Many teenagers with eating disorder

Techniker Krankenkasse: More and more young people in Bavaria suffer from an eating disorder

12/20/2013

Eating disorders in adolescents are an increasingly observable, highly questionable phenomenon. According to the latest press release of Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), the number of 12 to 19-year-olds who had to be hospitalized in Bavaria for an eating disorder increased by 20 percent between 2007 and 2012. Experts see here a close connection with the medial mediated slimming delusion and barely attainable beauty ideals.

According to the TK, 813 adolescents in Bavaria were hospitalized last year alone because of an eating disorder - the majority of them were girls (758). In the current TK statement, Carolin Martinovic from the Therapeutic Network Eating Disorder in Munich, the largest information center for eating disorders in Germany, explains that in her opinion the known numbers are only the tip of the iceberg. Because in the clinic only land „those whom we can no longer help with outpatient measures such as psycho-therapy and nutritional therapy“, the social pedagogue continues. In the Therapy Network Eating Disorders alone, more than 5,000 contacts with 1,500 potentially affected persons are recorded each year.

Slimming craze often causes the eating disorder
The cause of the increased occurrence of eating disorders in adolescents is called Martinovic „Slimming and beauty ideals.“ How intensively the adolescents deal with their figure is also clear from a Forsa survey commissioned by TK. Therefore „Five percent of 6- to 18-year-olds have already dieted to lose weight“, reports the technicians health insurance. In addition, those affected by an eating disorder are always younger. Even seven-year-olds would come to the counseling centers. Among the young patients in Bavaria, who had to be hospitalized for an eating disorder, 43 children between the ages of eight and eleven were, according to TK statements.

Boys are more likely to show one „Sportbulimie“
According to Carolin Martinovic, the fact that most of the young victims were female is due to the fact that men usually only get ill later. This is lying „The fact that boys get in puberty muscles and thus develop the ideal of beauty“, the expert continues. In addition, unlike the girls tend to exaggerated training rather than starved. „We call that Sportbulimie. The food is not vomited, the calories are reduced by excessive training“, explained Martinovic. (Fp)

Picture credits: Lizzy Tewordt