The Cause of Eating Disorders Essay Example

We have all been told about eating disorders but, are we aware of what causes them? When we hear ‘eating disorder’ we likely think of anorexia, which is when the person eats little to no food. There are different kinds of eating disorders but the most common are anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia has two different types. The most common is when the person eats way too little and or not at all. The other type is when someone is on a very strict diet, exercises excessively, and does fasting for a day or two after eating. Bulimia is when someone eats a lot of food to the point where they are painfully full. They then will go to the restroom to relieve the pain by throwing up or using laxatives. These two types are most common in athletes, teenagers, and young adults. There are many causes but the most common are body image issues, depression, stress to do well, social media, and bullying. 

The sports that are most common to have eating disorders are the ones where they look a certain way or weigh a certain amount. Gymnastics is one sport that has eating disorders. 51% of women gymnasts and 33% of men gymnasts have an eating disorder to stay tiny. Christy Henrich was an amazing gymnast with a nickname of “E.T” for extra tough. Henrich was a very promising gymnast and won fifth for all-around at the National Junior Championships at thirteen. She also won tenth at the Senior Nationals at age fifteen. Henrich had a turning point in March of 1988 when she wanted to try out for the Olympics. The judge had told her she was too fat, so she lost weight. She ended up being ninety pounds when she tried out but sadly did not make it. Her eating disorder then escalated. She was hospitalized more than fifteen times from 1988 to 1990. While in the hospital she had the fear she would get fat from the IV that gave her the nutrients her body desperately needed. Christy would rip them out ad let them drip into the trashcan. Her psychotherapist at the time named Dr. Gail Vaughn said, “She was afraid of failure. She was terrified of being fat.” She started to refuse help and later died at sixty-one pounds in 1994.

Everyone looks up to athletes, especially teenagers who are still finding themselves and figuring things out. It takes time to find out who you want to be and around high school is when most do. A high school is a crazy place filled with many personalities and different people. School is one of the easiest ways that hide eating disorders because the kids are away from their parents so they cannot see what happens. What is crazy too is how ages twelve to twenty-five have 95% of cases for eating disorders but, 11% is just for high school students. The majority of high schools have bullies. The bullies in high schools are not always physical towards people. They mentally and emotionally break people down, especially girls. They bully others for weight, hair color, and the clothes they wear, and it is hard to pick yourself back up from being depressed. I know when I was in high school, I got called fat daily and it makes me not want to eat ever again just to fit in. Thankfully I never really listened to others but one of my friends in high school did. She was bullied for two years about her weight and how her button-down was always tight. She cried all the time because of it and I had noticed how her face had gotten thinner but, I never thought anything of it due to the fact that we were also athletes at the time. We worked out and played multiple sports year-round. I never thought she was fat, but she did because of the girls who bullied her. It got to the point that she started losing a lot of weight fast but anytime I asked she blew the question off or changed topics. She still was getting bullied after losing a lot of weight and I started getting more and more concerned as any friend would be. Two years later, we came back from summer into our junior year. She was unrecognizable. I went to the dean and told her what had been happening. Of course, my friend was mad because she thought she was now okay and fitting in when really, she was slowly killing herself. Two months went by, and she no longer was in school and finally told me she was anorexic and bulimic due to the bullies and wanting to try so hard to fit in. She did get the help she needed and is happy but that is what happens when girls get picked on for their weight. They just want to stop eating completely whereas guys just would cut back and work out. This kind of now leads to how social media starts to influence how people feel about themselves. 

Everyone knows about social media and the influence it can have on someone. Studies show that even thirty minutes on social media can increase your anxiety and depression. Most people compare themselves to the people they see on Instagram, TikTok, and even YouTube or other types of media. People either want to live others’ lives or look like other people. Speaking of Instagram, models use it and kids who are very young want to be skinny and tall and are in fear of becoming fat. Research also shows that our brain is not fully developed in reasoning and good decision-making skills until we are in our twenties. Therefore, kids and teens, even young adults think what they see on social media is how reality is. Most kids, teens, and young adults who have body image issues are seeing all the “perfect” pictures which will cause them to try to look that way even more. If they did not have a disorder, they normally end up getting one. With these people who make themselves look so “perfect” comes a dark cloud of cyberbullying off fake accounts. These people that we all see living the best life are fighting battles too especially depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and that is everything that eating disorders feed off of. 

No matter what happens in life, bad things can happen to anyone. We live in a world of people who struggle with these disorders daily. They are athletes, teens, kids, young adults, models, influencers, and just regular people who deal with depression, anxiety, bullying, and social media. We now know that anorexia and bulimia are the most common kind of eating disorders and that they can be triggered at any time to anyone.