Eating Disorders. Overview, Symptoms and Prevention

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics - English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,5, University of Education Heidelberg, language: English, abstract: Eating disorders have become a serious problem as a growing number of young women, children, and, increasingly, men, suffers from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge-eating disorders. They are included in the category of mental and behavioral disorders and among the most common chronical health problems encountered in children and adolescents Although girls are struggling with eating disorders ten times as often as boys, it is not to be labelled as a predominantly female problem, as men increasingly suffer from chronically obesity and other disorders. It should be a great concern to us all that eating disorders are omnipresent in the lives of many teenagers. Because adolescents spend a huge amount of their time in schools, this topic needs to be discussed and not kept secret. It is absolutely essential that we as caregivers not only keep our eyes open but also inform and educate teenagers about the imminence of eating disorders, because schools can not only be a decisive factor in encouraging eating disorders but also in preventing them.