MyLine:Cover Story

The dangers, causes and symptoms of eating disorders

Date published: 1/2/2007

By TEILER ROBINSON

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

Let's get to the point: Eating disorders can kill you.

In addition to death in extreme cases, abnormal eating patterns, including anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating and pica (an appetite for nonfood substances) can lead to routine health problems like fatigue and malnutrition.

"I suffered from anorexia," said James Madison University sophomore Kaylee Flowers.

"It just is not healthy at all. You don't feel like yourself, you are always hungry and tired, and you just feel so weak."

But there are cures. Since most eating disorders are caused from depression and low self-esteem, they can be cured from psychological and social therapy and psychotherapy.

As some people begin making New Year's resolutions to lose a few post-holiday pounds, it's important to know the right and wrong ways to diet--and the right and wrong reasons for doing it.

Many eating disorders, such as anorexia, are caused by an airbrush image in a magazine. But the images we see in a magazine aren't real and that is what we all need to realize.

"I think people who suffer from anorexia have a problem with themselves, if you are not happy with yourself," said one male teenager, who wished to remain anonymous.

"[If] you want to make yourself smaller, do it the right way, exercise, don't starve yourself."

Another reason why anorexia and bulimia are big issues today is Web sites known as "pro-ana" and "pro-mia." They have "thinspiration pictures," which are pictures of girls who are skinny or in-shape. They include tips and tricks for girls to be anorexic and bulimic without their parents finding out.

These Web sites tell girls that it is OK for them to have eating disorders, promoting it to them as some type of club. But the reality of it is that they are giving people, specifically teenage girls, ways to kill themselves.

Other reasons for developing an eating disorder include athletics, which is often the case in the 10 percent of the people with eating disorders who are male.

"I thought that if I ate and then threw up I could keep my weight down for football season," said Massaponax High School senior Toni Ross.

"I would go out to eat with the rest of the football players and my friends, and then I would get home and get rid of it any way that I could. I made weight, but passed out during a game, so I had to sit out for five games. It is better just to lose weight the right way."

TEILER ROBINSON is a sophomore at Brooke Point High School.

The starvation 'diet' "Wow, look at her stomach! I wish mine were as flat as hers." Most of the time, that is the way it starts. It starts with a false image and a wishful dream, and ends as an eating disorder. "Maybe if I don't eat for the next two weeks, I'll be in a size two by prom night." In reality, not eating for two weeks will drain your energy--and whatever size you were before, you will still be near that same size two weeks later. Starvation causes you to faint and feel sluggish. Actually, starvation shouldn't be called a starvation "diet." A diet is a healthy way of staying in shape, and that is exactly what starvation is not. Bulimia "Maybe if I eat a bunch of food to gain some energy and make my parents think I am eating, and then throw it all up, I won't gain the weight!" Bingeing and purging are extremely dangerous. Bulimics eat large amounts of food and then, directly after, they vomit or take a laxative. Bulimia can cause dehydration and dental decay. It is hard to detect bulimics because they stay near their normal weight. Anorexia "If I eat one small salad a day for the next year, my body will be just like hers!" Sadly, few people who develop anorexia with this mind-set wind up making themselves more attractive. Unlike bulimia, anorexia is easy to recognize. Anorexics are extremely skinny, deny hunger and exercise often. Also, anorexic women can develop amenorrhea, which is a delay or disruption of the menstrual cycle. Amenorrhea, in turn, can cause dwarfism and deficient muscle development. --Teiler Robinson

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Date published: 1/2/2007