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Kieran Arbury

10/26/17

Selena Wolf Berkley

ENG 101-005

Anorexia vs Overeating

Will people ever be satisfied with themselves physically? Or will they always strive to

make changes no matter what the risk? To lose confidence in ones body is to lose confidence

in oneself this is a quote by a woman named Simone De Beauvoir. I wanted to use this quote

because I feel that it gives a message that perfectly correlates with the topic of this paper. An

increase in eating disorders is plaguing our society today, especially anorexia and overeating.

Before I go into detail about what causes these two eating disorders I am going to define what

these two disorders are. Anorexia is a life-threatening psychological disorder that is defined as

abnormally and extremely low body weight that is relative to a persons stature, otherwise

known as BMI or Body Mass Index (Eating Disorder Hope, 2017). Overeating is a fairly straight

forward definition, it is the act of excessive eating and over consumption of calories necessary

for the body.

Anorexia is caused by complex factors, but we have currently found that in most cases

biological and environmental factors are what cause this disorder to occur. Some biological

examples are irregular hormone functions throughout the body, lack of nutrients in the body,

even a persons biological genetic code can cause anorexia. Now it has been stated that the

relationship between anorexia and a persons genetic code is very complicated and is still being

vigorously studied. The current studies genetics are definitely a factor that contributes to the

development of this disorder. The environmental factors that can cause anorexia are things such
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as media thinness (when I say this I mean the ideal stereotype of thinness that our cultures media

publishes), profession, such as modeling, that over promote the idea of weight loss and thinness.

Sometimes environmental factors come from traumatic family issue, like sexual abuse during

childhood or a severely traumatic experience. Also, it has been shown that peer pressure may

come from friends trying to convince others that thinner is better (Eating Disorder Hope, 2017).

Overeating has multiple causes, like depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, bipolar disorder, and

obsessive-compulsive disorder/ OCD. Peoples mental disorders can be the trigger that cause a

person to overeat, or their disorders may develop more and cause people to cope with overeating

(Timberline Knolls, 2017).

The effects of these disorders can be very harmful to the body and even cause death.

Some of the beginning or early effects of anorexia are refusing to eat anything, denial of hunger,

skipping entire meals, and obsession with body size. There are behavioral effects that develop in

the early stages of anorexia as well, such as excessive exercise, lack of emotions, weighing

themselves repeatedly, complaining about being fat, wearing baggy articles of clothing, and

frequently checking the mirror for flaws. Some of the effects of a long-term anorexic disorder are

infertility, brain damage, heart attacks, shutdown of major organ systems, and in the worst

possible case death. Behavioral effects of a long time anorexic disorder involve isolation from

friends and family, disruption of career, forced withdraw from school, and possibly committing

suicide. Now to talk about the effects of overeating. Some of the early effects of overeating are

eating more rapidly than normal, history of weight fluctuations, weight gain, and fatigue. The

behavioral effects that develop in the early stages of overeating are feeling guilty for overeating,

depression, mood swings, eating alone because of shame/embarrassment, and withdrawing from

activities because of embarrassment. Long term effects of overeating are obesity, diabetes, bone
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deterioration, heart disease, strokes, and kidney disease. Some of the behavioral effects of long

term overeating are major depression, sleep apnea, and anxiety.

Over 12 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. Of those 12

million 8 million people suffer from anorexia or bulimia in the United States. Some of the statics

show that 1% of adolescent females have anorexia, meaning one out of one hundred people

between the ages of 10-20 are anorexic, 10% of men suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Anorexia

normally affects teens and people in their twenties, but it has been shown that some people can

develop anorexia from ages six to seventy-six (AREND, 1996). Approximately 2.8 million

people suffer from overeating in the United States. The statistics show that 1.6% of adolescents,

2% of men, and 3.6% of women suffer from overeating (Juliann Schaffer, 2015). Other studies

show that 60% of men and women are overweight and that 34% of those people suffer from

obesity. This means that 20% of people are over what is viewed as a healthy weight. Additional

statistics show that about 31% of teenage girls and 28% of teenage boys are overweight and that

15% of teenage girls and 14% of teenage boys suffer from obesity (AREND, 1996).

Eating disorders are spreading in the United States; some people think about which eating

disorder is worse, anorexia or overeating? One where a person starves themselves to the point

where they are nothing but skin and bones, where they can barely keep their body functioning

properly enough to live. Or one where a person cant control what they are doing and they are

living a life that they are ashamed and embarrassed about, but they cant stop themselves. Also

bringing them to the point where their body can barely function properly enough for them to live.

In reality these two disorders are equally terrible. Neither disorder is truly worse than the other

because in the end the people who have these disorders are suffering equally. After comparing
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these two issues we can see that they both are very terrible disorders that plaguing our society

today and at alarmingly increasing rates.

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Work Cited

A Quote by Simone De Beauvoir. Quote by Simone De Beauvoir: "To Lose

Confidence in One's Body Is to Lose Con...", www.goodreads.com/quotes/407805-to-

lose-confidence-in-one-s-body-is-to-lose-confidence.

About Anorexia: Signs, Symptoms, Causes & Articles For Treatment Help. Eating

Disorder Hope, www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/anorexia#What-is-

Anorexia.

Overeating. EatingDisorders.com, 19 May 2017, eatingdisorders.com/explain/coe.

Anorexia Symptoms and Effects. Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center,

www.timberlineknolls.com/eating-disorder/anorexia/sign-effects/#What-are-the-

Effects-of-Anorexia-Nervosa.

Compulsive Overeating Symptoms and Effects. Timberline Knolls Residential

Treatment Center, www.timberlineknolls.com/eating-disorder/compulsive-over-

eating/signs-effects/#What-are-the-Signs-and-Symptoms-of-Compulsive-Overeating.

Eating Disorders Statistics. Anred, www.anred.com/stats.html.

Schaffer, Juliann. Binge Eating Disorder Statistics: Know the Facts. Healthline,

Healthline Media, 18 Aug. 2015, www.healthline.com/health/eating-disorders/binge-

eating-disorder-statistics.