YATW: eating disorder #2

Blog #2:

In the first blog i focused more on what happens to the body when a teenager goes through an eating disorder. After doing an interview and new research I inquired a few new things. http://www.something-fishy.org/isf/mentalhealth.php  Some girls that suffer from eating disorders do it because they would rather deal with physical pain or put emotion into something else rather than deal with emotional pain. Its such a common misconception that girls just don't eat to lose weight and they can start eating whenever they want. But that is completely not true, not eating is also very similar to self mutilation its a way to hide behind what is really wrong.  

For my second blog post I had to conduct our own personal research. The options were fieldwork, surveys, or lastly the one that I choose to do an interview. My subject was a PHD student at PECOM. I felt like this would have been the most effective choice for me because she has spoken to many teens with eating disorders; and could really understand the mental state of somebody suffer with the disorder. Since i did an interview i did not really receive any statistical information. While i did inquire a lot of useful information. First I found out a lot about triggers and why it can be more common in a teen than an adult. Being in school surrounded people that are all different body types. Can pose a physical threat which makes a young person question themselves.  Being in a social environment daily can cause pressure to fit in or pressure to be the best at whatever you do; and sometimes that can be out of a students hand. So not eating is a thing that they can control. Something that no nobody can take away from them. To conclude that school itself and everything that comes along with it can be a main trigger.

Finding out this information really helped me with my YATW project, because most parents in particular look at school as a place for children to learn and be with friends. Which for a lot of kids it is, but in some cases it can be a place of fear and sadness in many young teens. Another reason the information as well as the interview process was helpful is because i was really able to get a deeper level of understanding what really effects tennagers with eating dissorders. And i needed to get that perspective so i would be able to help as effectively as possible when i go on and do field work.

As said in the previous paragraph this information really helps me with my issue, because sure a lot of people don’t really realize why. The issue is so much deeper, learing more about what trigger the appetite suppression can really help stop a lot of the problems early on. A person can be doing really well in the recovery process but at any given moment  it can be set off if the patient does not have the proper outlet. I also learned that girls in particular when it comes to triggers can really never let that particular thing but the thing that people need to recognize is that its how we can better understand how to hekp with ways to try and forget what made us unhappy.

After doing additional research I was able to form more of my own opinions about teen eating disorders.  I realize that there really are really not a lot of places or people that really understand the mental hurt in a patient. I feel that there needs to be more attention payed to high school children that maybe are not the happiest. That why these teenagers are able to get so out of control with their disorders because people are just so blind. I always knew that eating disorders were more than just wanting to lose weight but my eyes were opened to so many more reasons behind the disorder.

There are still a lot of things that I would like to learn. For example I would like to talk to a treatment facility center and learn different treatment methods out of the very few that exist. I also want to venture more into how eating disorders can cause other issues like anxiety and depression. And if so how, is it more likely for a teenager to suffer with other issues while going through remission? I am also left wandering in not eating is encouraged by society is i really unavoidable to have these sort of issues?

For blog number three i would like to take the idea of some of the dove commercials but apply it in a school setting. By doing some activities as well as i quick lesson. My goal is to help kids my age understand that we all have worth, as corny as that sounds. I want people to understand that we all struggle with presser being the way we look or even academically. So i will be taking these ideas to my advisory and have us all talk about what we fear and dislike about ourselves as well as others.  And take that a connect it to eating disorders and how they all relate.

To access the interview: Original research