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Eating Disorders: Not Just Among Celebrities
By Kara Leanoard - Arlington High School
Jan 2, 2007, 10:15

Have you ever heard of the saying "You are what you eat"?  Well, what if you don't eat anything?  When most people think of eating disorders, they usually associate the disease with celebrities.  They are not wrong to assume that, but the problem doesn't just lie with celebrities.  A lot of people all over the world are struggling with all types of eating disorders. 

   When I was on the brink of my teenage years, I would look up to celebrities for the 'cool' way to look.  I saw girls that had to be super skinny, beautiful and just pretty much perfect.  As I grew older, I realized that most of those famous girls that I had looked up to were dealing with eating disorders.  I became very curious about why they would make themselves suffer just to get a look that looked very unhealthy.  I would read articles about who got admitted into the hospital that week and it just puzzled me why girls would do that.  I was with the 43% of Americans that just thought eating disorders were problems only celebrities struggled with.  There are a lot of people everywhere that are killing themselves by not eating. 

   Eating disorders are not just the lack of consuming food.  It is a mental illness as well.  Girls and boys between the ages of 12-35 are the most prone to suffer from eating disorders.  It is not as common in boys, but there are some who suffer.  Symptoms of the disease are menstrual cycles coming to a stop in females, thinning of the bones due to loss of calcium, hair and nails become brittle, skin drying and becoming yellow, heart muscle wasting away, severe constipation, drop in blood pressure, internal body temperatures fall, and most patients suffer from depression and fatigue. 
   78% of the time people don't even realize that they have a problem and if they do, they deny it.  This makes it ten times harder for the people who care about them to get them help, because they will refuse.  Most of the time the source for the problem is unknown, but studies show that an eating disorder forms when people are suffering from an emotional problem. 

   There are so many clinics and programs that are designed to help people with the problem.  National Anorexic Aid Society (NAAS) is located in the Harding Hospital in Columbus specializes in anorexic patients.  Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders is located in Cleveland, Medina, Akron, Youngstown, and Ashtabula.  It specializes in individual therapy and day treatment.  There are a lot of programs, support groups, and clinics around this area. 

   If you are suffering, or if you know someone who suffers, please get help.  You are killing yourself little by little, making yourself weaker by the minute, and you don't look healthy or good for that matter.  People look so much better when they feel comfortable in their own skin.  If you think you need to lose weight then eat right, exercise, and get lots of rest, but don't over do it.  You first need to realize that you have a problem.  Then you need to understand that we are all different and everyone can look good if they feel confident in the way they look.  If you think you are overweight, there are better ways to make yourself look better than starving yourself.  Like I said, eat right, exercise, and sleep and it will make a huge difference in the way that you feel about yourself!