Body image issues and eating disorders in women
Body image issues and eating disorders in women.Body image is how someone would perceive, think and feel about their body. A distorted body image can lead to self-destructive behavior such as developing anorexia or bulimia, which are two of the most serious eating disorders. More than fifty per cent of Australian women want to lose weight, although most are well within the acceptable weight range. 28.8 per cent of teenage girls admit to throwing up after a meal, while 15.2 per cent weighed themselves everyday. At the same time 150000 women are dieing from anorexia each year in America. (www.eatingdisorders.org.au, 2001)
So why are these women risking their lives and their health to lose weight? While eating disorders can be caused by social/cultural, psychological, biological and family factors, the main concern is the idealization of thinness in today’s society.
Anorexia is a form of self-starvation. It usually first emerges in early adolescence in response to the body changes which come with puberty. The patient may feel unhappy, unworthy, unattractive or ineffectual. Anorexia involves a preoccupation over body weight, eating, and food and the person is determined to control the amounts of food they eat. Some symptoms of anorexia include: loss of at least 15 per cent of body weight resulting from refusal to eat enough food, despite extreme hunger, overestimation of body size, even when they become thinner, intense fear of becoming ‘fat’, and preoccupation with the preparation of food.
The unrealistic attitudes about body size and shape may be why anorexia affects two out of every hundred teenage girls. (www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au, 2001)
About 40 per cent of people with anorexia will later develop bulimia. Bulimia affects up to three in every hundred teenage girls. (www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au, 2001) Patients with bulimia may be characterized by: eating binges with large amounts of high calorie food, during which the person feels a loss of personal control and self disgust, attempts to compensate for binges and avoid weight gain by self-induced vomiting, and/or excessive use of laxatives and fluid tablets, and a combination of restricted eating and compulsive exercise. 83 per cent of bulimics vomit, 33 per cent abuse laxatives and 10 per cent take diet pills (eatingdisorders.org.au – Information About Eating Disorders, 2001) The bulimic sufferer fears fatness from loss of eating control, and usually maintains a normal body weight, appearing to be fit and healthy.
The physical affects of anorexia and bulimia can be serious and if left untreated can be life threatening. Both illnesses can cause: chronic indigestion, loss of menstruation of irregular periods, strain on most body organs, chronic indigestion, seizures, harm to kidneys, urinary tract infections, dehydration, constipation, diarrhea, receding gums and rotting teeth just to name some.
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