Anorexia is a life threatening disease, not a fashion statement. People all over the world as young as 8 years of age suffer from this horrific, self-conscious and devastating disease, but why? In my opinion it’s partly the fault of how size 0 models are portrayed in magazines as being ‘normal’ in weight. This would be all well and good, as long as these wafer thin girls didn’t influence us and the people around us. However, in today’s society, we are influenced by everything in our environment, from packaging in a supermarket, peer pressure and the constant need of having the latest technology, to extreme religion and the power of strict rules and guidelines. So it’s clear, we cannot escape; we are trapped in a harsh world of other people’s opinions and self-consciousness.
We need to understand that sometimes the cause of anorexia in people is a cry for help, a sign of being abused or bullied, not that the person is a freak or an outcast. There is usually a deeper reason for the constant obsession of someone’s dieting and ‘abnormal’ eating habits. For every 200 women in the general population, one to six will be affected by anorexia; Five to eighteen percent of these women affected have their bodies and souls eaten away by the on growing and alarming disease.
There are specific warning signs that tell you if someone is, or is becoming anorexic such as: Claiming to feel "fat" when overweight is not a reality, Preoccupation with food, calories, nutrition, and cooking, denial of hunger and excessive exercise. If you should notice any of these signs in your friends or families behaviour I would advise you to speak to them and to maybe get some professional help, before it takes over their lives.
Anorexia is spreading at an alarming rate and it’s affecting younger and younger people every year. We need to do something about it. Another partial but unproven cause of anorexia in my opinion are dolls such as Barbie’s and action men. As most of us have had one in our childhood I’m sure we all know what they look like, thin slender bodies with larger heads making them look even thinner! What does this tell children? That we should all be thin with long blonde hair? Without really noticing, these dolls could be affecting young children’s opinions and self-consciousness more than we dare to think. The solution in my opinion is to make dolls bigger and to make a range of different sized girl or boy dolls, hopefully showing children that it’s perfectly okay, if not healthier not to be stick thin.
Have you ever noticed that on the web, in magazines, or on the TV we are constantly shown adverts on dieting, and reminded how to get the ‘perfect’ body? Just the other day as I was researching anorexia on the internet there was a link on the right hand side with tips on how to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks; what does this tell us? There are influences everywhere we look making us feel bad about our bodies and what we look like. However, in actual fact according to former plus size model Nancy Hayssen who did a survey says 80% of men ages 18 to 50 say they would prefer a curvy woman. A further 15% prefer an average sized woman and a minute 5% say they prefer a super skinny lady. Despite all of that, some women genuinely think they are fat and their obsession of not eating can so easily spiral out of control. We need to make people more aware that having a bit of weight on you is not ugly or disgusting it is merely quite healthy. We need to make people more aware of the serious heart, stomach, kidney, and dehydration problems people can get from this horrific disease.We need to give people confidence in their size and help them to overcome their fear of putting a little bit of weight on. Together, by talking to the people we know about the spiralling disease, we can make a difference and give people their truely deserved self confidence back.
We need to understand that sometimes the cause of anorexia in people is a cry for help, a sign of being abused or bullied, not that the person is a freak or an outcast. There is usually a deeper reason for the constant obsession of someone’s dieting and ‘abnormal’ eating habits. For every 200 women in the general population, one to six will be affected by anorexia; Five to eighteen percent of these women affected have their bodies and souls eaten away by the on growing and alarming disease.
There are specific warning signs that tell you if someone is, or is becoming anorexic such as: Claiming to feel "fat" when overweight is not a reality, Preoccupation with food, calories, nutrition, and cooking, denial of hunger and excessive exercise. If you should notice any of these signs in your friends or families behaviour I would advise you to speak to them and to maybe get some professional help, before it takes over their lives.
Anorexia is spreading at an alarming rate and it’s affecting younger and younger people every year. We need to do something about it. Another partial but unproven cause of anorexia in my opinion are dolls such as Barbie’s and action men. As most of us have had one in our childhood I’m sure we all know what they look like, thin slender bodies with larger heads making them look even thinner! What does this tell children? That we should all be thin with long blonde hair? Without really noticing, these dolls could be affecting young children’s opinions and self-consciousness more than we dare to think. The solution in my opinion is to make dolls bigger and to make a range of different sized girl or boy dolls, hopefully showing children that it’s perfectly okay, if not healthier not to be stick thin.
Have you ever noticed that on the web, in magazines, or on the TV we are constantly shown adverts on dieting, and reminded how to get the ‘perfect’ body? Just the other day as I was researching anorexia on the internet there was a link on the right hand side with tips on how to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks; what does this tell us? There are influences everywhere we look making us feel bad about our bodies and what we look like. However, in actual fact according to former plus size model Nancy Hayssen who did a survey says 80% of men ages 18 to 50 say they would prefer a curvy woman. A further 15% prefer an average sized woman and a minute 5% say they prefer a super skinny lady. Despite all of that, some women genuinely think they are fat and their obsession of not eating can so easily spiral out of control. We need to make people more aware that having a bit of weight on you is not ugly or disgusting it is merely quite healthy. We need to make people more aware of the serious heart, stomach, kidney, and dehydration problems people can get from this horrific disease.We need to give people confidence in their size and help them to overcome their fear of putting a little bit of weight on. Together, by talking to the people we know about the spiralling disease, we can make a difference and give people their truely deserved self confidence back.