Nowadays, there is a lot of talk among the younger generations about eating disorders, which, especially during the last year of the pandemic, have increased by 30% among young people between the ages of 10 and 16. But what is this phenomenon really?
Eating disorders (Dcas) are diseases characterized by a change in eating habits and excessive concern for weight and body forms; Suffering from an eating disorder disrupts a person’s life and limits his relational, working and social skills. The main Dcas are: anorexia (nervous), bulimia (nervous) and uncontrolled eating disorder (from which various degrees of obesity develop).
– Nervous anorexia is a particularly serious eating disorder. Those who are affected by it face a marked weight loss, due to the fear of getting fat and a distorted view of their body image.The precise causes of nervous anorexia are unclear. Experts on eating disorders have thought that the appearance of nervous anorexia is related, in some way, to the personality and behavioral traits of an individual.
Going into the details of the above study, people who are typically predisposed to develop nervous anorexia would be those who have a marked tendency to suffer from anxiety or depression or who have difficulty managing stress. It has been found that 90% of those suffering from this disorder are female and the remaining 10% are male.
– Clinically, bulimia is characterized by episodes in which the subject feels a compulsive need to ingest disproportionate amounts of food and feels he is not able to control his own behavior.
Bulimia sees the subject regularly resort to self-induced vomiting or inappropriate use of laxatives. These episodes are triggered by mood changes, anxiety or stress. It has been shown that 19% of bulimic people are undernourished, 37% take a normal amount of food for an average human and 44% eat too much.In addition, the suicide rate in people with bulimia is 7.5 times higher than the general population.
– Uncontrolled eating disorder is characterized by the daily impulsive intake of a large amount of food followed by a feeling of loss of control. It is not followed by inappropriate compensatory behavior, such as self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. Uncontrolled eating disorder affects about 3.5% of women and 2% of men in the general population during their lifetime. Usually, binge eating takes place in private because after eating, people feel embarrassment, shame or even hatred towards themselves for their behavior. Sometimes, they alternate with periods in which the amount of food you eat is substantially reduced.
This can lead to a vicious circle difficult to eliminate, in which blood glucose levels increase and decrease rapidly and wrong messages reach the brain translating into craving for food even if the body does not need them.
Only a small percentage of people suffering from an eating disorder ask for help. The mass media are one of the main factors that provokes Dcas, because they propose an “ideal” body shape.
Francesco Brunori,
Chiara Ceccucci,
Letizia Ianni,
De Romanis Samuele.
classe 3AL
