The onsent of eating disorders during adolescence is common. Discuss Essay

The onsent of eating disorders during adolescence is common. Discuss some of the causes and risk factors and long term effects of these disorders - Essay Example (Steinhaussen, H., 1995) Due to the intense and demanding lifestyle of high school, nutritious foods may be replaced with high calorie fast food, which often leads to weight gain. This weight gain, and remarks made by parents can reinforce self conscious images into some teens, which can result in developing eating disorders such as the sometimes fatal eating disorder anorexia nervosa. Eating disorders come in a variety of ways, such as eating large quantities of food and obsessing with thinness. These conditions affect many children, teens, and adults around the world. (Bryan, L., 2000)They are real, complex, and devastating situations, which can have serious consequences. There are three types of eating disorders: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that results in an avoidance of eating because of a cluster of specific emotional issues in adolescence. It is an eating disorder that mostly occurs (about 59%) in adolescent girls, but it can also occur among teenage boys and adult men and women. Usually, anorexia begins between the ages of 14 to 18 when young teenagers go trough puberty (Ruuska, 2003). Anorexia is characterized by extreme and irrational fear of becoming fat, significant weight loss of 15% or more of the normal weight, distorted body image and amenorrhea or absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles. Excessive weight loss is accomplished by restricting food intake of less than 1,000 calories per day, excessive exercise, diet pills or even self-induced. The patients constantly exercise, move food around the plate, wear oversized clothes to hide their appearance, and worry about their figure all the time. They also have a fear of eating in front of others; sometimes they feel depressed, have problems socializing and starve themselves, even if they have a normal figure. They also spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, pay too much attention to their weight, and accumulate food in