Sociology

When a person exhibits eating habits that are abnormal, he or she is said to have eating disorders Eating disorders are basically characterized by either a person eating too much food or too little and therefore causing harm to his or her physical and emotional well-being (New, 2008). The exact cause of eating disorders has not been explicitly determined and understood, but the sad reality is that they continue to negatively impact on the lives of millions of people, killing thousands of them annually (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Eating disorders usually result from a person having low self-esteem and harboring negative feelings concerning their physical appearance and food. The good news however, is that at most times these conditions can be remedied if diagnosed and the appropriate steps taken in good time. Even though recovery from eating disorders is not easy as it takes a lot of willpower and effort, in the end the effort is worth it.

Statistics available from health departments indicate that women are more likely to suffer from eating disorders than men (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). This is due to the fact that women, more so young ladies and teenage girls are very conscious of their outward appearance and in most cases subject themselves to punitive dietary regimes in an attempt to acquire that perfect shape or to look like a certain model. Eating disorders are most likely to affect girls going through puberty. The physical changes their bodies go through plus an increasing social awareness and pressure makes them develop new fears that affect their eating habits (New, 2008). These concerns gradually progress to the point of being an obsession and a young life is subjected to unnecessary detriment and possible destruction.

On one part, eating disorders may arise from biological attributes like an individuals genetic composition being inclined towards their development, hormonal composition, and infections (Costing, 1999). However, psychological disorders have been known to cause these disorders, particularly the link between personality disorders and eating disorders. Prior abnormalities in the mental and psychological status of an individual could result in eating and other disorders (Herman  Polivy, 2002). Once these disorders are acquired, normal body functions and activities and the day-to-day activities are disrupted to a degree depending on the gravity of the problem.

As stated earlier, adolescence comes with many changes and challenges for the majority of children. Even though girls are more prone to the acquisition of abnormal eating habits, boys are also under threat. In fact, it is estimated that one or two children will struggle with eating disorders even when they have concealed it from their parents or guardians (New, 2008). In addition, the cultural influence that people undergo through after a change in social status-for example, adolescents cross over to adulthood-are accompanied by new demands from society and deceptions in the societys expectations from them. The adaptive mechanisms such people embrace may be derived from the pressure emanating from these changes, as well as from other external sources like traumatic brain injuries, diseases of the nervous system like Parkinsons disease and other pathogenic infections (Herman  Polivy, 2002).

Anorexia is a condition in which people exhibit a compulsive fear of gaining weight because they have ingrained in them a distorted perception of body size and shape (Furth, Schmidt  Treasure, 2003). In such a scenario, victims of this phobia struggle so much to maintain extremely low weights by unhealthy dieting, self starvation and excessive exercising. There have been reports of some people abstaining from eating at all just to reduce body weight. On the other hand, bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating as a habit (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Individuals having this habitual purging undergo weight fluctuations, in most cases developing obesity. People with bulimia find comfort in food, but later after their binge episodes that may occur as frequently as twice a week, they develop a deep feeling of guilt and distress.

Child maltreatment is another cause of eating disorders instantaneously as it occurs or during later stages in life. Child rights abuse either through physical harassment, psychological abuse and sexual abuse induces a lot of trauma in victims leading to the development of eating and other disorders (Herman  Polivy, 2002). An abused child may develop an abnormal eating pattern in an attempt to deal with its predicament or in an attempt to find comfort and get some degree of control over its life. Children in locations where the diet is unhealthy and insufficient may feel neglected and the development of their mind and character is severely compromised. Those who have grown up in orphanages and in foster homes undergo mental and emotional stresses and are susceptible to the development of eating disorders. Generally speaking, children growing up under unstable and non-conducive social and family environments have their emotional health compromised even when they are not abused or exploited (Herman  Polivy, 2002).

Another cause of eating and other disorders is social isolation (Costing, 1999). Isolated individuals tend to be always stressed and depressed and they could channel these frustrations to aspects of their personal lives like in their eating habits. The solitude induced from social isolation is known to cause individuals to develop bulimia (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Parental influence determines the eating habits of an individual as well, whether it is due to genetic predisposition or the choice of foodstuff as dictated by social and cultural inclinations, the parents body shape and size as compared to the offsprings preference or even the degree of interference into a childs eating pattern (New, 2008). In some cases, peer pressure makes particularly adolescents and young men and women engage in extreme dieting to fit in with their peers. Particularly in the western cultures where slim and slender are stereotyped as a standard of beauty, the pressure on women to maintain thin bodies causes them to adopt insufficient and unbalanced diets (New, 2008).

Once a person has developed an eating disorder, the best thing to do is to seek professional help from a therapist (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). But prevention is better than cure. The society should acquire eating disorder education, especially parents so that they can be able to detect when their children are developing them. Some parents have a fear that if they expose their children to eating disorder education will either trigger the development of the disorder or make them choose unsuitable ways of getting out of the illness but the reality of the matter is that such education will equip both parents and their children with knowledge of the causes and nature of eating disorders, the risks involved from developing them, to detect when a person needs help to harmonize his eating habits and the best ways to deal with each case as it starts to manifest itself (New, 2008). Teenagers should particularly be taught about the harms of uncontrolled dieting and the morality of tolerating different body sizes and shapes in their peers, the dangers of consuming steroids and diet pills or any other unwarranted precautions aimed at controlling the structure of their bodies.