The Pandemic and Eating Disorders

The Pandemic and Eating Disorders

Minda R.

On March 13, 2020 life changed for everyone. What we thought would be a two week “no work” or “no school” mini- vacation turned out to be a life changing event. At first everyone was going for long bike rides, or even long walks just to get through the long, ever-lasting days. One impact that the pandemic left on many teenagers is the diagnosis of an eating disorder. Children’s doctors are saying that this is the busiest that they have ever been. The doctors claim that the demand for services due to eating disorders occurred immediately after the pandemic started, and that he had more patients then he has had in his whole career. What causes this you might ask? A lot of eating disorders can be caused by stress, so with the rising pandemic it caused many people to develop eating disorders, or past patients to relapse. A certain Doctor named Doctor Norris claims that many of the young children already had experiences with eating disorders, however the pandemic activated the illness. This raise was rising specifically for teenage girls. When people faced anxiety, depression, or other things, there were more possible chances of developing (if not already having one) eating disorders due to the extreme stress that COVID-19 put our teenagers in.