Social Effects of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders affect the lives of the people who suffer from them as well as family and friends. Those who experience an eating disorder also experience health effects as well as social effects. There are three main eating disorders that have received much of the media attention in the past several years. The first is anorexia nervosa which is a condition where the person perceives themselves as overweight and, despite their actual weight, can literally starve themselves to death.

The second eating disorder is bulimia nervosa in which the individual participates in binging and purging. The sufferer is usually of normal weight but will binge eat and then, feeling guilty about the amount of food they ate, purge (vomit) to get rid of the calories. And the third eating disorder is compulsive eating disorder in which the individual binges without purging.

As you might imagine, no matter which of the three eating disorders that an individual experiences or suffers from, there will be social effects that will impact the life of the sufferer and their immediate friends and family. People who are in the throes of an eating disorder often feel ostracized from their friends, have low self-esteem that has an effect on most of the things they attempt to do and feel fat and out of place with their peers. All of these things lead to feelings of depression and isolation throughout most of their life.

People who suffer from anorexia or bulimia often feel secretive about both their bodies and their eating disorder. They often want to hide their bodies at all times. This means that they don\’t go to the pool or go swimming with friends and make excuses to never get into a bathing suit. They don\’t take showers with others, go to the gym in revealing clothing and often wear bulky baggy clothing to hide their bodies as much as possible. From an outsider\’s point of view it may appear that they are trying to hide how thin they have become but in fact they are trying to hide how fat they perceive themselves to be.

Individuals who suffer from these eating disorders often avoid social situations where there is food involved. They may pride themselves in their exercise habits or their ability to keep from eating during parties or social events. These habits will translate into anxiety or difficulty handling stressful situations that often results in high levels of frustration. Unfortunately, people who suffer from eating disorders do not suffer from them in a vacuum. This means they usually also have antisocial behavior and can be unpredictable in social situations.

Individuals who suffer from an eating disorder may truly understand how their behaviors are hurting them, but not have a realization of how their behavior is hurting the people they love and those who love them. The strain of living with an individual who is suffering from an eating disorder can divide a family. Family members often feel alienated by others in their school, friends, adult friends, and coworkers because of the unpredictable in antisocial behavior of the sufferer.

The social effects of an eating disorder are varied and can have a severe negative impact on the lives of both the sufferer in the family. While the negative physical effects of an eating disorder will result in kidney, liver or heart problems the social effects can increase the problem and actually worsen the disease.