اشترِك في نشرتنا الإخبارية
Today’s many standards have many people running around desperate to be thin and fit, therefore, beautiful. What happens when these feelings are taken to an extreme? What happens when the effects start shifting, changing from positive to negative?
Eating disorders are what usually follow. Around seventy million people worldwide suffer from eating disorders, mental illnesses often accompanied by depression, anxiety, and their many variants.
There are three main types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and birge eating disorder (B.E.D.). Anorexia is the fierce limitation of the intake of food, for fear of gaining weight, while bulimia is the purging of food after eating too much too quickly, which is often done through throwing up and/or vigorous exercise, both of which are unhealthy. As for B.E.D., it is the lack of control over the amount of food entering the body, commonly manifested as binging sessions that are followed by feelings of guilt and shame for their behavior.
A series of biological and environmental stressors aside from self-image and negative body image can also lead to eating disorders. An abusive childhood, for example, can lead to the person developing bulimia, the reasoning behind it being the need to find a sense of control they couldn’t have as children. Peer pressure, on the other hand, often causes anorexia, and the victim usually continues on that sick path even after they become hazardously overweight. A close friend of mine has recently confessed to me that she had been having symptoms of anorexia. She told me she was refraining from food entirely (it had been three days at the time of the confession) only settling four cups of water or 1 pieces of fruit or two. When asked why, she told us she felt fat. Allow me to clarify, she is most definitely not fat, just chubby at the worst. We tried to convince her otherwise, and even though there were no serious effects on her body yet, it took us up to a week of convincing and reasoning for her to finally eat normally again.
I cannot stress enough how dangerous these disorders are. Anorexia, bulimia, and B.E.D. are the most fatal of all mental illnesses not just because being obese or underweight is harmful to yourself, but also because of the way it tricks your mind into thinking you are much worse, mentally and physically, than everybody else. As such, my request is simple. Please, take care of yourself. Take the time to compliment your appearance, and if you meet someone new, compliment their appearance too. Working against your body and doubting it will get you nowhere. Love it, cherish it, and treat it well. It’s supposed to last a lifetime after all.
Grade 7
Armenian Evangelical College
