Madison Johnson
ENG110
DR. Mohlenhoff-Bagget
3/12/10
EATING DISORDERS
According to “Eating Disorders: Is Societal Pressure to be Thin to Blame?” up to 35 million Americans have an eating disorder (Prah). It is not uncommon for parents, friends, and even teachers to firmly believe that if someone in their lives was suffering from an eating disorder, they would catch on and act immediately to help. Unfortunately, anorexia and bulimia can go undetected, causing severe emotional and physical pain to the people under their influence. Realizing some possible causes of anorexia and bulimia can be the best form of prevention for these eating disorders.
Understanding what both anorexia and bulimia are is of primary importance. Being familiar about traits exhibited by people with these disorders, can also aid an outside ally to step in and offer a helping hand, or even save a life. Solutions come in different forms and the effectiveness of therapy, medications, and nutrition analysis can vary depending on the person. However, it’s important to know there is help for each and every person at war with anorexia or bulimia (Simon). Every person is unique, therefore no two solutions are likely to be identical.
There are more than two types of eating disorders, however the ones typically brought up in the media are bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa. According to the article “Eating Disorders: Is there too much pressure on women to be slim?”, “studies show that over half of all bulimics have practiced self starvation” (Worsnop). Although the fact that bulimia can be a result of anorexic tendencies, the two disorders have a wealth of differences. Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder which causes the person to suppress weight gain by binging and purging or, in other words, eating excessively and then throwing up the food (Eating Disorders, Radar...