Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: Common Eating Disorders in American Women

In the 7th grade me and my friend Ashley, discovered the magazines called Seventeen, and YM. These are the Cosmopolitan and Vogue of teenage girls. On the cover of each monthly issue are featured beautiful skinny girls with headlines like: "Great new exercise plan", or "look great for summer, with this fast paced diet". I don't have to say that we were very quickly sucked into the whole thing and we started dieting, counting calories, and the whole deal. These depictions of perfection in the media are the main cause of, which have affected a large percentage of Americans.

Anorexia Nervosa and bulimia are the two most common. have become a serious and important issue in the last 5-10 years or so. When I was in high school my girlfriends and I constantly obsessed about our weight, and about dieting. It became so serious that two friends of mine had to be hospitalized for damage that the disorder was doing to them, both physically and mentally.

Anorexia Nervosa is primarily a psychological disorder, but is so serious that it damages the physical state and well being of the person, as well. Usually affecting young girls, Anorexia (in its short name) starts out as an innocent desire to lose a few pounds, and becomes serious when the individual's psychological state is not healed, and feelings of incompetence and depression re-appear. The individual will then start obsessing about food and dieting and will ban themselves from any food at all. The person usually eats what he/she thinks is enough to survive, leaving their bodies undernourished and sick. Anorexia often leads to Bulimia, which is also psychological in origin and can have dire physical consequences. Unlike anorexia, in which the victims starve themselves, bulimia victims binge on food and then purge by self-induced vomiting. Due to the fact that the vomiting takes place secretly, not all cases are reported, but it is estimated that approximately one fifth of all American women are afflicted, mostly teenage girls.

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As I mentioned earlier, I too was afflicted by these, but luckily I was given a reality check before it got extremely serious. I tried vomiting, I tried starving myself, but these didn't work too well, my method was using appetite suppressors and diet pills. I obsessed on them so much that it was becoming a serious problem. I remember looking in magazines and seeing girls that appeared to be flawless, wishing that I were like them. No matter how much I tried, the obsession just became worse, until my friend was hospitalized, and possibly even saved my life.

My friend was a serious bulimic who had been doing it for a lot longer then any of us had realized. I came to school one day and she wasn't there, we found out that she was in the hospital. Out of fear, my friends and I skipped school and took a bus to the hospital, to see what is wrong with Laurie. I must say that seeing my friend hooked up to machines, and pale, and sick looking, knocked some sense into me. After that day I stopped taking the pills, and I tried not to think about dieting. I realized that it's not worth losing my life over.

For my friends, and I, the ending is a happy one. Most of us had stopped the cycle, and some just calmed those habits down to a minimum, but every year more and more people die of, and more victims become trapped.

Something must be done about this problem, because it is a serious matter that can lead to life or death matters. In my opinion, there should be more information available to the public, about these disorders. In fact, I think that the government should make it a public issue and recognize it as a harmful social problem. Magazines and advertisers should start to portray the human body as beautiful in all shapes and sizes, instead of putting 90 pound stick-girls on their covers. Schools should have mandatory seminars and lectures on and on public image.

I strongly believe that if these things are done as I have suggested, the problem with self esteem and weight control will be a less serious problem and lives will be saved. This is crucial to young girls all around the world, who have enough problems to deal with during puberty, that should be able to enjoy their lives without the worries of their next meal or their next pound.

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