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Between 5 and 20 percent of teens with anorexia will die because of the disorder
Children as young as 5 have been diagnosed with an eating disorder
About 10 percent of teens with anorexia are boys.
Teen boys with eating disorders often go undiagnosed and untreated
Studies show that people who suffer from an eating disorder may be at a greater risk
for attempting or completing suicide
An eating disorder is an obsession with food and weight, characterized by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and emotional health. People who have an eating disorder often go to extremes to keep from gaining weight. There are 3 main eating disorders: Anorexia Nervosa (reducing calorie intake to an extreme degree), Bulimia (consuming a large amount of food in a short time, and then "purging" the food, by means of vomiting, taking laxatives, or excersizing excessively) and Compulsive Overeating. Some eating disorders are thought to stem from a traumatic event in a person's life; however, a person can develop an eating disorder even when no traumatic event has taken place. Studies have shown that people who suffer from an eating disorder may be at a greater risk for attempting or completing suicide than those who do not suffer from an eating disorder.
- Stomach Ulcers
- Tears in the esophagus
- Dehydration
- Bone loss
- Organ damage
- Low Blood Pressure
- Irregular heart rhythms
- Fatigue
- Dizziness or Fainting
- Frequent Sore Throats and/or Swollen Glands
- Eroded Tooth Enamel
- Irregular or Absent Menstrual Cycles
- Death
- Dramatic weight loss or weight gain
- Refusal to eat, denying she's hungry or making up excuses to aviod eating
- Frequent trips to the bathroom immediately following meals
- Excessive exercise
- Preoccupation with food
- Obsessively counting calories and the fat content of food
- Consuming large amounts of food in a short period of time, if such behavior is unusual for the individual
- Adopting rigid eating rituals (such as weighing food, chewing food a certain number of times, or spitting food out after chewing)
- Wearing baggy clothes to hide weight loss or gain
- Mood swings
- Depression
- Insomnia or poor sleeping habits