Eating disorders aren’t funny, and they’re not something to tease people about. In fact, more people increase the intensity of their disorder from being taunted about them than for any other reason.
Unfortunately, most people only know this if they visit a website or doctor for eating disorders. Awareness of the diseases and what to do if someone you know has them isn’t exactly boosting and this hurts millions of kids nationwide. According to NationalEatingDisorders.org, many cases of these diseases aren’t reported because of the shame and secretiveness surrounding them.
Fear of being publicly embarrassed keeps a lot of people away from professionals, something that might not happen if communities knew more about the mysteries of eating disorders and how to act around those who have them. The facts are that less than 30% of all schools in the U.S. even go semi-deeply into eating disorders and their side effects and more spend time talking about the risks of smoking, despite its self-evidence and the fact that kids have been taught about it since third grade .
But what people don’t see is that, even though 64 million people were smoking in 2000, the numbers are decreasing steadily by 2.7% a year while on the other hand, 5 million people suffer from eating disorders each year and that number is increasing by 7% . These rates are expected to rise, too, as long as the public doesn’t know about these common ailments. What we need to do is make sufferers know that there are others out there who know how they feel and are willing to help.
We do this by making posters and public service announcements.We also need to set up help groups for the people who undergo eating disorders. Hopefully by doing this more of them will seek help and less people will develop the diseases. Please, save these people, these people who feel they have nobody to care for them.
They need us more than anybody else. Help them.
