In our society,the perceived perfect image of women falls right in line with the slendernessof girls 10 to 12 years old. This unrealistic perception spawned by thesupermodels seen today in ads for popular clothing and undergarment makers suchas Victoria’s secret has caused many women to become obsessed with their ownimages.
In our society, women are ten times morelikely to develop eating disorders and compulsive exercise habits that can belife threatening and often do prove to be fatal.
Here are the most commonly developed eating disorders:
“Anorexia nervosa” is a life threatening disorder that occurs when you eat verylittle food and become obsessed about your weight even when you are badlyunderweight. An anorexic person will often see themselves as being fat whenthey look at themselves in the mirror even though they appear very skinny toeveryone else. People with this disorder often turn to laxatives and variousdiet aids such as fat burning pills to bring their weight down to dangerouslevels.
“Bulimia” is a disorder that occurs when you go on an eating binge, and thenimmediately purge it all out. You will eat a large amount of food, even junkfood, and then get it all back out of your system by both self-induced vomitingand laxative use. This practice may throw off your body’s mineral balance inthe blood and put the health of your heart at risk.
“Compulsive overeating” followed by “compulsive over exercising” is a patternthat is not as dangerous as anorexia and bulimia but still can lead to bothphysical and psychological problems. This is a pattern in which you will eat alarge amount of food followed up immediately by exercising excessively hard andfor a long period of time.
It is estimated that more than one out of three collage female athletes may atone time develop an eating disorder. If you suffer from an eating disorder,seek medical help as soon as possible because if left untreated, thesedisorders can cause permanent health problems and even death.
