Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders are serious conditions in which the person is engaged in food and their weight. The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating, these disorders can cause serious physical problems and can be fatal. Individuals with eating disorders generally have a negative perception of their body and will try to control their weight through excessive dieting, exercising or purging. Symptoms that may occur are refusal to eat and denial of hunger, a distorted self-image, lack of emotion, social withdrawal, and menstrual irregularities (National Eating Disorder Association) These symptoms can not be controlled and will lead to deadly self-starvation if you don't seek immediate help.

The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders estimates, "Up to 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder) in the U.S." As for, "47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures." The media has developed quickly over the years with the improvements in technology and now it has the ability to manipulate the society by molding people's demeanors and beliefs. The role of the media in advocating a perfect body image and size shouldn't be taken smoothly because it can cause detrimental effects on one's dignity. This persuasive capability of the media has lead to many controversies on the issue concerning the catastrophic effects of media's publicity on eating disorders; therefore, crucial actions must be taken before this issue becomes contentious.

Models are becoming dramatically thinner to satisfy societies unrealistic culture standard of perfection. Women are portrayed by an impossible stereotype by the media, it can have destructive effects on a persons health. Not only does media play a role in female adolescents, but the individuals involved in magazines. Spettigue and Henderson conclude,

Young women become obsessed with the thin ideal, and tendency for social comparison are most influenced by the media, so are they also more likely to use the media. Women with anorexia nervosa engage in heavy media use and describe their consumption of fashion magazines as an "addiction," with many saying that their greatest media dependency occurred after their eating disorders had begun to take control of their lives.

Slender models make women feel despondent and unsatisfied with their own personal beauty. Correspondingly, millions of women who are unsuccessful to reach this standard of physical attractiveness leads them to feel ashamed and remorseful and the desire to be slender drives them to amplify eating disorders.In orderfor them to look super skinny they must excessively diet and starve themselves which can cause fatal heath problems. Rader Programs emphasizes on the statistic, "Seven out of ten women