Eating Disorders: What You Need To Know

With the media today, we are bombarded with images of perfection and false advertising. Media images that help to create cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness are often acknowledged as being among those factors contributing to the rise of eating disorders.

Media messages may not directly cause eating disorders but they affect the way in which people learn to place a value on the size and shape of their body. The desire to be thin pushes many people into unhealthy eating patterns.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), several million people are affected by an eating disorder of some kind. Without treatment, eating disorders can be fatal. Being educated on the signs of eating disorders can help save a life.

To learn more about the signs of an eating disorder and what you can do to help, click here.