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There are two main types of eating disorders: Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders characterizes Anorexia Nervosa as, “a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight, a distortion of body image and intense fear of gaining weight, a lack of menstruation among girls and women, and extremely disturbed eating behavior” (ANAD). All those characteristics are what people suffer through when they are not in the right mind set. The ANAD also defies Bulimia Nervosa as, “ recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food (e.g., binge-eating), and feeling a lack of control over the eating” (ANAD). All these diseases are characterized differently, but they all have similarities. People who suffer through these eating disorders are all unhappy with their bodies and are scared of gaining weight, so they try to change their bodies through dangerous methods. There are also psychological effects that occur as well. People who suffer through eating disorders usually have a low self esteem, are being pressured to be thin by friends and family, and have a black and white mindset that thin is good and fat is bad (Mental Health America). Eating disorders also leads to depression and anxiety. According to Ira M. Sacker, “People who develop eating disorders feel as people that they’re not good enough,” Sacker says. “They become obsessed with perfectionism. That perfectionism begins to focus on what they eat. But underlying it is depression and anxiety. Often, these patients have suffered a lot of emotional trauma” (qtd in “Eating Disorders and Depression”). Living with an eating disorder is not always about the food. They are never happy with how they look and when someone is that unhappy with how they look, it changes how they
