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People at my school,dont fully understand that these are metnal illnesses and people cant help having Eating disorsers. They think that people do it to be thin and thats it, or attention they dont get it at all and how can they when theres no one to teach them?
| Yes, teenagers need to be more educated! | 78 | |
| No, Eating disorders are not a big deal | 8 | |
| Yes! (for other reason) | 10 | |
| No! (for other reason) | 15 | |
| Extended answer- add comment | 4 |
Yeah, but I think everyone should be educated about that stuff. Not just teens.
I've noticed that when people refer to eating disorders, they usually mean anorexia and bulimia. Over-eating can be just as deadly and psychologically damaging. Also, nobody spontaneously "decides" to have an eating disorder. People can adapt unhealthy habits, but a full-blown disorder is much more complex than that. You would be surprised to know how many anorexics and bulimics developed the disorder perfectly well by themselves. It's an addiction, just like any other. If a person decides to "try out" bulimia after viewing an educational video about it, then obviously they are already unhappy with themselves.
Jessica Simpson recently made a comment about how choosing not to be anorexic was great for business and this offended me a bit because anorexia and other eating disorders are not a choice! eating disorders are a severe psychological/mental illness that can have devastating, even deadly, consequences. It upsets me that people desensitize the word and use "anorexic" interchangeably with strict dieting and working out or simply being too skinny. I was diagnosed with anorexia when i was 14 and it is something i would not wish on anyone. We need more education about other eating disorders as well, especially bulimia and eating compulsively because people tend to think of bulimia as just throwing up after you eat when it is really characterized by long periods of binging and purging afterwards by throwing up, taking laxatives, or skipping several meals afterwards. I've seen people actually gain weight because of the binging. Compulsive eating needs more awareness too because this tends to be dismissed as someone just being a "fatass" when they're really eating because of the endorphins food can trigger. I think more education on eating disorders would be a wonderful thing.
Education on eating disorders, and mental illness in general, is important not only to prevent people from developing them (if that is even possible). It's also important to change healthy people's attitudes toward sufferers from these illnesses, which seems to be what the original question is really about, or maybe that's just what I want to write about :)
I don't really know much about EDs. My mother used to have some kind of overeating disorder, but I was too young to understand it at the time. I've suffered from major depression for many years, though, and it really irritates me when people say/write that depressed people should just spend more time with friends, start exercising, feel less sorry for themselves, eat heathly etc. It shows a complete lack of understanding of mental illness.
Mental illness is surrounded by so much shame and secrecy. Better knowledge on the subject could make it easier for people to talk about their problem. And non-sufferers could more easily recognise symptoms, provide support or help a mentally ill person seek professional help for their problems.
So yes, more education is definitely needed. And inviting ill people for shock value to scare the kids away from eating disorders/drugs/whatever is not the way to get rid of prejudice.
Hello, there is more than one type of eating disorders... I have an eating disorder. Believe me or not, I was told by my doctor. I am 16, 160 pounds and about 5'6/5'7. It is not healthy, because I am not active at ALL... And I can't stop eating... I eat to the point where I am VERY sick.
NOTHING will stop people from having eating disorders. Emotion controls humans for the most part.
Maybe some chubby girl who gets picked on and teased, who never heard of these disorders before, will be tempted to try it. You never know when good intentions will backfire
So what next, don't tell students that crack exists in order to prevent them using it?
I'd rather educate them fully on the subject, that way they are aware of it and can make their own mind up about it. Also discussions are good to reaching a consensus about why eating disorders are unhealthy, dangerous and unnecessary.
I totally agree with this. I think that if there is so much attention on it in school it will just make more people try it. In my school after learning about it people either tried it and then others copied or people started saying hurtful nasty things about it. It is useless for people who really suffer from it. Ive been managing anorexia since i was in 7th grade! Im 21 now and still suffering. Last year I even had liver failure because of it. More education about it in schools is not helpful!
This is what i mean though, you dont develop an eating disorder from learnig about it? I was fully educated about them but it had no impact in me developing one, it was from other issue's. These girls that decided to try it dont reallt have ed's, its either attention or curiosity not a disease. And thats what people dont understand so their not being properly educated on the mental side of it.
I was really sorry to hear that. I had no idea you were suffering like this. :/
I totally agree. That was how it was for me. I was a bit attention starved in middle school, soo when we watched a movie in health class about bulimia, I thought I would try it out.
I know that may sound crazy, but it happens. If we didn't focus soo much on them, maybe they wouldn't be a problem.
Most ed's develop over weeks, months because of other issues and food and weight isnt even what its about its just how to cope or get control back, so this docent sound like and ed it sounds like a bit of attention seeking and trying something you saw on tv. Not a mentall illness/disease. Not an ed.
Like how abstinence-only sex education totally prevents teenage pregnancy? :/
Eating disorders arnt about trying it, you dont decided to start it's a mentall illness, which proves my point people need to be more educated on the subject?
I think the teens read enough about it but I perhaps the shock value of an ill anorexic girl's visit would speak volumes!
Doubt it. They've been doing the same thing with drugs-showing toothless, hyper-aged meth heads, heroin addicts with scabs all over, AIDS and hepatitis...but people are still getting into drugs at the same rate. It's because no one EVER thinks that any of this will happen to THEM. The toothless meth head didn't think it would happen to him/her.
There's an allure, pressure and psychological reasons.
It's not just teens/young people either. Watch TV for an hour and see how many commercials you see for diet pills and other diet products. All of them promising "easy, effortless, just take a pill" or other such nonsense.
You can't teach away human nature, either. People want things to be easy, instant, etc. That's just how it is.
And i'm not talking about teaching away human nature, its about better educating people. For example i have bulimia, a few friends still think its just wanting to be thin? Or attention and they dont understand the mentall illness, phycological side of things. Most "real" eating disorders stem from other issues, eating and weight is only how to deal with it. Only very few develop from wanting to lose weight, that's usually the coping mechanism.
It's not something we often talk about here, despite how widespread it is. Or maybe I just don't comment on those stories because I'm not sure I fully understand the psychology of it and I wouldn't want to give advice that could potentially be harmful. I do often pull people up for hatred and disgust of those who are overweight, though, and I wonder if this is a symptom of the same thing.
It's easy to blame the trend for stick-thin models that came in during the 1960's but I think this is a symptom too, rather than a cause. Eating disorders have been with us for thousands of years.
There have been some really honest and interesting replies to this that publicising eating disorders might lead people to try it, in a plea for attention much like Münchausen's. I believe them and think the idea can be implanted. Generally, I agree that education is a good thing. There are so many people on the site who are confused about why they feel the way they do, and problems spiral because they're left undealt with.
I don't have any answers. I do completely agree with the OP that they are genuine disorders and that it becomes a compulsion as opposed to people just wanting to be slim. Virtually every woman I've been out with has at one point referred to herself as fat or ugly, even if it's just for me to tell her how sexy and attractive she is, so the potential is there in everyone.
I think we should worry more about eating disorders than we currently do, and we should be talking more about it, and destigmatising. But we have to be really careful how we do it. Someone told me they were instructed to see a school counsellor because of their weight and she was extremely unhappy about this; the result of it was damaging.
To finally get to an answer, though, I had sex education at school and it was pointless because it was sex education seen through adult's eyes and wasn't relevant to us. There needs to be much better education for teenagers that is relevant to them. Sex isn't just about the act, but about sexual politics. If eating disorders, substance abuse, fitting into society, social responsibility were dealt with the same way, maybe it could work. I don't have faith this would happen, though.
Yes. But I also think there should be more education about punctuation....
They always taught us about this in health. which everyone had to take at least once in school. I picked A though.
yes. this is the responsibility of the parent. It will save their children torment, sickness, unhealthiness, and create confidence. Parents should have to take an education test before they can become parents, its sickening how some parents parent.
Yeah, being too skinny and being too fat are both big issues, and everyone should be educated about them, not just teenagers. There are a lot of older people blind to this problem. Of course after you're educated, what you do about this problem is up to you. No one can force anyone to be healthy. You have to make that choice as an individual who wants to be healthy or unhealthy.
I think that bringing education into the schools about it will only bring up more eating disorders. Once people figure out how to do something that achieves wanted results (looking past the negatives-because oh that could neeever happen to me *rollseyes*)they will want to do it. I dont see it preventing eating disorders because there is so much more that goes into it than being thin.
It's not about preventing eating disorders, it's about debunking myths about them, teaching people what to do if they think they have one, and educating people so that they know how to be sensitive about eating disorders. Right now, people with eating disorders often get blamed for our own illness. We're stereotyped as shallow and stupid, or else as helpless victims. People end up doing a lot of harm by trying to help in the wrong ways, too (like encouraging a bulimic person to eat more, or telling a recovering anorexic person that they look really healthy after gaining some weight). I think education about eating disorders could do a lot to help with these issues.
it's hard cuz i know people in there 20's who have eating disorders and yet they've been though school and had the speachers...
So is telling people about it making it any better.
Do schools tell children so they are aware of them and what can course an eating disorder. well what might course an eating disorder.
I have an eating disorder. Well its more a symPtom of a larger problem for me. Im addicted to sugar as a way to comfort my feelings of depression and despair.
AND, nobody is educated on it... Because I don't know a THING about my disorder unless I were to research it..
yes some type of camp like an adventure hiking camp, back to basics with adult leaders with huge skills, rations that are mundane effort and comraderie , positive no nonsence leaders big people with big hearts , i wonder if this would work