Teen Girls Eat and Behave More Abnormally During the Pandemic

Eating disorders and tic disorders have increased dramatically among teen girls as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teen girls visiting the weekly emergency department for tic disorders tripled and for eating disorders doubled during the pandemic, according to a report recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

“Though eating disorders were on the rise even before the pandemic, a very significant acceleration of this trend was seen during the pandemic,” notes Cynthia Flynn, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor, and adolescent psychologist at Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington.

All You Need to Know about Eating Disorders
Eating disorders involve extreme attitudes and behaviors towards food and weight. It has the highest suicidal mortality rate than other mental illnesses.

‘Social media plays an important role in the rise of both eating disorders and tic disorders among teen girls.’

Apart from a pandemic, there are many other related factors. School closures and anxiety centered around the pandemic increased the exposure to social media, which may be a possible factor that contributed to the increase in eating disorders.

Adding to that, Tic disorders, which are typically very rare in girls, are becoming more and more common among this demographic.

Usually, tic disorders begin earlier in childhood and are more prevalent among males. But the pandemic-related stress or exposure to more social media platforms might be associated with increases in visits with tics and tic-like behavior among teen girls.

Heads-up! Eating Disorders Can Affect Fertility!
When patients were informed that eating disorders can affect their reproductive health, they felt that it made them feel worse than helping them get out of it.

Teens who have been previously diagnosed with anxiety or depression may be more susceptible to developing tic-like behaviors. In some cases, physical symptoms of stress can manifest in a manner that a patient has seen exhibited in another person.

Historically, these phenomena were previously seen in those living in the same location. But the widespread access to social media has created a much more diffuse outbreak that isn’t location-specific.

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Increase in eating disorders was seen during the pandemic. Eating disorder preventive interventions and treatments should be made easily accessible, affordable and widely disseminated to those at heightened risk.

Early intervention is key for both eating disorders and tic disorders, and seeking medical treatment and mental health therapy for any new symptoms or concerns you may have about your teen’s behavior is the first step.

Excessive changes in eating habits, skipping meals, excessive exercise, and more isolated behavior related to food and eating are the signs of eating disorders.

Test Your Knowledge on Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are more of a psychiatric disorder that cause severe disturbances to a person's eating behaviors due to obsessions with food, body weight, and shape.

Repeated nose wrinkling, eye blinking, shoulder shrugging or kicking, skipping, jumping along with repeated words and phrases, animal sounds, yelling are the symptoms of tic disorders.

If you’re concerned about their social media use in general, establishing an agreed-upon device use policy may help, as can taking regular social media breaks and blocking certain types of pro-eating disorder content and tic-focused content on social media.

Source-Medindia