Eating Disorders Among Teenagers: Know The Causes Behind The Rising Cases

Eating disorders are complex medical conditions that can cause serious health consequences. It is among one of the deadliest mental illnesses. This disorder can affect people of all genders at any age but can occur most frequently in adolescents, according to to PubMed Central.

Causes Of Eating Disorders

Several factors that may cause eating disorders to include,

• Genetics: An eating disorder seems to be more likely to develop in people who have a parent who has an eating disorder.
• Personality Traits: According to a study by PubMed Central, factors including idealisation of thinness, negative emotionality, perfectionism, negative urgency, inhibitory control, cognitive inflexibility, serotonin, dopamine, and ovarian hormones often lead to such conditions.
• A study by Frontiers proposed that differences in brain structure and biology may also play a role in the development of eating disorders.

Common Eating Disorders Among Teenagers

Eating disorders involve extreme food and weight issues. Some of the most common eating disorders among teenagers include Anorexia nervosa (a condition that causes people to obsess about what they eat and their weight), Bulimia nervosa (a condition in which people binge eat a large amount of food in a short amount of time and then purge it out of the body by vomiting or using laxatives), and binge eating disorder.

Causes

A study by the European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology, and Education stated that a negative body image perception and poor self-esteem may result in health-related effects, such as stressor symptoms and a greater risk of clinical eating disorders among adolescents.

Teenagers often experience intense pressure to conform to strict, unrealistic ideals of beauty and body structure, weight, and shape and as body image and eating disorders are correlated, it leads to more cases of eating disorders among teenagers.

Studies indicated that between 35% and 81% of female adolescents and between 16% and 55% of male adolescents in developed nations report having image dissatisfaction.

Dr Rohini Patil, MBBS, Nutritionist and founder of Nutracy Lifestyle said that “women are more vulnerable to societal pressures and constant comments about their weight than men. That is the reason why they are likely to have more negative ideas about their own bodies”.

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