Eating Disorders:
The Impacts on Youths
ANG YI NING, LEO YU HAN GWEN, STEPHANIE NG ZOE YEE explore the causes and effects of eating disorders.
Ordering food might be second nature to most of us but this is not the case for Miss Yanni Ruth Chin, who has been struggling with Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder, since she was 17 years old.
An illustration shows the symptoms for the two different types of eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.
INFORMATION SOURCE: ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN FOR ACTION AND RESEARCH (AWARE)
ILLUSTRATION BY: ISLAND POST
Anorexia Nervosa causes her to abstain from food. She can spend up to an hour working up the courage to order food for herself, as she gets consumed by her anxiety about the amount of calories she is potentially going to consume.
Eating disorders are troubled thoughts that can lead to extremely unhealthy eating habits, and it can affect anyone, regardless of their body type. It mainly affects young women, but it can also be found in men. The main types of eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge-eating disorder, and Orthorexia Nervosa.
According to a The Straits Times article, the Singapore General Hospital saw a 15 per cent increase in 2020 in patients with eating disorders, compared to previous years.
Negative impacts of eating disorders are not always physical, but some impacts are unseen. Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Jared Ng, says that patients with eating disorders tend to feel “guilt[y] from eating, anger from putting on weight, or any other negative thoughts”. He says that these patients tend to also suffer from “depression, anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder”.
Miss Chin says that her eating disorder has also affected her personality. She “used to be very bubbly” and now she has become “very, very depressed”, and the people around her have noticed that change in her as well.
Friends and family are a crucial part of the support system sufferers of eating disorders need. For Miss Chin, her family initially struggled with understanding what she was going through. But over the years, they began to understand the right way to support her.
However, with her friends, Miss Chin says that as much as her male friends are trying to support her eating disorder recovery, they tend to criticise other girls’ bodies which subconsciously makes her question her physical appearance.
Miss Christine Liew is another person facing an eating disorder. She battles Bulimia Nervosa, which started because her parents degraded her with insults such as “pig”, which resulted in her feeling “really stress[ed] and helpless…because their behaviours were repetitive and hurtful”.
According to her, her parents did not understand her predicament and berated her behaviours, telling her, “‘You damn stupid, eat [al]ready, vomit out…You better stop wasting food”.
Miss Liew would stuff her face with food when she gets stressed and would “feel really guilty for consuming food”.
Her classmates had also mocked her for her weight, giving nasty remarks like saying she “shouldn’t wear Nike Airforce” as she would “break the bubble”.
“Family-based treatments have been shown to be one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders,” says Dr Ng. According to him, the caregivers need to learn how to properly empathise and also impose rules about eating to help with recovery.
Miss Yanni Ruth Chin (second from the left), with her sisters. “I don't feel uncomfortable and I'm very grateful, because it just shows that they support me as I try to recover,” she says.
PHOTO CREDITS: MISS YANNI RUTH CHIN
Miss Liew says that the internet is the main contributor to the rise of eating disorders among youths.
“Social media gives us the impression that we all should be ‘flawless’,” she says. “When you don’t subscribe to the norm…you are outcasted and left behind.”
Dr Ng says that there are biological, psychological and environmental factors that can cause eating disorders. Some factors are personality traits and social media exposure, which can contribute to the rise of eating disorders.
Miss Chin has been on her journey to recovery for seven years, and advises people who are recovering from eating disorders to not compare their recovery timeline with others because everyone has their own good days and bad days, and comparing oneself to others will just make things go “haywire”.
“This is a thing that I always remind myself,” she says, “and I hope that it will help other people as well.”