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Anorexia- An Eating Disorder and Mental Health Concern by Elizabeth Meshcheryakova

You may have heard about anorexia, but how much do you really know? Millions of people all over the world suffer from this condition. The cause for this varies- sometimes it can be biological factors, environmental factors, or even bullying. A shocker to many is that anorexia is not only an eating disorder, but also a mental health threat.


What is anorexia?


It is estimated that around 70 million people suffer from eating disorders all over the world. Anorexia is one of the most common types of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa or simply anorexia is identified as limited eating, weight loss, and fear of gaining weight. People affected by it will aim to lose weight either by excessive exercising or extreme dieting. Their bodies won’t receive enough energy and nutrients which can lead to further medical issues. This is why it is so important to address it in the early stages.


But how is it related to mental health?


While, bullying and peer pressure can lead to depression, low self-esteem, insomnia, and bad school performance, along the way the victim can also develop anorexia. There are many cases where specifically body shaming, and appearance bullying have led people to dangerously start changing their appearance. They are likely to convince themselves that their body “isn’t right” and aim for skinnier looks. Statistics show that teens are more vulnerable to being victims of anorexia and it is a common diagnosis amongst teenagers.


`Victims will be enveloped in a thought cycle of constant weight loss. Anorexia is a life-threatening condition and in severe cases, victims can lose consciousness, experience low blood pressure, muscle weakness, develop anemia, infertility, and even die.


They will eat less, workout irrationally and in some cases even take “weight loss” medication or diet pills that in themselves are harmful and not approved by medics. Thsi was unfortunately the case for Isabel. Isabel Nelson, who was 16 at the time, was struggling with her body image and was diagnosed with anorexia. As a goal to lose weight quickly she bought diet pills. Unfortunately, they only had negative effects and in an interview with TeenVogue she explains, “They are bad news. My heart raced, I was nauseous, and I had to leave work because I almost fainted there. I was moody, erratic, emotionally unstable, sad, and incredibly anxious and depressed. As a person with those two diagnoses, to begin with, it was scary.” In the end, Isabel had to be hospitalized.


What is being done to help fight this?


Unfortunately, there are still millions of people suffering from anorexia but there are helplines, professionals, organizations, and resources out there for them. There are helplines available in various countries, in Canada, National Eating Disorder Information Center (NEDIC) provides information and help on the topic of eating disorders. There are also helplines and resource pages in the US, UK, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and multiple more countries all over the world. In addition to many online resources, a family doctor or a therapist is also an option. There are also various events focusing on teaching and helping people with eating disorders such as camps and classes/groups.


Resolution


In all, we still have a lot of work to do to beat anorexia and eating disorders. Just some steps we could take are continuing battling bullying in school, organizing more events to raise awareness and support those who are struggling with this medical condition; because like mentioned earlier, this isn't only a medical condition it is a big mental health concern too.



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