The Pressure of Eating Disorders

The Pressure of Eating Disorders

With all of the pressures of daily life, some look to eating disorders to help ease the pain. In recent statistics on the webpage for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health states, “It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder- seven million women and one million men.” Among the millions are actors Paula Abdul, Elton John, and Joan Rivers to name a few. (Eating Disorder Statistic 2006).With the disorders becoming a growing problem, physicians look at each case to see how the disorder affects the person individually. Previous victim Amy describes her experience: “Anorexia is like you’re running down a hill and all this wind is going through you hair and it’s exciting. But all of the sudden, you’re going too fast and you start to spiral out of control. You fall. Then you’re just sitting on the ground shocked, with all these bruises” (Lener, Lee and Brenda Lener 2006). This rollercoaster that victims experience on a daily basis causes immense emotional, physical, and social damage.

Eating disorders develop from, “A complex interplay of physiological, psychological, familial, and cultural factors (Rumney 2009). These problems arise from past experiences that have sparked the disorder. Each of these issues lead to the problem, “With the backdrop of these interacting factors, the onset of anorexia may be gradual, or may be more sudden, provoked by one or more triggering events” (Rumney 2009). Emotionally, patients describe the eating disorder as “comforting” or “reassuring” when all else fails. (Kontic et al. 673). I myself have experienced the emotional pressures of eating disorders. When looking for an escape from the everyday struggles of life, I found comfort in havi...

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... help of my physician and family’s support, I can look past it. Today, I can say that appearance is not the key to pure joy, and it cannot fix the stresses of life; that is something to work on one day at a time.

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Works Cited

Eating Disorder Statistics. South Carolina Department of Mental Health. South Carolina Department of Mental Health. 2006. Web. 17 May, 2014.

Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. "Amy's Story-Anorexia." Medicine, Health, and Bioethics: Essential Primary Sources. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 159-163. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 17 May, 2014.

Kontić, Olga, et al. "Eating Disorders." Srpski Arhiv Za Celokupno Lekarstvo 140.9-10 (2012): 673-678. MEDLINE Complete. Web. 14 May 2014.

Rumney, Avis. Dying to Please: Anorexia, Treatment, and Recovery. Jefferson North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, 2009. Print