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Actress Jennette McCurdy shares her story of how her eating disorder started when she was 11 years old.

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Jennette McCurdy Opens up About Her Eating Disorders

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This article from webmd.com shares multiple stories of teens dealing with eating disorders and how they got to that point. The article will go on to explain what eating disorders are, the different types of eating disorders, what causes it in teens, the symptoms to look out for, and how to treat it.

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Eating disorders are not uncommon among teens. Take "Kerri" (not her real name) for example. Upset with a sudden weight gain, the 15-year-old forced herself to throw up after eating her school lunch. It seemed harmless. After all, most of the kids at her lunch table had done it before, and they seemed OK.

Then, after doing it five times, Kerri had a new ritual of vomiting right after eating. She did it at school and then again at home. No one knew -- until Thanksgiving. She had eaten more than usual and told her parents she felt sick. Suddenly, there was a tap on the bathroom door. Kerri's parents were standing outside the door, asking how long she'd been throwing up her food.

"Mason," 14, was also obsessed about his weight. Short and chunky most of his life, Mason had a growth spurt. Now tall and thin, he was determined to never to be "the fat kid" again. Mason hated throwing up. So, he started eating salads with no dressing, running miles each day, and taking laxatives to keep his weight down.

It worked. He looked trim and athletic. But he felt exhausted, fatigued, and irritable. In the middle of the night last winter, Mason became violently ill with stomach cramps and a high fever. His doctor admitted him into the hospital and began running tests to figure out his mystery illness.

Weight obsession affects millions of teenagers today, especially girls. At any given time, one out of every seven women has or is struggling with an eating disorder. One study a few years ago found that 36% of adolescent girls -- more than one out of every three -- believed they were overweight, while 59% were trying to lose weight.

More than 90% of people with an eating disorder are girls. Teenage boys, though, also have body image concerns. Many boys strive for the perfect body by dieting or by doing compulsive exercise.

Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, are psychological disorders that involve extreme disturbances in eating behavior. A teen with anorexia refuses to stay at a normal body weight. Someone with bulimia has repeated episodes of binge eating followed by compulsive behaviors such as vomiting or the use of laxatives to rid the body of food. Binge eating is characterized by uncontrolled overeating.

Anorexia nervosa affects as many as one in every 100 females. Teens with anorexia fear gaining weight and are at least 15% below their ideal body weights. They believe the main gauge of self-worth is their body image.

Experts believe many American girls are bulimic and have kept the problem a secret. Bulimia often starts in the late teens and early adulthood. People with bulimia go through cycles of eating enormous amounts of foods followed by purging by vomiting, using laxatives, or diuretics or hours of aerobic exercise.

Warning signs of bulimia include:

Extreme preoccupation about being overweight

Strict dieting followed by high-calorie eating binges

Overeating when distressed

Feeling out of control

Disappearing after a meal

Depressed moods

Alcohol or drug abuse

Frequent use of laxatives or diuretics

Excessive exercising

Irregular menstrual cycles

There is no one cause of an eating disorder. Experts link eating disorders to a combination of factors, such as family relationships, psychological problems, and genetics. The teen may have low self-esteem and be preoccupied with having a thin body. Perhaps they have been bullied because of their weight.

Sometimes, being part of a sport such as ballet, gymnastics, or running, where being lean is encouraged, is associated with eating disorders in teens. In one study, researchers linked anorexia with an obsession with perfectionism -- concern over mistakes, high personal standards, and parental expectations and criticism.

Symptoms of eating disorders may include the following:

A distorted body image

Skipping most meals

Unusual eating habits (such as eating thousands of calories at one meal or skipping meals)

Frequent weighing

Extreme weight change

Constipation

Dental cavities

Erosion of tooth enamel

Loss of hair or nail quality

Hyperactivity and high interest in exercise

Teens with eating disorders are often in denial that anything is wrong. They may be moody, anxious, depressed. They may withdraw from friends, and become overly sensitive to criticism. The problem arises when parents are not aware of these symptoms because the teen keeps them hidden -- just like the trauma, insecurities, depression, or low self-esteem that may help trigger the disorder.

Although there is no easy treatment for eating disorders, they are treatable.

A combination of treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressant medication , can be used to help teens overcome bulimia. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps by identifying and replacing inaccurate thoughts to help change behavior and emotional state.

Anorexia treatment usually involves nutritional feeding, medical monitoring, and psychological treatment.

If left untreated, eating disorders can lead to serious illness and even death.

Along with the lower body weight, girls with anorexia nervosa can lose their menstrual periods (amenorrhea). The loss of periods is associated with osteopenia , early that can lead to painful .

Eating disorders are also linked to other serious health problems, such as kidney disease , liver disease, and heart disease . Each of these health problems requires specific tests and treatment.

If you think you have an eating disorder, talk to your doctor. The sooner you get medical and psychological treatment, the faster you will be on your way to recovery.

If you suspect a family member or friend has an eating disorder, talk with them about the problem.

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Eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia, are psychological disorders that involve extreme disturbances in eating behavior and are common in teens. Learn more from WebMD.

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This article talks about how the pandemic effected the adolescents and their eating disorder and how social media comes into play with it.

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By Parineeta Karumanchi

Published 3:14 EST, Thurs September 30th, 2021

Introduction:

A phenomenal upsurge in the number of adolescents suffering from eating disorders shows that the impact the coronavirus pandemic had on them was deep, systematic, and significant. The mother of a severely affected anorexia nervosa patient from Canada described how she had to rush her daughter more than 10 times to the hospital during the pandemic. Peyton Crest, a former 18-year-old from Minnesota says that she developed anorexia before but has relapsed twice since the pandemic began. These cases are only 2 amongst the hundreds of teenagers who have been placed at a higher risk of developing or maintaining eating disorders because of the pandemic. Emerging evidence supports the theory that the pandemic has led to an increase in eating disorders amongst adolescents. This article explores how eating disorders have significantly escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst adolescents whose lives have been uprooted and upturned since it began in November of 2019.

What are eating disorders?

To begin with, eating disorders are complex mental illnesses that manifest themselves physically in the form of abnormal eating habits. They can be described as bio-psycho-social which means that there are genetics, psychological factors, and social influences all at play. The most commonly known eating disorder is anorexia nervosa which is characterized by a distorted perception of weight. Combined with very restrictive eating patterns and a relentless pursuit to lose weight, anorexic patients suffer from severe malnourishment. Bulimia nervosa is just the opposite of anorexia nervosa; people engage in uncontrollable eating for a certain time until they are painfully full, after which they purge excessively to compensate for the calories gained.

Adolescence is a developmental milestone during which peer-to-peer social comparison is a significant aspect. Physical isolation has caused some teenagers to feel that their life is spinning out of control and to combat this, they resort to binge eating as a coping mechanism. Stefan Ehrlich, professor of psychological and social medicine said research has shown food restriction can lead to resistance to ghrelin, the "hungry hormone" produced by the gut that prompts people to seek food-a process "reinforced when adolescents are isolated from their peers." This proves that social isolation can have detrimental effects on their mental health, leading to impoverished social and interpersonal lives.

Social media and its impact on the youth:

Moving on, another influential aspect of eating disorders is social media. Although social media apps like Instagram and Facebook were created to strengthen social ties, research has shown that it in fact leads to social withdrawal while increasing feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Social media offers a medium of constant comparison where your status is determined by the number of followers you have or the number of likes you gain for each post. In a survey of 227 female university students, women reported that they tend to compare their own appearance negatively with their peer group and with celebrities on social media. Limited physical interaction due to lockdown orders has caused more time to be spent on social media where unrealistic, surgically altered men and women are portrayed as what beauty is, making body image diversity biased to what they see online. To reach up these standards, teens start exercising and eating healthy. This positive start is the prelude to a tragic turn, however. As they try to achieve immaculate face structures and super-toned bodies, they start to submerge themselves under stress, insecurities, and mental illnesses like depression.

Recent data suggest that, in the US, an increased number of people have been getting their 'news' from social media than printed newspapers. Given the strict journalistic values around credibility and the complete lack of anything like that in the social media sphere, this is a major concern. The Internet, today's technology landscape, due to its ubiquitous presence has been heavily relied on by teenagers where they discover nonsensical dieting plans and abnormal regimes that are falsely advertised to be transformative and healthy when in reality, they only contribute to atypical lifestyles. Eventually, these inconsistent eating habits lead to eating disorders. The image below shows how significantly eating disorders have risen.

SOURCE: Published by John Elflein , Apr 22, 2021

Figure 1: Number of U.S. individuals with eating disorders in 2018-2019, by condition

Conclusion:

The pandemic has left an air of ever-increasing uncertainty, highlighted by post-traumatic stress and psychological disturbances. The focus of the course of the pandemic has been on minimizing its spread and since most of the medical resources have been concentrated here, a limited amount of attention has been given to the pandemic's wider impacts. The global picture of people facing eating disorders is skewed, representing statistics coming from a limited number of countries only. "The belief that eating disorders are confined to high-income countries is a dangerous myth that perpetuates health disparities," says Cynthia Bulik, professor of eating disorders at the University of North Carolina. Paediatrician Kritika Malhotra says that one out of 4 girls and one out of 5 boys have "distributed eating habits and behaviors in India." This shows how widespread eating disorders are and the severity of this is only worsening with the pandemic.

It has been estimated that 20 million women and 10 million men in the U.S. suffer from eating disorders during their lifetime as reported by the National Eating Disorders Association. The mean age of onset for most eating disorders is 12.5 years and this is only decreasing with the pandemic. Rates of obesity among children have been going off the charts since the pandemic began, contributing to increased cases of certain cancers, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and strokes. With close to 2 billion COVID cases confirmed worldwide and the contagion scale is still rising in affected countries as new strains of the virus are being discovered, it is taking an enormous toll on teenagers' lives. It is on us to do everything we can to take steps and partner with our communities to safely return some normalcy to their lives.
Parineeta Karumanchi, Youth Medical Journal 2021
References:

Feinmann, J. (2021). Eating disorders during the covid-19 pandemic. Bmj. doi:10.1136/bmj.n1787

Oakes, Kelly. "The Complicated Truth about Social Media and Body Image." Bbc.com, BBC Future, 12 Mar. 2019, http://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image.

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Eating Disorders And Adolescents During The Pandemic:

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By Parineeta Karumanchi Published 3:14 EST, Thurs September 30th, 2021 A phenomenal upsurge in the number of adolescents suffering from eating disorders shows that the impact the coronavirus pandemic had on them was deep, systematic, and significant.

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Being overweight or obese in adolescence can increase the risk of premature death; due to suicide, especially in women. Along with this, diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and strokes aren’t diagnosed in adolescence as often as we think.

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Berger, K. S. (2015). Chapter 14 Adolescence: Biosocial Development. In The developing person through childhood and adolescence. essay, Worth Publishers, a Macmillan Education imprint.

Nelson, R. (2020, May 17). Eating disorders in teens. ViewPoint Center. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.viewpointcenter.com/the-dangers-of-eating-disorders-in-teens/.

WebMD. (n.d.). Eating disorders in teenagers: Symptoms, causes, treatment. WebMD. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/understanding-eating-disorders-teens.

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This picture shows that teens have an image of what they think they should look like. They compare themselves to other girls; in this case, that they see on the internet since that is what's considered "pretty" or "body goals".