Bulimia Nervosa Nature Vs Nurture

Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that affect a person’s emotional and physical state (Nationaleatingdisorders.org, 2015). Bulimia Nervosa is a common eating disorder where diagnosed patients will have recurring and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over these episodes. Following this binge eating, the patients will compensate for the large amounts of food they have just eaten by vomiting, using a large amount of laxatives, excessive exercising, fasting or a combination of all these behaviours (National Institute of Mental Health). I chose this topic because I have encountered a number of people my age, including people very close to me who are going through or overcoming an eating
40-60% of elementary school girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or becoming too fat. This concern then follows them throughout their life (Smolak, 2011). A number of contributing factors combine to trigger eating disorders. This essay will investigate the nature vs nurture debate in relation to the origins of Bulimia: is it a genetic or social constructing, and how eating disorders are being thought of in a whole different light. There has been a debate about nature vs nurture for decades; people are more recently questioning and debating between attributing genetics for the behaviour of some eating disorders or the environment. It has been said, “Genetics load the gun, and the environment pulls the trigger.” Family history and genetics are additional factors and they may be the main reason for eating disorder development in children. However, cultural pressures and body image also have an involvement. With the merging of pre-existing genetics and environmental triggers, younger children have been diagnosed much more over the past decade (Colleen Thompson,