Eating Disorders in Female High School Athletes

Eating disorders are severe conditions related to persistent eating behavior that negatively impact health, your emotions and ability to function in critical areas of life. “Eating disorders are serious and common psychiatric conditions….these conditions are in fact complex, multi-factorial and found across all societies and cultures” (Currie, 2010). There are three major types of eating disorders, which are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Symptoms of these eating disorders result in the individual focusing obsessively on weight, body shape, and food, which all lead to unhealthy eating patterns. These eating behaviours are incredibly detrimental to health; they impact the amount of nutrition that the body needs to function on a day to day basis. “Eating disorders are not easy to identify….eating behaviours are likely to be kept secret by the sufferer and denial is a common feature even in advanced cases” (Currie, 2010). When a person does not have an eating disorder or disordered eating, they are considered to have a healthy relationship with food. An average person eats when they are hungry and stops when they feel full while eating different food groups and having a healthy balance in their diet. However, that is not the case of someone with an eating disorder.