Anorexia Nervosa Statistics
There are some pretty scary statistics about anorexia nervosa. There have been over eight million people diagnosed with anorexia and other eating disorders. It is reported that one in every six people diagnosed with anorexia are male. The majority of people diagnosed with anorexia or other eating disorders are between the ages of 10 and 20 with the average being 17 year olds. There are a few diagnosed who are under 10 years old but it is rare. There are also many older than 20 diagnosed with a eating disorder of some sort with anorexia nervosa being one of the most popular. The majority of people who have died from anorexia were over 70 years old and most of them were male. The figures are growing every day and the problem needs to be dealt with. Society has caused a big part of the problem and until that changes, the problem will not be resolved. We all see pictures of skinny models, actresses, actors, athletes, singers, and other celebrities and some people feel that they have to look like that in order to fit into society. There is a lot of stress, peer pressure, and low self esteem involved usually too. Sometimes there is abuse which can also be another factor.
The public needs to be educated as far as the signs and symptoms of anorexia and the damage that anorexa nervosa can cause. It is much more dangerous than some want to believe and we have to make them see the danger as it is. There are treatment centers for eating disorders in the United States and Britain and there are now qualified doctors who know how to treat the diseases but thirty years ago there was hardly any information or studies done on the disease.
Karen Carpenter (famous singer) was one victim who lost her life in 1983 at 32 years of age because of complications from anorexia. She had thought she was heavy from the time she was a teen so she decided to lose weight and didn’t stop at a healthy weight for her age and height. She got down to 85 pounds and passed out on stage during a performance before she admitted she had a problem and began receiving treatment. She received treatment for a long time and some thought she had won her battle against anorexia but her heart gave out and she had a sudden heart attack and died. The damage to her body had just been too great. After Karen died there was a rush for scientists to learn more about the disease because the numbers keep growing. Society has to change before we lose many more of our young people from one of these horrible eating disorders. Many of the deaths are from suicide because the people cannot cope with the problem.
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