Have you ever been so afraid of gaining weight that you constantly think about what you can or cannot eat? What about skipping early meals (breakfast and lunch), and then feeling so famished later on that you pig out during dinner? Do you talk about food a lot with your friends? Are you always trying some weird diet, where you only eat one or two kinds of foods? Or do you feel so guilty after eating that you have to work out?.
If you answered yes to any of the above questions you are one of the 11 million Americans who suffer from an eating disorder (Ogilvy). Now ask your children or younger siblings these questions and you may find that their answers are not that different from your own.
Across the country, younger and younger children are scrutinizing their bodies and finding fault often with alarming ramifications. Jonelle C. Rowe, M.D. says, "We have a whole generation of pre- school and elementary school aged kids who think thin is beautiful, and this message is being reinforced by our society" (Epel 74). A study done by the Eating Disorder Awareness and Prevention Inc. (EDAP) found that 81% of ten year olds are afraid of being fat (Ogilvy). In the last decade, children as young as eight have been treated for eating disorders (Epel 74). .
Eating disorders are a complex group of illnesses that are often seen in the adolescent female population (Tenore 367). There are two main eating disorders, anorexia .
Moegling 2.
nervosa and bulimia nervosa. And while they share certain similarities, they vary in their causes, incidence, and age of onset (Worsnop 2). .
Anorexia Nervosa is defined as a psychiatric disorder in which a person's distorted body image leads them to believe that they are overweight even when they are dangerously underweight (Kagan, Anorexia 45). This can be a very serious and potentially life treating disease because anorexics loose the weight by self-starvation and over exercising (Ogilvy).
