Novriska Adini

Anorexia and Bulimia

            In today society, where physical characteristics are used to measure beauty, people especially women are willing to push their bodies to extreme to achieve physical perfection. Sometimes, those women take the wrong way to get what they want. Those unfortunate women desire can cause them to develop eating disorder. The two most common are called “anorexia and bulimia”. Anorexia and bulimia are both serious eating disorder with some differences and similarities.

            There are five (5) major causes of anorexia and bulimia. The first cause of an eating disorder is that some teens place too much of an emphasis on their appearances. Those people do not like the way they look, which causes them to have an eating disorder as for as they feel need to change their appearances. The second cause is they are not comfortable with their bodies when they develop secondary sex characteristics. These people, especially girls, notice that their bodies are changing and growing and they develop an eating disorder trying to make their bodies back to the way it was before. The third cause is that some teens are perfectionists. These people see their body and think that their weight is wrong and their body is not perfect, so they develop an eating disorder trying to make their body perfect. The fourth cause is that some teens feel they have no control over their lives. They feel that the only thing they can control is how much, when, and what kind of food they should eat and should not eat. The final cause is the people who have eating disorder are not able to express their emotions. These cause them to develop an eating disorder because they either turn to food for comfort or turn away from food when they are overcome by emotion.

            Anorexia and bulimia are different although they have some similarities. The characteristics of both eating disorders are different. Anorexic individuals are likely to skip meals and refrain from eating. The anorexic will appear weak, such as frail bones and sunken in cheeks. In contrast to anorexic, bulimic individuals are likely to binge eat and vomiting afterward. They will appear more likely to have swollen cheeks and extremely unhealthy teeth. The skipping meals and the vomiting things are used by the anorexics or bulimics so they can get the right or even perfect weight.

            Anorexia are often occurs in teenage girl. They are very thin, deny they have a problem, withdraw from others, have no menstrual periods, and resist being treated. The anorexics think that slim or skinny is beautiful so they will keep their weight by avoiding eating. In contrast to anorexics, bulimia are often occurs in women in their early to mid-twenties. They have normal weight, realize they have a problem, have a desire to eat, are outgoing and social, have irregular periods, and are likely to seek help when confronted. The bulimics are so afraid of gaining extra pounds and they pick the wrong way to solve their problem so they develop an eating disorder.

            Although experts may differ in their approach, most agree on at least one fact: eating disorders are not just about food. It is about the physical perfection either. Indeed, from those explanation eating disorders should not happen to us since they are vary dangerous illness which can cause death because it is too late to get the right help.