Eating Disorders; Is Societal Pressure to be Thin to Blame?

Americans today are faced with a fast paved lifestyle, high stress, and the ever present "beauty myth". What is the beauty myth you ask? Thought that would be the one to grab your attention, but please let me explain. The beauty myth is the belief that one can never be to rich or thin. And before you say that the beauty myth doesn't exist let me ask you if you watch television, read magazines or live in America. Because if you do you are faced with the perfect American image every day of your life, and that image is to be thinner and rich. Up to 35 million Americans have an eating disorder, even while America is facing an obesity epidemic affecting some 60 million Americans. Victims of eating disorders are obessed with food and the fear of getting fat. Anorexics either refuse to eat enough to maintain a normal body weight or eat only enough to survive, typically seeing themselves as fat even though they are often dangerously thin. Bulimics generally follow a so-called binge-and-purge cycle; compulsively eating large quantities of food and then off seeing weight gain by vomiting, fasting, exercising excessively or misusing lazatives, diuretics or enemas. Eating disorders are considered mental illnesses.

Eating disorders affect everyone, from all walks of life including men, middle-aged women, blacks, hispanics, rich and poor. You know someone with an eating disorder whether its evident or not. However, there are no reliable statistics on whether eating disorders ar eon the rise or just being diagnosed more often because they aren't tracked by the federal government. NEDA estimates that up to 10 million females and 1 million males struggle with anorexia or bulimia, or both. Amoung US women, about 1 percent are anorexic and upto 5 percent are bulimic, while another 25 million are estimated to suffer from binge eating. Experts say that eating disorders are caused by a complex mix of biological, psychological, and social factors, such as brain chemistry, metabolism, coping skills and personality- along with a culture that promotes thinness.

Victims of eating disorders typically try to hide their problem and balk at getting help. They turn to websites that promote anorexia and bulimia as choices and lifestyles rather than the diseases they are. The sites offer tips on how to avoid detection, like vomiting while showering to makd the sound, spitting food into a soild color cup to avoid swallowing and wearing hidden ankle weights when you go to the doctors weigh in. They also promote" thinspirations" - photos of unusally thin people that they can strive to be like.

Suffers who do seek help are in for a long journey. Treatment for anorexia typicallly take five to seven years. Impatient care for an eating disorder can cost up to $30,000 a month and more than $100,000 for outpatient therapy and medical montoring, according to ANAD. Treantment is costly because both mental and physical problems are involved. It really makes you wonder if a society wants to treat people wants to treat people with eating disorders.

Society as a whole is stick on the perfect image, having to an amazingbody, perfect skin, hair, make-up, and having to have the best of the best for clothing. But it doesn't stop there. The "beauty myth" has grown from just having to be thin and rich , to having to have it all. Celebrities now have to sing, dance and act, along with clothing lines and anything else they can think of. They can no longer just be a music star, or an actor. They have to be a thin beautiful one stop show.

We are told that we are to look like in every tv show, commerical, music video, and magizine. Every advertisement has stick think models posing, showcasing them to be perfect, and something to strive to be. I truly feel that as our society continues to strive to be the best of the best, we are only hurting ourselves. Having it all is unattainable. And the more we are socialized into being stick thin and rich, the more we are only hurting ourselves. I myself have a few extra pounds on me, and I know the pressure that a female can feel to lose weight. And I think that something needs to be done, the sites that promote this type of behaviour need to be shut down, these people need help, to see themselves for who they truly are, not just a number on a scale. I find it amazing that this issue hasn't really been a topic of great discussions, and that there aren't organizations fighting to raise awareness. I personally think that Americans secretly promote eating disorders, and our society is the number one cause of why people develop them in the first place.

The facts and information used in this article were taken from;

Prah, P.M (2006, February 10). Eating Disorders. CQ Reseacher, 16, 121-144. Retrieved from http://library.cqexpress.com/cqresearcher/ Document ID: cqresrre2006021001 Document URL: http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2006021001

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