating disorder patients have mental problems. With bulimia, many of the young adults, if they develop it later, view it as 'trying it' because their friends are doing it, and are less likely to be psychologically impaired.