There’s a pain in your throat as you feel more and more just riding up. You know you should stop, but you just can’t. You think,” I am too fat or too overweight and just to eat anything is like death.” How do I shed these pounds, for the more I look at myself, the more I realize that I am ugly and fat. I can feel people looking at me and saying, “Look how thick she is.” That is why I must continue to do what I am doing and ignore the pain in throat because the pain in my head and heart is greater than any physical pain I could ever endure. Eating disorders are worse than people think, and need much more attention than given before the consequences are out of our hands.
Eating disorders are complex physical conditions. Anorexia is a person who is obsessed with body weight and diet a lot. These people starve themselves and when they actually eat something, they vomit it out. Binge is when a person eats up to five-thousand calories in a short amount of time and then purge or vomits it all out. Both of these steps are known as bulimia. Another example of being bulimic is actually using laxatives all the time. Bulimia usually appears at the ages of eighteen through thirty-five.
The number of eating disorders is increasing beyond what people think. Recorded cases have doubled since 1960 that is only recorded cases. There are nine point three million people that suffer from an eating disorder and believe it or not eight hundred-fifty thousand of those people are men. Four point five percent of those nine point three million are adults and the rest are children. What is even sadder is that thirty percent of anorexic people fully recover. Only thirty-five percent gain weight. Also five point six die from starvation. To make matters worse, people with an eating disorder only have a fifty percent chance of full recovery. To me fifty percent is more than enough.
People with an eating disorder only think about their look and not of the consequences or damages they are doing to themselves. Did you know that stomach acid in your vomit makes your teeth erode? It also harms the cells in your throat. More serious consequences are cardiovascular problems, heart attacks, heart disease, diabetes, organ damage, anemia, and death. You may think there is no way to detect an eating disorder, but that is not true. A person who has a disorder experience such things like dehydration, mood disorders, throat infections much more than a normal person should. Other signs are no menstrual cycle, low heart rate, and blood pressure dropping quickly. Many people with eating disorders are being caught by doctors just by the doctor sending a simple strand of hair to the lab. Now a simple hair strand can reveal your diet.
Now somebody doesn’t one day just get up and say I have an eating disorder, no. These are everyday people who don’t realize they have a problem. An actress who had it all died from an eating disorder. Terri Schiavo an ordinary women also was lead to death by an eating disorder. Terri struggled with being overweight as a child and an eating disorder as an adult. She would try to survive on liquids and vomit after meals. As a result her heart stopped which caused no oxygen to go to her brain. She quickly collapsed and had a major potassium imbalance which made her a vegetable. Now years later she was cut off her feeding tube and starve to death and died sadly.
People who have an eating disorder are just dumb and look at themselves the wrong way! It is all in their heads! They look fine and have good lives and just throw them to waste, it is just so sad. I don’t know about you, but I have heard this so many times. Sadly, I myself have said this. The problems are so much more complex and devasting. These people need help and support, not people judging them. Part of the statement mentioned above is true; it is mostly in their heads. We don’t know the reason these people so what they do. For many people it is so easy to talk about a subject they have no clue about. They say it because they have never experienced it. People with eating disorders are not dumb. As humans we should try to understand each other and need to become more educated about things before we say them. Which leads me to the quote, “ It is easier said then done.”
It is funny to me how people don’t do anything that is needed until after it is too late. Why wait? It time to start eliminating this problem. Parents make sure your kids eat healthy and exercise regularly. Also watch how your kids grow up and how they think. Let them know that a so-called “perfect body,” does not exist. As for adults who have an eating disorder, I believe you should look for help. You are hurting yourself too much and not only that you are hurting the people that love you. If you know someone who has an eating disorder or see symptoms of an eating disorder let someone educated know. Or better yet you talk to them and let them know your concerns and get them help. In my belief we lose too many innocent people to causes that are not worth it. Everyday we lose people to disease, war, and even gangs. Others inflict all this death and pain or inevitable causes sadly, but why inflict it on you? Love who you are and others will too, but most importantly love the way you look because you are simply beautiful the way you are!