Overeating related to tension, poor nutritional habits and food fads are reletiviely common eating problems for young people.  In addition, two psychiatric eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are on the increase among tennage girls and young women.  These two disorders also occur in boys, but much less often.  Many teenagers are for many months, or even years, successful in hiding these serious and sometimes fatal disorders.

Some symptoms and warning signs of anorexia nervosa and bulimia include:

• A teenager with anorexia nervosa is typically a perfectionist and a high achiever in school.  At the same time, she suffers from low self-esteem, irrationally believing she is fat regardless of how thin she becomes.  Desperately needing a feeling of mastery over her life, the teen with anorexia nervosa experiences a sense of control only when she says "NO" to the normal food demands of her body.  In a relentless pursuit to be thin, the girl starves herself.  This often reaches the point of serious damage to the body, and in a small number of cases may cause death.
• THe symptoms of bulimia are different.  THe patient binges on huge quantities of high-caloric food and then purges her body of dreaded calories by self-induced vomiting and often by using laxatives.  These binges may alternate with severe dieting, resulting in dramatic weight fluctuations.  Teenagers may try to hide the sign of throwing up by running water while spending long periods of time in the bathroom.  THe purging of bulimia presents a serious threat to the patient's physical health, including dehydration, hormonal imbalance, the depletion of important minerals, and damage to vital organs.

With proper treatment, teenagers can be relieved of the symptoms or helped to control these disorders.
 
 

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