RUNNING HEAD: Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders and Social Policy

Shelby Schroeder
Wayne State
SW 3710

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Abstract
One of the biggest concerns among family members and educators of
adolescent girls is having one of them develop an eating disorder. This paper
is going to focus on when eating disorders are, where they come from, their
history, the different policies the government has passed to treat them, and
how they affect the work of social workers.

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Throughout our lives we are taught right from wrong, good from bad,
and even what is beautiful and what is ugly. Most of these lessons help our
young people become a productive part of society; but what happens when it
all goes wrong? Over the last few years the media in our country has started
to affect the way women in the United States see themselves; especially our
adolescent girls. They are being taught that they have to look a certain way
to be accepted as beautiful. All the celebrities we see on TV, in movies, or
are singers are all tall, thin, and somewhat unhealthy. The media is obsessed
with how these celebrities look from how much they weigh to how much
clothes they wear. Anyone the media does not like is immediately portrayed
as too fat. These are the role models many of us look up to. We aspire to live
like them and look like them. And at a young age, girls can be influenced
very easily since they just want to be popular, have friends, and fit in.
Because of this many teenage girls have developed eating disorders. An
eating disorder as defined by the National Institution of Mental Health is an
illness that causes serious disturbances to your everyday diet, such as eating
extremely small amounts of food or severely overeating ("NIMH Eating
Disorders," n.d.).
Anorexia is the third most chronic illness in the United States ("North
Dakota State University," n.d.). This is a type of mental disorder that makes
people obsess about their weight and about how much food they eat every
day. Many people try to maintain a low body weight or focus on not gaining
any weight. They often are focused on a weight that is far below the healthy

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line for their height and age. Some symptoms of anorexia are being
extremely thin, irritability, loss of appetite, fatigue, insomnia, and
complaining about being fat. Young adolescent females are the most at risk
for developing anorexia because they are more worried about all the
changes their bodies are going though and want to look like their favorite
celebrities. Some of the lasting effects of anorexia if it is not treated are
anemia, heart problems, bone problems, loss of menstrual cycle, and
possibly death ("Anorexia nervosa Symptoms - Diseases and Conditions Mayo Clinic," 2012).
Another big eating disorder is bulimia, which is also a mental illness on
top of a physical illness. Bulimia is an eating disorder where the person eats
a large amount of food then tries to purge and get rid of all the extra
calories. Most people will either vomit or exercise excessively. Then they will
not eat any more real meals for a few days. Some symptoms of bulimia is
being obsessed with body weight or image, forcing yourself to vomit, feeling
like you cannot control your eating habits, and eating more food on purpose
during a meal. Bulimia has a lot of the same effects as anorexia like heart
problems and lack of a menstrual cycle; but someone with bulimia may also
have tooth loss, gum disease, and damage to their digestive track from
vomiting or abuse of laxatives ("Bulimia nervosa Complications - Diseases
and Conditions - Mayo Clinic," 2012).

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Many eating disorders are often connected to other types of mental

illnesses. Most girls that develop anorexia will also develop some type of
anxiety disorder. This triggers the anxiety because they are constantly
worried about how many calories they eat and how long until they will be
burned off. Some girls also develop obsessive compulsive disorder. These
girls are usually the ones with bulimia since they have a specific amount of
time planned out between when they eat and when they need to make
themselves sick. When girls with anorexia develop an obsessive compulsive
disorder, they keep track of everything they eat down to how much water
they drink. One thing that is for sure is that eating disorders and mental
illnesses have been connected for almost a century.
Eating disorders are nothing new. They can be dated back as far as the
1200s. Fasting, which is avoiding eating, for long periods of time is one way
many people show their devotion to their religion. Saint Catherine was the
first woman to fast for her religion. She wanted to prove that she had
complete control over her body and was living her life for god only. Later, in
the 1600s anyone that was anorexic was thought to be a witch and was
often burned at the stake. The first case of anorexia that was studied was in
1689 by Dr. Richard Morton. He kept a file on a man and a woman that he
described as just wasting away and a skeleton clad with skin ("History of
Eating," n.d.). They were convinced that they were crazy and often sent to
asylums. Bulimia has been around since the days of Caesar. The rich ancient
Romans would often over eat to the point where they pass out. They would

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then make themselves throw up so that they could continue to eat and drink.
They would continue to do this until the end of the parties, and then they
would do it again the next night (Staats Reiss & Dombeck, 2007).
Eating disorders slowly decreased in the early 1900s while they were
being treated as an endocrine disorder. They did not start to come back until
the 1960s and grew to a peak in the 1980s. The increase of the media
pushing young women to look a certain way is what caused them to grow.
Even at the peak in the 1980s no one knew how or why to treat these
disorders, but now we have policies to prevent and treat eating disorders.
One policy that is was just put into effect this year is the Affordable
Care Act. Beginning 2014 insurance companies will have to provide coverage
for people being treated for eating disorders. This act is also known as the
IMPACT Act since it covers all mental illnesses, which is what eating disorders
are now being classified as in the DSM. This act is very important because
before the Affordable Care Act, eating disorders were considered pre-existing
illnesses, therefor insurance companies would deny them coverage. This act
also lowers the price of the care that is needed and extends Medicaid to
cover people below the poverty line (Emerman, 2013).
Another act that is raising awareness for eating disorders is the FREED
Act. Created in 2005, this act makes education and prevention for eating
disorders more available. Only parts of this act have been passed, but they
have shown positive outcomes. This act allows schools to hold educational

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sessions for parents of elementary and middle school age children. They will
learn about the death rates of eating disorders, different signs and
symptoms, and different treatments that are being made available. They also
educate students on bullying because of body image and healthy eating. One
part of the act that they will have difficulty passing is where they go into
schools and measure the BMI of all the students. If a student has a lower BMI
than what is healthy they would be monitored and educated further about
eating disorders and being healthy.
These policies affect the same group of people. They put all of these
policies in place so that girls can be educated at a young age. They want to
begin the education while they are in elementary school, so that when they
get to middle and high school they know how to stay healthy. The teachers
are also all being taught how to look for the symptoms of eating disorders in
girls. They are also trained in how to address the problem. Some of these
policies and acts are even being put to use in media. Many beauty
companies are starting to shy away from the idea of having skinny models.
For many years modeling agencies only used girls that were very tall and
very thin to the point where you could see their bones. Today, those agencies
are using models that look more real and seem to look healthier. The brand
Dove is even focusing on their Love Your Body campaign. They are now
showing commercials with real women they find on the street to test their
products. I see it every day when I get on a social media website; there are
countless stories about how women really look when their photos are not

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being altered with Photoshop. They are doing this to show girls that they are
perfect the way they are and should be happy with how they look now.
I personally believe this is getting to be a large problem in our country
and has hit very close to home. I personally have dealt with some very
serious body image issues. Ever since I was young I was always the short
and stockier girl. I played sports and ate healthy, but I was always just a little
bigger than the other girls. Starting in fifth grade the other girls I went to
school with started to notice this. They would not talk to the girls that were
like me and made fun if us. Even out gym teachers treated us differently. We
would always have to do more than everyone else, which now I understand
was to in fact keep our weight down. Middle school naturally made it worse.
All the other girls got taller and skinnier, but I never seemed to change. All
the boys started to notice all of the girls that were starting to be portrayed as
sexy, but I stayed friends with the guys and helped them through their girl
problems.
Once I got to high school some of these things changed. Boys became
interested, but for the wrong reasons. I became very aware of my weight and
how I was never able to lose any, even with all the sports I was in. Nothing I
was doing was working so I thought I was doing something wrong. I became
involved in more sports thinking the extra exercise would help, but still
nothing worked. I began to hate myself; I was cutting myself and slowly
began to not eat.

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This went on for almost a year until I started dating my boyfriend,

Jamie. He would notice I would get moody at certain points in the day, and
then he noticed I was not eating lunch at school and saw the scars on my
wrists. He began to make me eat with him or take me out after school so he
would know I was eating. Finally, I opened up and told him everything that
had happened to me since elementary school. To this day he makes sure I
am eating healthy and regularly. He knows when I have been skipping meals
and gets mad if I am not eating. He understands my issues and makes me
feel good about myself no matter what has been going on. I wish my school
district would have had some of these programs they have developed when I
was in school. I think that my childhood would have been better if I would
have learned what I was going through and what I looked like was completely
normal. If I ever do any policy work it will be to develop more programs for
girls who see themselves like this. They need to develop a healthy way of
thinking before it is too late.
One girl that I know who could have used these programs was a girl I
went to school with. Brook is one of the nicest girls I know. She had always
been extremely nice to me and now I know that she was going through
similar challenged that I was. I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder,
but she was. During the 10th grade people started to notice how much
smaller she had been getting, but no one had ever really thought she had a
problem. Soon after that Brook disappeared without a trace for almost a

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year. At the beginning of my senior year she came back to school and looked
a lot healthier than she had previously.
One of our senior projects was to talk about a charity we would want to
work with. Her project was about a mental health charity for girls with eating
disorders. She had gone away for a year to their treatment facility to get help
with her anorexia. She spoke about how when she went away she did not
want to believe she had a problem and just wanted to look like the other girls
she went to school with. Her lowest weight she had reached at the beginning
of her treatment was 95 pounds. She ended up having permanent damage to
some of her organs which is what made her realize she really did have a
problem. After months of treatment and counseling she conquered her
disorder. She told us she wanted to become a social worker and work with
the charity to help girls with the same problem she had. To this day I can tell
you she is healthy and maintaining a healthy weight and outlook on life. She
was also one of the people that inspired me to be healthier and learn to be
happy with myself.
These policies directly affect the work we will all do as social workers.
They are inspired by our ethics. Firstly, they help us promote human
wellbeing and help us meet the basic needs of nourishment these girls are
lacking. They allow us to give girls resources to get help they need and help
them pay for doctors visits if they are needed. They are taught that they
need the food to survive and stay healthy. Another value this will affect is the

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10

value of dignity and self-worth. Most of these disorders are caused by girls
losing self-esteem when they are young. When they are taught that being
extremely skinny is the idea of beauty they feel like they have done
something wrong and that they need to fix themselves. As social workers we
will have the duty to show them that they are worth something in the world
and that they should feel good about how they look.
As you can see, eating disorders are something I strongly believe in.
Going through a period where I myself have felt like I was worth nothing and
did not want to eat so I would be smaller I understand how the girls feel. I
wish that both the FREED act and the IMPACT act would have been passed
while I was still in middle and high school. Learning more about how to be
healthier would have changed everything for me. This is one of the reasons I
am looking to work in a school district. I want to be able to use these policies
to help adolescent girls that I plan on working with. Even though eating
disorders have been around for centuries I am optimistic that soon more
policies will be passed to hopefully continue to make them disappear.

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11

References
Anorexia nervosa Symptoms - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic. (2012,
January 5). Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/anorexia/basics/symptoms/con-20033002
Bulimia nervosa Complications - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic.
(2012, April 3). Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/bulimia/basics/complications/con-20033050?
footprints=mine
Emerman, S. (2013, October 4). Obamacare and the Benefits for Those in
Eating Disorder Treatment. Retrieved from
http://www.eatingdisorderscleveland.org/obamacare-and-the-benefitsfor-those-in-eating-disorder-treatment/
History of Eating. (n.d.). Retrieved from
historyofeating.umwblogs.org/history-of-eating-disorders/
NIMH Eating Disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders/index.shtml
North Dakota State University. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/counseling/Eating_Disorder_Statistics.p
df
Staats Reiss, N., & Dombeck, M. (2007, February 2). Historical
Understandings - Eating Disorders (Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating)
Professional Treatment, & Help. Retrieved from
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?
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