Eating Disorder Psychology

The purpose of this paper is to convey the psychology behind eating disorders like what causes individuals to obtain these disorders. Research shows that eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have been linked to low self-esteem, stress, conflicts, and depression. Eating disorders can be addressed with a behavioral perspective, psychodynamic perspective, and with a cognitive perspective.

Psychology of Eating Disorders “To eat or not to eat, that is the addiction” (Voelker 2007). Eating disorders are real and destructive each with the potential to destroy an individual relationally, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Eating disorders are classified with the term “nervosa,” indicating that these disorders originate as a nervous disorder. The term anorexia is the inability to eat, therefore, the term anorexia nervosa delineates to being the loss of appetite due to pathological fear or nervousness. Bulimia nervosa is a disorder in which one consumes large quantities of food in a short time but vomits excess food in order to avoid weight gain. “Eating disorders are an important cause of
physical and psychosocial morbidity in females than in males” (Fairburn 2003).” Most individual’s who engage in such disorders are often influenced by their desire to have a certain physique as the media constantly shows as unrealistic weights and shapes for both men and women. Unfortunately, media glorifies unrealistic body types allowing individuals varying in ages to question their physique and even go to extremes to achieve a certain look.
Anorexia nervosa is the disorder in which individuals will fast in order to maintain or lose body weight. Individuals who fall into this category of eating disorders have unhealthy or inappropriate eating habits.“In some patients, the restriction over food intake is also motivated by other psychological processes, including asceticism, competitiveness, and a wish to punish themselves” (Fairburn 2003). Individuals will go to the extreme self-harming due to their intense fixation of a thinner body goal. “Anorexics always see themselves as overweight so they obsessively exercise to bum ingested calories” (Voelker 2007). Eating disorders can bring about many complications
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another evident problem is denial and emotional distress, anorexics will mentally tell themselves that they are fat and must lose weight but in reality, they are the exact opposite. “A review of nearly fifty years of research confirms that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder” (Arcelus, Mitchell, Wales, & Nielsen, 2011). Anorexia nervosa has much more side effects than denial, depression, and low self-esteem, but it can even cause death. Studies reveal that anorexia nervosa has a mortality rate twelves times higher than any other cause of mortality. Complications of an individual struggling with anorexia nervosa may include growth dysfunction, a decrease in bone mass, a fatty liver, heart disease, kidney failure, and a neurological disease. “Four main aspects to recovery; address mental change, then weight restoration in order to reverse malnutrition, then patients eating habits, and possibly compulsory treatment” (Fairburn 2003). There is no particular treatment to treat the disorder most effectively but rather there are goals to fix the disorder over time and commitment. In conclusion, anorexia nervosa is a serious mental and eating disorder as it is usually a product of a mental illness like depression or low self-esteem. Bulimia nervosa is another eating disorder that harms people both mentally and physically due to their fixation on maintaining a certain physique. “Bulimia nervosa is characterized by eating large amounts of food in response to stress or depression but later purge excess food in order to maintain body weight” (Feldman 2012). Although eating disorders spark from many of similar causes they all differentiate in their own ways. For example, “Bulimia can have serious medical complications such as dental decay and dehydration, unlike persons with anorexia nervosa, most bulimics remain close to their proper weight” (Encyclopedia Britannica 2013). Anorexia nervosa

and bulimia nervosa are similar by what causes them but what differentiates them is the physical effect. “A bulimic’s teeth will be discolored and eroded due to the acidity in vomit. Their esophagus will be highly irritated and inflamed also due to the vomit” (Green 2014). Another main difference between bulimia and anorexia is the body mass index, those who have anorexia will have a much less mass than average as compared to those with bulimia who have a much closer mass to the average. In conclusion, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are both very similar due to their mental causes but differentiate through their physical conditions. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are very serious life threatening psychological and physical eating disorders. A positive note is that they desire to become healthier but their interpretation is a negative way to appear healthier. “These disorders are often predictive indicators of a person's feelings of low self-worth, need to be perfect, falling short of expectations, and concern with others perceptions” (Green 2014). Hank Green uses both a psychodynamic and cognitive perspective to approach these disorders. He expresses that people who struggle with theses disorders can even obtain an obsessive compulsive disorder as they become more and more fixated on their appearance. As they do obtain an obsessive compulsive disorder, they will constantly be in denial, depression, or emotional distress as they cannot seem to fit into their perfect standard of a “healthy” body, resulting in a many more mental complications. In addition, “Body dysmorphic disorder is another psychological illness, one that centers on a person's obsession with physical flaws” (Green 2014). Hank Green explains that eating disorder can transform into BDD, due to their intense obsession over their physical appearance. Hank explains that they even suffer from anxiety, depression, they avoid social

gatherings, and stay home because they fear others will judge them for how they appear. In conclusion, the psychodynamic and cognitive approaches enables us to learn about how those who struggle with these disorders think about themselves and how we can build their self-confidence. Furthermore, eating disorders are caused by how one interprets oneself and how they believe society will see them. Studies show that most cases of eating disorders start with their behaviors of depression, stress, or some kind of emotional distress. Cognitively, they have a low self-esteem allowing them to fixate on an impossible standard set by media and themselves. Their behavior then becomes uncontrollable as they allow their emotions and motives to consume their life or even spew it back out. Eating disorders are often coherent with psychological illnesses, they are very treatable but take support, dedication, and time to recover from.