Athletes are prone to have eating disorders, especially those who are involved in wrestling, running, ballet, figure-skating, gymnastics, rowing, or horse riding. These sports have such a high rate of eating disorders because there is an extremely large focus on the weight of the athletes. "They are obsessively convinced that less fat equals more fitness," as said by John Bryant, author of "Body Image Produces a Distorted Picture. .
This unhealthy way of thinking can be linked to a few different fields of psychology: clinical psychology, health psychology, and sports psychology. Clinical because this can be used to identify the disorder and determine the reason for the eating disorder. Health psychology can also be used to link the misconceptions of the athletes of how to maintain their weight to their unhealthy eating habits. Also sports psychology can help athletes realize better training habits and get them to understand how to take care of their bodies.
In the article, "Personal Health: Girls and Puberty: the Crisis Years" by Jane E. Brody, the mind sets of teenage girls is described. When girls enter puberty they go through a lot of changes and often experience a time of depression and a lack of self confidence. In order to compensate for their feelings of sadness, girls often turn to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and may even resort to having eating disorders. The fields of psychology which can help girls going through these stages are: social psychology, health psychology, psychology of women, and clinical psychology. A big reason why girls fall into depressive moods is because they are so concerned with their appearance and what others think of them, this is where social psychology can be helpful. Psychology of women can be used to determine why girls have lower self esteem then boys the same age. Health and clinical psychology can again be used in this situation to identify the disorder and the causes.
