Pre-teen girls fast developing eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia
POSTED October 9, 2010 - 12:16 | POSTED BY Jasmine
Last edited by Silky Chandvani on October 9, 2010 - 13:31
Researchers surveyed thousands of young girls about their eating habits and were surprised to find out that more than half of them started developing problems with food at the age of 10 or below.
Commenting on the study findings, a spokesperson for the group said in a press statement, “Some might find the results of the survey shocking. But, as our members have underlined, it is not uncommon for us to see people who developed an eating disorder before they reached their teens.”
Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person refuses to maintain healthy weight and despite being underweight is obsessed with losing weight as they fear gaining too much weight.
Person suffering from bulimia nervosa binges on food, which is followed by compensating behavior like purging that could be either self-induced or by excessive use of laxatives.
Survey findings
For the survey, organization quizzed about 250 sufferers through their websites on their eating habits and the time they think they developed the eating disorder.
Researchers found, 53 percent, who took the quiz, said that they started developing unhealthy relations with their food as young as 10.
Surprisingly, some sufferers revealed that they believe they started developing the condition even before they turned 10.
Just 29 percent of sufferers said, when their battle with anorexia began they were under the age 11 to 15.
The survey found that majority of sufferers blamed their condition on some or other family traumas such as divorce of parents or loss of a loved one early in life.
Barely three percent of sufferers said that they were influenced by the skinny size zero models, pop stars, or film celebrities.
Survey findings upsetting
A leading charity for the eating disorder, Beat’s spokeswoman, Mary George said that the new study findings are not at all surprising as this worrisome trend is on rise and unfortunately young girls are fast becoming its main target.
“Sadly these survey results are not that surprising. We are finding that people being treated for anorexia are getting younger and younger.
We conducted a similar study earlier this year and found the average age of developing the condition was just 12-year-old. There was even a case of a six-year-old showing signs of the illness,” revealed George.
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