Mash And Wolfe

Mash & Wolfe (2014) provide with the idea that there could be multiple risk factors that contribute to eating disorders. these include a kids eating problems, dieting patterns, negative body image, and last but not least the ongoing challenges that children and teens go through. The interaction between these factors could create chaos that individuals then try to assert excessive control to in the form of maladaptive caloric consumption habits. Individuals feel the need to manage their stress and physiology in erroneous ways. This malfunction can happen fast as illustrated in the case of Dana the eight-year-old anorexic girl whose eating habits dramatically changed within weeks. She first stopped eating sweets, then stopped eating junk food, and when her parent admitted her to a pediatric ward for treatment, she did not eat altogether for two weeks.

Our text provides us with the following predisposing factors for developing an eating disorder. Mash & Wolfe (2014)
tell us that at an individual level, kids that have a perfectionist personality trait have a correlation with eating disorders. At the familiar level, individual at risk for disordered eating reported more negative views of their families and parents. At a cultural level, sociocultural influences such as mass media conveys the direct relationship between self-worth and physical appearance. All of these creates dissatisfaction with body weight and shape. From there, individuals start implementing maladaptive dieting habits to improve self-worth and control. Finally, Mash & Wolfe (2014) tell us that reaction from others and starvation symptoms can contribute to the continuation of these behaviors.

As an added layer to this dynamic, Individuals within Marginalized groups that dealing with eating disorders have a sense of loneliness.
As illustrated in the Marginalized Voices clip, individuals feel as if they cannot reach out as they do not fit into the stenotic image of what a person with an eating disorder looks like. Thus, we need to consider that individual in marginalized groups are dealing with factors that magnify the dynamics that take place in eating disorders.

I think that the most practical idea that I have absorbed this week came from Danas documentary. There was a segments in which they externalized the disorder and talked about it as a separate entity that talked to the individuals dealing with eating disorder. They mentioned things like the “voice won’t go away”. At times this separate entity can control an individual’s entire childhood. However, thinking about it as a separate entity can give room for the empowerment of an individual in trying to take control of this
issue.