Adolescent Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders and Adolescence adolescents go through many changes as they hit puberty, they begin dealing with changes to their hormones, their relationships, even their physical appearance. Many children are feeling uncertain about these changes and look to their peers and to the media to tell them how they should look and what growing up entails. They feel a loss of control over their emotions and their relationships, experience frequent mood swings due to hormonal changes that cause confusion and frustration (Berk,2014).
At this stage in development, adolescents are developing their sense of identity. The groups they interact with change as they prepare for dating the groups integrate members of the opposite sex. They become aware
They often develop in late adolescence to early adulthood primarily in females age 15-25 years old. statistically, 1 in 250 females will develop an eating disorder in their lifetime. Eating disorders have a multifactorial causation which can include both biological and environmental risk factors (Obadina, 2014).
Eating disorders impact the entire body and cause many health problems. Starvation affects the body’s immune system and ability to regulate temperature. Eating the wrong kinds of foods in the case of binge eating disorder can cause nutritional deficiencies as well. Starvation and nutritional deficiencies can affect the cardiovascular system as well as brain function. Purging via vomiting or laxatives can have negative permanent impacts on the gastrointestinal system as well as damage to the saliva glands, heartburn, tooth decay, and unstable blood sugar levels (Obadina,
At this age adolescents, especially adolescent females may start to exhibit risk factors such as perceived pressure to be thin, internalizing the thin ideal, dieting, negative affectivity, and body dissatisfaction (Rohde, Stice, & Marti, 2015). These adolescents experience societal pressure to be thin from their peers, families and the media if they feel like they are overweight the insecurity they develop can consume their thoughts and emotions. This perception that thin is pretty can be dangerous for them at a time when they are figuring out who they are. They may also internalize the ideal body type as the unrealistic image of thin that they see in magazines and on dolls. This can occur with or without external pressures. They may believe that being thin equates to being pretty and being pretty means being happy (Rohde, Stice, & Marti,