Looking at America today, a startling amount of the population is obese, but what about the rest of the population? Well, the rest are either average or under weight. Any person of any race, gender, religion (etc.), could have any eating disorder and certain people may not look the stereotypical part. Like all disorders there are different types of eating disorders like the following: EDNOS which is where the person shows qualities from both Anorexia and Bulimia and usually seeks help, Binge Eating Disorder commonly known as BED, where the person binges frequently usually for emotional reasons and ends up overweight, Bulimia Nervosa which involves binging (eating larger quantities of food than the average person) and purging (the act of forcing oneself to throw up) and Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia is not just about being so thin that one can see all of their bones. It is also them starving themselves to lose weight, obsessively counting calories, usually refusing to eat if the amounts of calories are unknown, and exercising for long periods of time which usually ends in one fainting or throwing up.

To begin with, Anorexia is an eating disorder and just like any other disorder there are large amounts of speculation on where this comes from. There can be many or few that factors into each specific patient but the main ones include genes, control, and environment. These are the most common factors that can affect someone on a daily basis along with many other events going on this person’s life. For instance, if someone in your family has an eating disorder it is more likely that you will get one too but other factors, such as what your home life is like can come into play. Genes, control and environment are the main factors because that is what most people with eating disorders are having complications with. Gene factors could be your DNA make up, Brain chemistry and one’s personality structure. Control factors for Anorexics, who are feeling out of control, would be them limiting their intake of food or blatantly starving themselves to feel that they are in control of something. Versus Bulimics, who in their minds, lose control by binging and to regain the control they then purge. Environment plays a part in many different ways since there is the person’s home situation and school situation. According to Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Eating Disorders, about 50% of anorexics and bulimics reported sexual abuse. The sexual abuse would create an environment problem, most likely at home, and this abuse could also make them feel like they are not in control of the situation or of their own body, which are two of the three factors stated before. Environment includes: being abused at home, how other family members eat, bullying at school, their peers, traumatic events and the media. People, who suffer from Anorexia and other eating disorders, usually have depression and other mental disorders accompanying it.


There are many signs of Anorexia Nervosa like the following:
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Excessive Weight loss
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An intense fear of gaining weight
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Obsessed with their clothing size, scales and mirrors
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Refusing to eat with others
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Excessive exercise
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Change in moods and social with drawl
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Frequent vomiting or use of laxatives
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Not menstruating or irregular (for females)
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Extra facial and body hair very soft and light colored almost like peach fuzz


To continue, anyone can search Pro-Ana websites or find Pro-Ana accounts on popular social apps like Instagram. Pro-Ana websites or accounts are websites or accounts that are Pro-anorexia but they are not promoting anorexia and usually on the websites have a disclaimer stating that they are not promoting this. The accounts/websites are from what we know written by Anorexics for anorexics giving them their tips and such. Many people claim that these websites are dangerous while others claim that they are valuable but overall these websites are sugar coated and are not showing the true colors of this disorder. The authors of this website like blogs are sugar coating the truth and those themselves are anorexics or recovering. One of the problems with these websites is that they are showing this as a “lifestyle” instead of a mental disorder. The authors give the readers their own personal tips or tips they have found useful from other sites. Pro-Ana sites can be dangerous considering the fact that their readers are usually one of the following: naïve adolescents, currently anorexics; who have no intention on recovering, recovering anorexics and people, who are recovered. The readers could very easily be drawn or interested by this since they make it sound like a way of life or those who have had a history of anorexia could relapse. Also, these sites (Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia) allow Anorexics and Bulimics to rally up and support one another in their journey towards “thin”. They should be allowed to support one another but they should instead join support groups and try to recover. Realistically though, we can try all we want to censor these websites and accounts but they will just become more secretive and find new ways to avoid being detected and deleted. The only upside to these accounts are that it gives one an insight on what the author is thinking and feeling. Overall these accounts will always be around but are dangerous.

Finally, anorexia is not a way of life, just an eating disorder. According to Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: Eating Disorders, 50 to 75 percents of diagnosed people with anorexia or bulimia also have depression. With the general population about 0.6% has Anorexia, 1% has Bulimia and 2.8% have BED. If one associate how people expect the people with these disorders to look like then 0.6% would be underweight, 1% would be on either the edge of underweight or the edge of overweight and 2.8% would be overweight. There was an article about Anna Wood, an average teenage girl who went on a post Christmas diet with her mother, who stated, “After five or six weeks I stopped dieting but she just carried on reducing her food intake.” This is common around anorexics, who begin a diet and believe they need to continue losing more when they do not need to. The article goes on to describe what happened once Anna was admitted to a hospital. “Tests revealed she had a perforated ulcer. Doctors warned her parents that she needed surgery but was so weak she was unlikely to survive.
Although she came through the operation, the teenager’s body was so ravaged by the anorexia that it was unable to heal itself. Her major organs began failing. She suffered brain damage, paralysis, a collapsed lung and could not breathe without a ventilator. On March 26, she died of a heart attack.” This is one teenager living in the UK and happy but once she got an eating disorder she became withdrawn and distant. Many people with eating disorders go undiagnosed each year which means by the time someone realizes something it may already be too late.