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Jade Deis

Lisa Cook

English 1201

9 July 2020

Literature Review

As a 16 year old female that goes to a public high school, I was surrounded by poor body

image, self-esteem issues, mental health disorders, and eating disorders. So many teenagers and

adolescence experience this too. Eating Disorders are defined as extreme shape and weight

control behavior, or excessive concern for your weight (Jade). A few examples of eating

disorders include Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and so much

more. These disorders can bring serious harm to a person’s body, and may even in extreme

cases, cause death. Due to these issues, and the rapid growth in number of teens and adolescence

that have eating disorders, I want to explore what causes teens and young adults to develop

eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating? How can one prevent it? What are

some treatment options?

There is no one reason why eating disorders develop in teenagers and adolescence. The

reason for developing eating disorders depends on who they are their trauma, their genes, their

life experiences, and much more (Jade). This article is trustworthy and credible because it is

an article from the National Centre for Eating Disorders. The website ends in “.org”, the

resources are listed, the article has an author, and there is a way to contact the author. But

there were some inconstancies between articles, Deanne Jade wrote that some your genes,
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parents, teasing, abuse, neglect, abandonment, trauma, obesity, family relationships, sexual

identity issues, friends, core personality or character, and culture can all play a factor in the

development of eating disorders (Jade). While, the editors of psycologytoday.com said that

the number of teens and adolescence with eating disorders is skyrocketing due to social media

and the Medias normalization of primarily thin body types (Eating). Psycologytoday.com

editors say that since the media makes having a thin body type ideal, and gives no

representation of larger body types, this can make teens feel like the only way they can be

desirable is if they had one certain body type (Eating). This can cause unhealthy dieting and

restricting, and can lead to an eating disorder. While both sources seem to be very credible

and reliable, these inconsistencies between articles can only mean one thing, that nobody can

pinpoint one thing that causes all eating disorders. It is a mixture of many things and is unique

to every individual.

Another inconsistency that was found within the articles is how many people are

affected by eating disorders. According to Jane Brody, nearly 3% of teens have developed

some form of eating disorder (Brody). While on the other hand, the editors of

psycologytoday.com said that 2% of woman and 0.8% of men suffer from eating disorders

(Eating). Both of these sources are credible, one is the New York Times, a very credible

newspaper source. Another is psycologytoday.com, a trusted website known for its credibility

on topic surrounding mental health and your brain in general. These inconsistencies are most

likely due to the fact that Jane Brody wrote her article in 2018, while psycologyu.com posted

their article in 2019. Also, Jane Brody specified her statistic to teenagers and adolescence

while the editors of psycologytoday.com did not. Their statistic was specified to people in

general.
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There are many common misconceptions surrounding the topic of eating disorders. An

example of this is when people say that only skinny people can have eating disorders. While

that is a common body type for individuals with restrictive eating disorders like anorexia or

bulimia, it is not common for all. One third of anorexic patients started off, or are still

considered overweight (Meierer). This article is trustworthy because it is a scholarly article.

This article has all resources listed, very thorough, and was found in a database. Deanne Jade

also talked about what eating disorders are not in her article. Jade said that eating disorders

are not vanity, weak, attention seeking, or just a phase (Jade). Most eating disordered patients

appear as a high functioning persona in society and suffer internally (Jade). The editors of

psycologytoday.com stated that people with eating disorders can hide their bad relationship

with food and their unhealthy habits for months, and sometimes even years (Eating).

In conclusion, the combination of articles that was chosen answered the questions. What

causes teens and young adults to develop eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and binge

eating? How can one prevent it? What are some treatment options? A point that was brought

up in almost every article was that eating disorder treatment is best when the disorder is

caught early. The editors of familydoctor.com state that “if your teen has an eating disorder,

the sooner you do something the better. By getting help early, your teen can prevent the health

risks associated with eating disorders” (For parents). This article is trustworthy because the

website itself ends in “.org” so the reader knows they’re simply trying to inform rather than

sell. The articles information also matched up well to some other articles I had and the

information was consistent throughout the articles for the most part. Treatment options can

vary depending on the type of eating disorder the patient has developed. Some disorders can

be treated with counselling and therapy, medical attention, monitoring, psychological

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intervention, or nutritional counselling (Eating). It is all once again, unique to the patient, type

of disorder that was developed, and the severity of the patient’s disorder.
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Works Cited

Brody, Jane. “Recognizing Eating Disorders in Time to

Help.” Https://Www.Nytimes.Com/#publisher, 2 Aug. 2018,

www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/well/recognizing-eating-disorders-in-time-to-help.html.

Date Accessed. 5 July 2020.

“Eating Disorders.” Psycologytoday.Com, 2019,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/eating-disorders. Date Accessed. 5 July 2020.

“For Parents: Eating Disorders in Teens.” Familydoctor.Org, 16 June 2020,

familydoctor.org/for-parents-eating-disorders-in-teens. Date Accessed. 5 July 2020.

Jade, Deanne. “Why People Get Eating Disorders.” National Centre for Eating Disorders, 2

Sept. 2019, eating-disorders.org.uk/information/why-people-get-eating-disorders. Date

Accessed. 5 July 2020.

Meierer, Klara, et al. “Shibboleth Authentication Request.” SpringerLink.Com, 2019,

login.sinclair.ohionet.org/login?qurl=https://link.springer.com%2farticle

%2f10.1007%2fs00431-018-3275-y. Date Accessed. 5 July 2020.