eating disorders in America

I’m study eating disorders for my issues in America class and I am completely shocked by my results. America has by far the largest rates of people with eating disorders and highest deaths from eating disorders than anywhere in the world. That is sick. The fact that there are people in the world who starving because they can’t provide enough food for themselves but we still have people who waste food and don’t take advantage of their privileges is just sick. People around the world are dying from lack of food and in America, one of the wealthiest places we have people choosing not to eat and people who eat just to throw it back up is just wrong. There are 8 million people in America with eating disorders. 7 million women and 1 million men. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old. That’s horrible! 1 or 2 out of 100 students will gain an eating disorder. What really upsets me why America has more deaths from eating disorders than anywhere else. I think it’s the media. We are all so obsessed with looking like the people we see on TV and read about in magazines that some people are taking it too far. What so many people don’t realize is that the people we see in magazines and on TV don’t all really look like that. They have professional makeup and hair stylist prepare them before they go out, they have personal trainers and that’s not to mention all the ways we can edit photos to create the perfect person. The standards to be considered beautiful now aren’t obtainable. They are so out of reach. People need to learn to embrace that they are and to work on their health. Working on your health doesn’t mean do whatever it takes to look skinny. It means eat right and work out.

It gets better

Yesterday in my issues class we watched a video by Dan Savage called it gets better. The video is about bullying gay teens. Dan Savage and his partner posted a video about what is was like for them to come out as gay and how their family’s and society treated them afterword. Their video was hopeful because they described their struggles and the all the obstacles they overcame. Their video was hopeful and many other teens also posted their own story to help encourage other gay teens to come out and show them that they aren’t alone. I loved seeing the stories people posted. They were so hopeful and they showed me that if these kids can go through all of this, and still come out of it happy, I should have no problem dealing with the problpems in my life and overcoming them to. Im 100% straight so my struggles are completely different than theirs but the outcome can be the same. I can overcome any struggles in my life and embrace who I am and be happy with who I am.