Intentional Eating Disorder

It is a natural human urge to be loved, to be understood, and to be wanted. One of women’s biggest drives in life is to make themselves as attractive as they can, whether they do so through shopping, make-up, or even an intentional eating disorder. There is an extreme amount of pressure on everyone––not just women––to look good. Not everybody can deal with this pressure in a healthy way. While some people do absolutely nothing to try to improve their appearance (which is also not a very healthy way to be), there are others who take it to the opposite extreme and worry about how they look more often than is necessary or healthy.

You already know that there are constant advertisements on television, radio, magazines, and websites for weight loss products, exercise routines, and diet programs. Everywhere you go, you’ll hear people complaining that they need to go on a diet or hit the gym. This is because of how much people prioritize their appearance in today’s society. Particularly if you live in a bigger city where the entertainment industry congregates, you’ll be sucked into a mindset of superficiality and looks.

What this can mean for average people is, that whirlwind of encouragement to diet and look thin can turn them anorexic. You might not have thought that anyone could intentionally harm themselves in order to look good, but it does happen. There are two different ways that it comes to pass: either the individual doesn’t intend to diet at such an extreme level, but gets there gradually, or the individual chooses an intentional eating disorder in an effort to get thin, even in the face of severe health consequences.
Anorexia makes people revile food and hate anything that could make them gain weight. It involves more than just physical frailty and illness; there is a change in the person’s mind that makes her fear getting any fatter, even if she is already obscenely thin. This mindset could have been a result of abuse, peer pressure, low self-esteem, or a desire for control over some aspect of her life.

In an intentional eating disorder situation, too much emphasis is placed on looks, avoiding food, purging one’s body, etc. As a result of anorexia, victims experience extreme weight loss, decreased growth rate (in children and teens), absence of menstruation in girls, impotence and loss of sex drive in men, a lower metabolic rate, poor immune system functionality, constipation, a sickly complexion, bone and muscle loss/weakness, sunken eyes, etc. In essence, you are slowly killing yourself by depriving your body of the nutrients it needs to survive. It has to turn to your own organs and muscles to derive its nutrients. You are eating your own body’s reserves of nutrients until you die.

And yet, there are people who get an intentional eating disorder so that they can look thin. In this unfortunate situation, people who are both mentally and physically damaged drive themselves to starvation in order to meet their perception of ideal beauty. If you know anyone who has embarked on an intentional eating disorder, convince them to stop and seek professional help.