Eating Disorders

In this essay, the author

• Explains that anorexianervosa and bulimia nervousa are characterized by gross disturbances ineating behavior. they affect 1 in 100 females between the ages of 12 and 18.
• Explains that people of this disorder feel fat even though they are obviously underweight or emaciated. they are preoccupied with their body size and are dissatisfied with some feature of their physical apperarance.
• Explains that weight loss is accomplished by a reduction of food intake and self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives or diuretics. many people with this disorder are uninterested in, or resistant to any type of therapy.
• Explains that bulimia nervosa is a disorder in which the individual has recurrentepisodes of binge eating. vomiting decreases the physical abdominalpain that occurs after an individual binges.
• Explains that the eating attitudes test (eat-26) is a reliable and valid measure ofsymptoms commonly found in an eating disorder.
• Explains that many clinicians have suggested that eating disorders are caused by extreme body focus. the eat-26 is a twenty-six item test whichfocuses on body self-evaluation.
• Explains that women with eating disorders tend to focus on others' bodyshapes and expect others to be emotionally invested in body shapes. anorexia and bulimia share a common corepathology.
• Explains that a sample of university women completed the eating attitudes 26-itemtest. items focused on personal perception on body shape and weight.
• Explains that individuals who scored high on the eat-26 reported noticing moreweight-related information in other women. perfectionism is also a characterization by
• Explains that perfectionism is the holding of unrealistic expectations for others, and other-oriented perfectionionism, the need to attain standards and expectations prescribed bysignificant others. patients feelings of unworthiness result from not living up to expectations.
• Explains that success and self-worth are related to meeting external standards. undergraduate women were used in a study to look at the three levels ofperfectionism.
• Explains that high eat subjects adhere more strongly to their goals than low eat subjects. women who are weight concerned are socially perfect.
• Explains that anorexics are extrememly sensitive to the opinions of others, and the relentless pursuit of a thin body is an attempt to obtain social approval.
• Explains that families of anorexics are important in the treatment process. families avoid conflict and present a façade oftogetherness, while mothers are overprotective and domineering.
• Explains that systemic family therapy hopes to treat anorexia by changing family communication style to a more open and direct interactional approach.
• Explains that a study of fifteen subjects ranging in age from 13 to 16 was given the eat test. each subject and family members attended 60 minute therapy sessions weekly for 12 to 14 weeks.
• Explains that bulimicbehavior reduces awareness in threatening situations, whereas anorexia nervosa triggered this effect.
• Explains that perception of threat may be due to an actual past or present traumatic experience such as sexual conflict, major change in life, or loss of aloved one.
• Analyzes the correlation between bulimic eating attitudes and the possible disassociation ofthreat-related information among women who were not diagnosed with aneating disorder.
• Explains that high-bulimia groups were more likely to be affected by the threatening word, whereas non-eating disordered groups had morebulimic attitudes.
• Explains that bulimic attitudes may reflect an escape from awareness from threat. eating disorders are not only prevelant in the western world.
• Explains that high scores on subclinical eating disorders woulddetect potential patients. these scores may be a result of recent societal changes in eastern europe.
• Opines that more studies must be done to educate, eliminate, and treat present patients. recent studies have also been done in asia to study the control of family members in determining unhealthy eating attitudes.
• Explains that living in the united kingdom shows greater levels of eatingpsychopathology than caucasian girls, with higher scores on the eat and a higher prevalence of diagnosable cases. parents are more likely to enforce their values on their children.
• Explains that the eat-26 was given to 406 girls who attended sxhools in england. the asian girls had more unhealthy eating patterns overall.
• Explains that poor eating attitudes are aproduct of contradicting social pressures that affect the wholefamily. asian girls found their mother to be overcontroling, thus it was the mother who attempted to control the children's behavior.
• Explains that eating disorders are prevelant in many different cultures. the eat-26 is a reliable test used in detecting possibledisordered eating patterns in individuals.