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Anorexia Nervosa is the third largest chronic disease amongst teenage girls...obviously a worry for parents living within such an image portrayed world where every magazine portrays the perfectly proportioned women...
Do you believe society itself has a lot to answer for this influx in cases and how do you believe it can be counteracted...

Advertising............yes well..has a lot to answer for?

I have never been into magazines and all the staryeyed stuff.?

How one has to look ???? .for what????.

Not been my kinda stuff?

How to feed my chooks .

Dig and grow my vedges more importance.??

But each to their own.I personally dont and wont get caught up in that .

I think the answers begin at home. My niece has had anorexia nervosa since the age of 13. It didn't manifest itself to the point of being dangerous, and recognizeable, until she was 17. She is now 25 years old but still struggles with it, and probably always will.

I realize that society puts a huge emphasis on a person, especially women and girls, being thin, but I always encourage my daughter to be healthy - eating right and staying active. The proper body size for ones frame follows.

My niece became anorexic when her parents split up. We later learned that it was the one thing that she felt in control of. Her parents were too embroiled in their own turmoils to notice at the time. At 13 a kids body is changing and she didn't get TOO thin at that point. However, when she did take it too far, it almost cost her her life on a number of occasions.

Like I said, I think parents need to take more notice of their kids and what they say to them. My mom once said something to my daughter about holding her tummy in when wearing a particular dress. Mom just didn't think about it until I explained to her that comments like that often make kids self-conscious of their bodies when they shouldn't be. And at that age, a little tummy was perfectly normal.

Anorexia Nervosa is most common in girls of upper middle-class families.

Good for you Dana..perfect..it has to begin at home becasue society does place such huge standards on us all..let alone a younger person that is still developing both physically and mentally and totally vulnerable in the worlds eyes...
Most sufferers are going through a stress related problem as you suggest and feel it a form of control...
We can only continually rebuild their self asteem when it is attacked through our society and its expectations..

Morning Zarah yes i do the image of a beautiful girl/woman 99% of the time is portrayed as a size 10. Same in the music world and modelling. Having bought up a teenage daughter experienced major panic everytime she thought she had put weight on, she was a size 12. Happy when she went o size 8

Maybe about the media portraying a different image and dealing with it in education in schools , not sure

Yes well.....:

Its a family situation one needs to know their kids habbits.
Ihave only had dogs and I sure new well when thay were not well??not eating.So that is my only experiencs as a mum?
Saying that may sound flippant.Sorry if it does

I only had a son and now two adopted kids..one being a six year old girl so have not had to deal with issues as yet..I grew up with all brothers and my mother often told me girls are a worry when it comes to image problems...
I guess we need a lot more bigger size models and an emphasis on a healthy body rather than size..

I continually used to tell my daughter she looked great, she was a gymnast to County standard so obviously was not over weight, but i still had huge problems getting her to see that, she would say i was just biased, and return to looking at magazine's saying her bum was big !

Anorexia can cause so many health-related problems from missed periods to kidney problems to death. My niece flat-lined on more than one occasion. It took years to get her to the point she is now. She's a little over an "ideal" weight at this point, and couldn't look more beautiful to me.

I have a picture of her at 5'6 1/2" tall, weighing 87 pounds. I'm 5'1" and weigh around 99, and I'm still very thin. It kills me to think of her when she was that small. The thing is, at the time, when she looked at that picture - 17yo - she thought she looked good.

I've always been very careful of what I say to Em about her body. Of course, Em has had her share of sleepless nights worrying about Janna too. She understands.

Maybe I say maybe ??

There is a book ..for some to read ...A new Earth,,,,,Issuse on the EGO.
Which seems to be todays thing??
Being better than the other whoever?????

I like what France has been talkig about with their runway models. I know a lot of people disagree, saying that if they were larger women they wouldn't be doing such a thing. Being underweight can have just as many health-related problems as being too large.

Thanks cutypie...look into it..

Just normal sized 'realistic' models would be good...
I get some patients that look like they need more than a cup of tea and sandwich...I once had a mother that continually told her daughter she was getting 'fat.' Her daughter was a normal size..This type of behavior is dangerous and has many possible negative reactions...

I agree about realistic models. Teenagers are impressionable with hormones running riot, peer pressure and that of the media are so powerful.

..A new world....by Ekhart Tolle...

I havent read it yet but just google it.

It is a tough question about anorexia. So many factors seems to be contributing to the cause. Magazins, media, how kids are taught to perceive themelves, school and peer pressure, needing attention, control isues, the listis endless.

I may be very unpopular for my views here, (in fact I'm almost sure I will be), but, it all comes down to parenting. When children are born, to me they are a very precious gift, one that requires us to challenge ourselves way beyond who we are and what we believe in order to keep them from making mistakes that will ruin their future lives. It is our responsibility to teach them how to filter and process what the world will try to fill their minds with, and to keep the kind of stress from them that will cause them to do things detrimental to their health. This is far from easy, but we all have access to the resurces that will help us do this, if we want to take the time and make the effort to do this. There is no excuse for young children to be anorexic........

Set a new standard that a healthy plumb is the beautiful standard. Those bones that stand and walk are not pretty!(models)

Hey they eat the same as you Rilly...the only difference is...you keep yours down...