Eating disorders are diseases that have a large impact on our society. They are many types of different eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, etc. All of these are associated with having an unhealthy perception/relationship with food. And where does that start? How can we allow people to be pushed in such a direction that even that which sustains us harms them?
Society is forcing unrealistic perceptions of body image, weight, appearance, onto those especially vulnerable. We are telling young girls that they need to be a size 0 from the moment they hit puberty through the rest of their lives. We tell young boys they need to be cut and well-built in order to attract women and to show how fit they are. This then gives false perceptions to the opposite sex and what they should expect when they look for a person to date. They are looking for these modelistic body types, but that isn’t how 99% people are.
We need to be teaching our children and youth about how people really are and what a realistic body type is. We cannot keep letting the media control what enters the brains of our youth and how they should feel about the bodies they have been given. We need to revolutionize the system that controls what content is being distributed. And don’t get me wrong, I am a free speech proponent and I think that the censoring of music/television is dumb, but we cannot have the media propping up lies to control the brains of the people. This is how body image issues arise.
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves the binge eating of food, followed by a purge soon after. Purging can be vomiting, excessive exercise, the taking of a laxative, or any way that the sufferer attempts to rid themselves of all the food they consumed. This can have drastic effects on the hormones of the person and can completely throw their body out of wack. Issues such as menstrual dysregulation can arise in the female sufferer, causing infrequent periods and other issues.
Bulimia nervosa is set in motion by the unrealistic standards of the media in our society and is furthered by mental and neurological issues that exacerbate the problem. Until we clean up our act and stop forcing unrealistic images into the brains of our citizens, we will never be able to fully rid ourselves of eating disorders.
On Bulimia
