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Protect Yourself
from an
Eating Disorder
Protect
Yourself from Developing an Eating Disorder
Realities and Risks of Eating Disorder Symptoms
Findings on Body Satisfaction
What You Can Do
Final Words
Protect
Yourself from Developing an Eating Disorder
The best ways to protect yourself from developing an eating
disorder include apprising yourself of the realities and risks of eating
disorder symptoms, nourishing an identity separate from appearance, and
cultivating appreciation for the range of women’s bodies.
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Realities
and Risks of Eating Disorder Symptoms
For most people, restricting food intake leads to bingeing.
In fact, the single best way to avoid bingeing is to eat regularly. When
starved, the body shifts into emergency preservation mode: The body
processes calories more slowly than usual, which is why many people who
diet hit a plateau, and why people who break their restriction often gain
weight very quickly, oftentimes more weight than they lost. In addition to
slowed metabolism, chronic restriction is associated with impaired
concentration, depression, anxiety, and irritability, strange eating
habits, preoccupation with food, decreased heart rate, and potentially
fatal heart arrhythmias.
Laxatives and diuretics do not promote weight loss.
They merely deplete the body of water and nutrients; they do not prevent
the body from absorbing calories or fat. When the body is dehydrated, it
compensates by holding onto water; therefore, ironically, laxative and
diuretics often lead to bloating. People also commonly mistake cues of
dehydration as cues for hunger, which can lead to unnecessary eating.
Severe dehydration compromises kidney, brain, and heart
functioning.
Vomiting is ineffective and dangerous as a weight-loss
method. People can only throw up between 40% and 60% of what they ate.
Many people feel depleted after vomiting and therefore feel the need to
eat more. Vomiting dehydrates the body and disrupts electrolyte balances;
the latter can lead to heart or kidney failure, which can lead to death.
Less grave consequences of electrolyte imbalance include weakness,
cognitive impairment, and emotional
distress.
Over-exercising is not an effective weight-management
strategy. For optimal performance, the body requires a balance of exercise
and rest. Only during rest does muscle repair occur. Over-exercising can
also lead to slowed metabolism; that is, if the body is exerting more
calories that it is being given, it will slow down the processing of
calories to maintain energy.
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Findings
on Body Satisfaction
Feminist convictions about appearance are correlated with body
satisfaction: The less a woman links her worth to her appearance, the more
likely she is to be satisfied with her body. In contrast, women who
strongly identify with the feminine beauty exemplar and who use their
bodies to get attention are likely to have low body satisfaction.
Emotional expressiveness is correlated with body satisfaction: It
has been shown that people with eating disorders have an interpersonal
style marked by suppressing anger and placing others’ needs over their
own. In contrast, the more adept a woman is at expressing her emotions,
the less likely she is to be dissatisfied with her body.
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What
You Can Do
-
Eat three meals (consisting of a protein, a carbohydrate, and a
fat), plus two snacks (such as a yogurt, trail mix, or a nutrition
bar) everyday. It is important to note that exercise increases
nutritional needs.
-
Practice
articulating your anger and asserting
your needs in constructive ways.
-
Think
about what you value in life, thinness aside.
-
Remind
yourself how the corollaries of eating disorder symptoms undermine
performance, both athletic and academic, and health.
-
Be
careful to not reinforce the importance of thinness with your friends,
for your sake and for theirs. People with eating disorders frequently
cite encouragement from a friend to lose weight as a salient trigger
to their disordered eating. Moreover, friendships that do not place
importance on thinness can serve as buffers against cultural pressure
to be thin.
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Final
Words
These are some powerful stances and strides you
can take to protect yourself and others from developing eating disorders;
nevertheless, eating disorder pathology can be stubborn, and the outcome
of not only cultural forces and biases, but also internal turmoil, trauma,
and genetic susceptibility. Be empathic toward peers who are struggling
with eating disorders, and seek out treatment for yourself, if needed.
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Barnard College
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027 |
Furman Counseling Center
Tel: 212-854-2092 |
First Floor Hewitt Hall
Fax: 212-854-8727 |
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