Bulimia and Anorexia

High school was the first place I actually found out what exactly it was to be bulimic and anorexic after being called anorexic myself. We learned about it in CALM class and even then it was barely touched on. I was called anorexic by a classmate who said, “I was so skinny it was disgusting.” In today’s society it is still a huge issue as the youth struggle with the demands to look a certain way.

I look at young girls and what magazines and media have done to make them view themselves as “too big” and not “skinny” enough. The pressure to be thin in society is huge and continues to grow. Even women who are already extremely skinny continue to view themselves as not skinny “enough”. 

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. The most common signs of people who are anorexic are people not eating and over exercising. People that are anorexic have a severe fear of gaining weight.

As a female there is an extreme amount of pressure to be skinny. It is everywhere, in every ad, on every TV show. The Victoria’s Secret fashion show is just one example of the pressure to be skinny because “skinny is beautiful”. All of these aspects contribute to the pressure of being thin which leads to some girls becoming anorexic. 

Bulimia is also a huge part of become skinny and affects many teens as well as adults. In this Zoolander scene, Derek Zoolander makes fun of the fact that Melinda faced the problem of being bulimic saying that models do it all the time to “loose a couple pounds before the show”. Bulimia is the act of binge eating (consuming mass amounts of food) and then throwing it up later. It is similar to anorexia in that the person has a severe fear of weight gain or just does not feel good in his or her body. Bulimia is a dangerous disorder and can lead to many more health problems if it is not stopped. 

Most people who are Bulimic or Anorexic are usually women because of the extreme amount of pressure to be skinny however men and young boys are starting to be faced with the same amount of pressure.

My cousin growing up was extremely overweight weighing over 250 pounds and only being 5’5. She was a bulimic all through high school and up until her second year of university where she was training to become a nurse. It was a health scare of pancreatic failure that caused her to stop and re-evaluate what she was doing. At that point in her life she weighed 110 pounds. Thankfully she was in the healthcare profession or things may have turned out different for her. It was the continued ridicule from classmates as well as images all around her that he made her feel like she needed to lose that extreme amount of weight. Instead of eating healthier and exercising regularly she found it easier to just throw up the food she was consuming. 

It’s scary to think that this is happening everywhere and to a lot of different girls who do not feel like they are beautiful the way they are. Body image is such a huge part of North American society and we base beauty on how people look rather than who they are.