Eating Disorders: Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating & Body Dysmorphic Disorder - Essay Sample

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are psychological conditions that frequently come with severe repercussions. They are classified as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorders. Body dysmorphic disorder describes a psychological condition that centers on the obsession of an individual with physical flaws (CrashCourse, 2014b).

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Symptoms

The symptoms of anorexia eating disorder embracing starvation habits, abnormally low body weight, fatigue, unusually slow heart rate, loss of bone density, hair loss, muscle weakness, low body mass index, and serious dehydration. Additionally, the symptoms of bulimia nervosa are the maintenance of an apparently normal or at least minimally healthy body weight, vomiting, abnormal heartbeat, tooth decay and staining, infrequent movements of the bowel, peptic ulcers, inflammation of the mouth and esophagus, and damage in pancreatitis (CrashCourse, 2014b). Also, the symptoms of binge-eating disorder entail emotional stress, emotions of lack of control, and loathing or guilt without fasting.

The symptoms of people with body dysmorphic disorders are that they always stare into mirrors for a long time and feel ashamed by what they gaze at. Also, people suffering from the disorders exercise too much, groom themselves extremely because they feel not contented with their looks. Nonetheless, the individuals with the condition experience anxiety and appear depressed (CrashCourse, 2014b).

Implications

One of the implications of body dysmorphic disorders is that they are not confident in their looks, and this negatively affects their social life. Such individuals begin avoiding social events and circumstances out of fear of what others might say about their appearance. As people suffering from body dysmorphic disorders appear depressed, the long term effect is emotional distress and dysfunction. Hence, these individuals will find it difficult to concentrate on studies, and this might negatively affect their academic and professional life in the future (CrashCourse, 2014b).

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are psychological conditions that are characterized by inflexible, disruptive, and tolerating behavior patterns that harm the social and other functions. Also, they are taken into account as chronic syndromes that create identifiable problems in life.

Symptoms

The symptoms of personality disorders differ from one cluster to another. Cluster A is also known as odd, eccentric cluster and entails the schizoid and paranoid personality disorders. The symptoms of patients suffering from paranoid personality disorder are that they might feel pervasive mistrust of other people and be frequently protected and suspicious. In contrast, individuals with a schizoid personality disorder would appear extremely aloof and uncaring, expressing no interest in relationships and few emotional responses (CrashCourse, 2014c).

Cluster B is recognized as an emotional, dramatic, and impulsive cluster. The disorders in this cluster entail borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and histrionic personality disorder. The symptom of people with a narcissist personality is a self-centered grandiose sense of self-importance and privilege. The symptom of individuals with a histrionic personality is appearing to act to elicit attention, even putting themselves at risk with dramatic, hazardous, and even suicidal norms. The symptoms of individuals with borderline personality disorder are having a temper, extreme emotional swings, and self-injury behaviors (CrashCourse, 2014c). Also, people with antisocial personality disorder express a lack of conscience for bad practices, development of destructive behavior during childhood such as extreme fighting, robbing, lying, violence or manipulation, and impairment in fear conditioning.

Cluster C is known as a fearful, anxious, or avoidant cluster. The people that suffer from avoid and independent personality disorder always elude meeting new individuals or engaging in risks and express low confidence, an extreme need to take care of, and incredible anxiety of being abandoned (CrashCourse, 2014c).

Implications

Personality disorders have implications both in the short and long-term. The implications of the disorders are difficulty in relationships, rising withdrawal from socialization, and change in moods.

Trauma and Addiction

Trauma is a condition that occurs when individuals fear for their safety, encounter extreme pain, or witness a tragic act. The responses of traumatic events might vary depending on the resiliency levels. If trauma and emotions linked with it are not resolved, then serious long-run issues can emanate such as post-traumatic disorder (CrashCourse, 2014a).

Symptoms

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are categorized into four key clusters in the DSM V. the first cluster entails re-living the event via nightmares, intrusive memories, or flashbacks. The second cluster comprises of eluding circumstances that the individuals link with the events. The third cluster involves the extreme psychological arousal such as the tension of the muscles, heart-pounding, anxiety, and lack of concentration. The fourth cluster includes pervasive negative changes in feelings and belief as well as emotions in excessive fear, guilt or fear (CrashCourse, 2014a)

Implications

One of the implications of trauma is addiction. Most of the victims of trauma self-meditate to attempt to cope the traumatic events. Some of them end up abusing drugs, and others find it difficult to live without consuming drugs. Addiction tends to meddle with life, health, work, and relationships (CrashCourse, 2014a). When these individuals abuse drugs, they become less productive at work and lose their focus as breadwinners in the family. Also, drug addiction harms human organs such as liver, lungs, and pancreases and thus goes a long way to impact their health negatively.

References

CrashCourse. (2014, September 22). Trauma and Addiction: Crash Course Psychology #31 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=343ORgL3kIc&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&index=32

CrashCourse. (2014, October 6). Eating and Body Dysmorphic Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #33. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMVyZ6Ax-74&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&index=34

CrashCourse. (2014, October 14). Personality Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #34. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=343ORgL3kIc&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&index=32