A girl struggling with an eating disorder attempts to find an outfit in her closet
People with eating disorders often don't have a realistic perception of their bodies.
Eating disorders cause the affected individual to have an unhealthy obsession with their weight
Eating disorders can eventually lead to death if left untreated
Eating
disorders are serious, potentially fatal diseases that affect millions of
people, mainly women, throughout their lives. Body dissatisfaction and
sub-clinical disordered eating attitudes and behaviors are the best-known
contributors to the development of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. As
young as age six, girls begin to express anxieties about their weight or body type.
Lisa
Mosley’s family is one of the millions of families affected by the disease. Her
sister Becky suffered from anorexia for more than a decade and died of
pneumonia at age 47. Becky’s anorexia caused her to drop 32 pounds and weakened
her immune system. “She
was so thin and the more people tried to get her to eat the less she would
eat,” Lisa said.
Unlike Becky, Diana Schneider was able to gain control over
her disease. Diana was one of many girls whose body dissatisfaction intensified
into anorexia. “I was 13 when I developed anorexia.” Diana said. “It started
out as trying to lose weight and be healthy, but it turned into an obsession.”
Diana has made significant progress with her recovery, but doesn’t believe she
will ever be 100% recovered. “If I want to lose weight I have to be careful so
I don’t become too controlling. It never completely goes away, you just learn
more about it.”
20
million women and 10 million men in the US will experience a clinically
significant eating disorder at some point in their life.
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