Adolescence is a developmental period that enables the transition from childhood to adulthood, and there will be many physical, psychological, hormonal and social changes. During this period, growth and development increase rapidly and the need for nutrients and energy increases. Adolescence is a period when physical appearance becomes important and feelings about the body change. Studies conducted in recent years have revealed that family communication and social conditions, cognitive, biological and psychological predispositions affect eating disorders. The family is a behavioral role model, that is, it has an important place in the adolescent's nutritional attitudes, body weight and food consumption. It has been observed that children of families that attach excessive importance to the child's appearance and make particularly critical statements about weight control have high levels of anxiety and frequent dieting or bubumic behaviors. Social media, family and friends also put pressure on this developmental period. Peer groups' pressure on diet or discrimination based on appearance greatly affects the body image of adolescents.
Anorexia Nervosa: It is an eating disorder in which the desire to have a thin body and the extreme fear of being fat lead the client to engage in various behaviors (such as vomiting, excessive exercise) in order to lose weight.
Bulimia Nervosa: It is a picture that includes behavioral patterns aimed at controlling body weight. It is the use of certain methods (such as vomiting, excessive exercise or enema) to prevent weight gain after overeating episodes that the clients cannot control.
Binge Eating Disorder: It is when a person consumes a large amount of food in a short period of time (such as every 2 hours) and in a short period of time, more than most people can eat under the same conditions. In order to relieve the effects of these sudden attacks, precautions such as forcing oneself to vomit, using diuretic drugs, or accelerating the metabolism with excessive exercise are not taken.
There is more conflict and anger, less closeness, and less intimacy in the families of adolescents with eating disorders. Adaptation and support are seen. People with anorexia have more cohesive family relationships There is less autonomy in family and parental relationships and higher expectations from family members. It can be said that they have difficulty feeding and digestive problems, and that they are more picky/fussy when it comes to eating.
In Bulimia Nervosa, it can be said that mothers use more verbal control over their children. Parents restrict children's access to food and control their eating behavior, regardless of their child's weight.
The underlying reason why adolescents experience eating disorders is usually the negative control needs that parents establish over their eating attitudes. The fact that foods become forbidden foods increases children's love for this food even more. This state of control creates a perception that food control is given excessive importance in later ages, thus creating a risk factor for anorexia. At the same time, when combined with the child's temperamental characteristics, it may lead to deficiencies in eating control and a risk for binge eating and bulimia.
So, what can families do?
- Parents need to reduce their critical comments on the adolescent.
- Controlling behaviors need to be put aside because this behavior causes children to feel under pressure and causes these behaviors to increase.
- The reason why adolescents show eating disorders may be the difficulty they have in keeping things in the outside world under control. . For this reason, it becomes easier for them to keep their bodies under their own control compared to the outside world. At this point, it is also important that parents do not make accusations or excessive interventions.
- As parents, we encourage teenagers to "Gain weight!" Avoid putting pressure on them because they are very afraid of gaining weight.
- Finally, if you start to see such eating-related problems in adolescents, do not forget to get support. In such cases, it is very important to always take early steps.
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