Experiencing the influence of eating disorders on person's biografy

Eating disorders are a complex phenomenon, which has a negative effect on many areas of individual's life. It's a very complex issue, which hides in the background much more profound reasons, than the person’s wishes of becoming thinner and more beautiful. Although a lot has been said on this topic, I think that society still lacks the awareness and knowledge for a successful fight against this problem in order to diminish it. In theoretical part I defined eating disorders and their types, showed what the meaning of the food for a person is and which main causes lead to problems with eating. I immersed myself in the aspect of self-esteem (especially physical) and self-respect, the consequences of eating disorders for a person and the risk factors of their emergence. I briefly discussed the influence of the media, because of their significant contribution to forming and maintaining this issue. In empirical part I carried out the interview with a person who had the experience of eating disorder and analyzed it with a qualitative methodology. The results show that eating disorders have a big influence on person’s experience, because they radically intervene with her/his personality, behaviour and emotions. The causes that lead to the problems with food may vary. But most important fact is that it's never just a problem of food or weight, but of underlying causes in the background. Eating disorders have the impact on physical and emotional functioning of the person and his/her social life