Eating Disorders, A Discussion

This is a family and community issue.

As a father of two teenage girls many years ago, I share from my experience that eating disorders are a dangerous thing. Anorexia Nervosa, for our family. “What we found extraordinary was that here was this 14-year-old. She looked like she had just come out of a concentration camp, but she was convinced she was fat." That was the beginning of a very long process of family therapy, hospitalizations in eating-disordered women’s centers, and individual therapy for everyone in the family, including the twin sister. 

“Harvard Health describes symptoms that parents should watch out for in their teenagers: 

• “You may notice changes in what, when, and how much your child eats or see them being more restrictive or regimented about their eating. 

• Your teen’s weight might fluctuate, or your child may express a lot of unhappiness with their body or their weight and/or exercise far more than they used to. 

• If you’re the parent of a child with an eating disorder, your child may spend a lot of time in the bathroom.”. 

The University of Massachusetts Medical School says that “1 in 5 teens struggle with eating disorders.” All racial and ethnic groups, including boys, are not immune to eating disorders. Eating disorders are dangerous and can kill or haunt one with serious and long-lasting effects on life.

Teen girls face a higher risk of anorexia than adults. Biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors interact, and their strong influence on each other creates conditions with a particularly high risk of developing eating disorders like anorexia.

Meanwhile, the adolescent lacks the identity of others, which develops their self-image. In this scenario, puberty incorporates numerous physical changes to the teenager’s body that may cause self-consciousness and embarrassment about their physical appearance.

As a result, the physical changes also alter their appearance, which may not align with societal beauty standards or their peer group. For teen girls, physical changes differentiate them from boys and idolize their peer girls, forcing them to be obsessed with their bodies. Apart from that, adolescence is also characterized by intensified emotion, making one vulnerable to criticism of oneself. 

Teenagers seek recognition from their peers. To that end, their self-esteem hugely protects them from the perceived ideal body image. 

Psychologically, adolescence involves the process of finding oneself. Teen girls primarily compete with their peers to meet their expectations. Hence, their self-image is predominantly skewed toward the superficial appearance and perceived images of others. Therefore, they are more likely to internalize the societal standards of body image as the ideal body image. 

Furthermore, teen girls are rude to one another. Then, girls established an operationally harmful system where the struggle to be recognized for merely existing beauty standards escalated to a prestige level. 

By alluding, the presence of another girl creates an unfavorable environment for diet and food praise while simultaneously encouraging self-doubt. In this context, they compare themselves with others to use others’ downfall to worship other girls. Therefore, the sainthood of extreme dieting and exercising and objectified symbols that induce anorexia are significantly condoned.

Moreover, the competitive nature of the pursuit of stereotypes accompanies social interactions, aggravating the situation and increasing the risk of feeling inadequate, which in turn triggers eating disorders.

For example, “some may develop severe, harmful eating behaviors to blend in, make friends, or feel comfortable, particularly when those behaviors bring desirable social results or when the eating behavior allows them to become the objects of desire.” 

Indeed, in an environment where thinness symbolizes success, popularity, and attractiveness, it is impossible to give up this social currency. Girls who influence teenagers also play a significant role. This also applies to the internet, where social media encourages harmful behavior by only showing the best photos and promoting the stereotype of thinness as the beauty standard. Teens face the same pressures as other girls and celebrities, which exacerbates the situation.

We must present a comprehensive approach to combating the power of anorexia. Education about body positivity, the promotion of healthy relationships, awareness about the danger of negative self-perception, and the creation of online and offline environments that represent all body types are all part of this comprehensive approach. A community of people who openly discuss their predisposition to the threat of anorexia protects teens. Family is an important part of the community aspect because they also contribute to the risk factor.