ting thoughts following binges, withdrawing from activities because of embarrassment about weight, going on many different diets, eating little in public while maintaining a high weight, believing they will be a better person when thin, feelings about self based on weight, social and professional failures attributed to weight, feeling tormented by eating habits, and also weight is the focus of life. Many physical and medical complications can be associated with this disorder such as: weight gain, fatigue, heart ailments, diabetes, arthritis, embolism, sleep deprivation, high blood pressure, and cardiac arrest and death. In today's society we are now seeing more children under the age of twelve developing eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa and compulsive eating is the most common among such young children, but there are cases of bulimia being reported. It is estimated that 40% of nine year olds have already dieted and we are beginning to see four and five year olds expressing the need to diet. It's a shame that children so young are being robbed of their childhoods. Why is it that so many young children are becoming obsessed with dieting and their weight? I feel the family environment has a lot to do with it, along with the fact that children are constantly being exposed to the message society gives about the importance of being thin. Children raised in a dysfunctional family are at a higher risk for developing an eating disorder. In a home where physical or sexual abuse is taking place, the child may turn to an eating disorder to gain a sense of control. If they can't control what is happening to their bodies during the abuse, they can control their food intake or their weight. Self-imposed starvation may also be their way of trying to disappear so they no longer have to suffer through the abuse. Eating disorders continue to be on the increase in today's society and not just among teenage girls. Many people ...
