Mental Effects

Mental

Effects

The effect eating disorders have on the mental stability of a high school athlete is profound. It negatively impacts the body's functions in day to day life. This also means that athlete cognition is slower. When someone has a malnourished brain, it can affect schoolwork and sports performance. The brain needs carbs to work. It needs carbs as energy sources every 3-4 hours. However, when a person has an eating disorder, they are not getting the nutrients and all the food groups that the body needs in order to work properly. The brain can't function; it is easy to lose focus, have poor coordination, poor memory, dizziness, and poor sleep, therefore making the symptoms even worse. Anxiety, depression, and low self-confidence can develop, which then leads to the fear of gaining weight. Eating disorders impact the ability of the brain to make choices about food. For example, if you want to have crackers, your eating disorder will tell you to only have two because if you have three crackers then you will have to do 16 extra burpees to burn off those calories.

This is an example of how an eating disorder affects the mind

(this example was provided by Dr. Jamie Taylor)

This story explains what goes through a female high school athlete's head when developing an eating disorder and how it affects their every day choices. I hope it provides a better understanding of how eating disorders affect female athletes mentally.

Jessica is a 16-year-old girl. She went to see Dr. Taylor after a year of weight loss, 25 pounds in total. It started last fall when Jessica started school and decided she wanted to be healthy. She started to skip snacks, have salads for lunch and stopped eating junk food. Jessica is a cross country runner and continued to cut back her food intake while continuing to train. After three months, she dropped 15 pounds and started to become aware of food nutrition labels and calories. She became very irritable and started weighing herself. She constantly told her mom that she was full or wasn't hungry. She restricted her food more, skipped meals, and started to throw away her lunch. She started to run more than she was supposed to. Even if she already had a practice that day, she would run after dinner. Running was no longer fun; it became compulsive. After the cross country season ended, she would increase her millage based on what she ate that day, so depending on her calorie intake, the run could range from 5 miles to 7 miles or to 10 miles very quickly. Jessica recognized that something was wrong, but was in denial about being sick because she was losing weight. The more weight Jessica lost, the louder the eating disorder became in her head. She was scared to eat certain foods and started to become nervous around food. She sometimes cried after she ate because she thought that she ate too much. Over time Jessica's eating disorder morphed into something beyond her control, and she was unable to control it. Her mom finally brought Jessica to see Dr. Taylor and got her the help she needed.