(June 11, 1999) — One of the problems among teenagers these days is eating disorders. An eating disorder is when someone doesn’t eat normally and/or does unhealthy things to make themselves lose weight. An eating disorder results from low self-esteem, a desire to be thin or other problems that a person doesn’t know how to handle. Today’s society greatly emphasizes people being thin and looking like super models. That affects the way teenagers see themselves. About 85 percent of people with eating disorders are females. One of the many reasons for that is that most women on TV and in magazines are super skinny, and teenage girls feel they need to look like that. Also, girls take insults and jokes about their weight more seriously than guys do. However, there are teenage guys who have eating disorders. “From first hand, taking diet pills, making yourself throw up, and starving yourself does not do anything except make you sick,” commented a student at Clark who wishes to remain anonymous. Even though this seems like the easy way out, unhealthy dieting causes a lot of pain and is not worth it. Starving yourself or making yourself throw up is too much trouble even for losing a few pounds. Most people agree that it is a foolish thing to do and that there are easier and healthier things to do like exercise and eat right to lose weight and look good. “If you keep throwing up, you’ll destroy your esophagus, which will cause you to not be able to eat at all. And that will eventually lead to death,” added one of Clark’s Health teachers, Mr. Randy Tiffany. One of the most common eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, is when a person refuses to eat because they don’t want to gain weight. They are constantly dieting for long periods of time and refuse to admit they have a problem. Anorexics develop an obsession with becoming thin and do everything they can to avoid eating. Another sign of anorexia is excessive exercising. Even after eating a little bit, they over-exercise to burn the small amount of calories they have eaten. Anorexia is easily recognized because after a long period of time, anorexics become extremely thin. Bulimia is another one of the eating disorders among teenagers. Bulimia is when a person doesn’t eat for a long period of time, then eats too much and later throws up to get rid of the food. It is more common in teenage girls than anorexia because it is much easier to eat and throw up than it is to starve. Signs of bulimia are much harder to recognize because a bulimic looks normal for the first couple of months. Bulimia also causes tooth decay because throwing up causes the tooth enamel to dissolve from exposure to stomach acids. “I think eating disorders are wrong. People shouldn’t kill themselves so they can lose a few pounds. It isn’t worth the trouble or pain,” said Clark student Aris Allahuerdian. And it’s true. People with eating disorders slowly kill their body and also hurt those who care about them.