Eating Disorders Glamorized

The way to help teens stay out of trouble and walk the right path is to educate them when it comes to drugs, sex and now eating disorders. The problem with education is that it shows you something that you might not have known before and this education of Anorexia and Bulimia is not being learned the way it should be.

Young girls and some boys are looking and listening to everything that is taught in special eating disorder classes but what they are taking away from it is how to get an eating disorder to stay thin. When interviewed young girls thought that the recovering speakers looked great and wanted to look like them. These girls were not turned off by the idea of an eating disorder; they were instead getting tips on how to become Anorexic or Bulimic.

Girls who attended eating disorder classes and watched videos thought that the people speaking looked great and healthy even though they were aware that the person had a problem. They were more intrigued by Anorexia than disgusted like they probably should have been.

If this is how girls and boys take in the information from Anorexia patients then one has to wonder what effect it has when they see thin models and actresses on the runway, red carpet, television, movies, or magazine covers. There have been many celebrities who have spoken out about their own eating disorders and what is to stop a young teen from looking at a celebrity they idolize and not feel that they are so rich and pretty because they once had an eating disorder. It also does not help that society feels that a size 12 is plus sized. With all of the mixed messages that society is sending to teens how can they learn or understand what is right and healthy and what is not?

To not teach about eating disorder is not a good idea but teaching it seems to be causing just as much harm if it is in fact teaching these children how people begin eating disorders or what an anorexic does to cover his or her problem.

Even worse is the fact that teens can go online and find dozens of websites set up by people suffering from an eating disorder and at these websites there are tons of tips on how to binge and purge as well as pictures showing skeletal women. These websites are created by people with a problem trying to coach other people who are ill.

Maybe if eating disorder classes had interviews and pictures of eating disorder patients who were so thin they could barely walk or people who have died from the disorders, they might start to think that Anorexia and Bulimia is a bad thing.