Eating Disorders: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment - Essay Sample

Introduction

In western society, where there is so much emphasis on maintaining a relatively slim body, eating disorders are very vital. This demand by the community causes an individual to regulate their diets, some of which may not be an effect. There are no specific causes of eating disorders but somewhat influenced by sociological, psychologic, and biological factors and therefore cause a mental health disorder that disrupts eating sequences (Stice et al., 2017. Eating disorders often cause distress and concern on an individual who may prompt them to eat more food or to eat lea. The diseases are pervasive among adolescents and young adults. Nevertheless, these disorders are treatable since most are connected to a psychiatric illness. This paper aims to discuss the various types of eating disorders under abnormal psychology.

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Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is a condition in which an individual's perspective about self has been altered in terms of their body size, shape, and weight. These fears cause the individual to restrict the food they are eating, relatively lowers than the amount they should base on their age, sex, and development. The person does this in a bid to maintain low body weight and regulate their shape. The symptoms of the condition are divided into emotional and physical characteristics. The behavioral symptoms may include the person n a dramatic weight loss, being preoccupied with eating comments and being fat, avoids meals, and does not eat in public. The physical symptoms include the person having sleeping problems and feeling cold, dizziness, and weak muscles.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is a condition in which an individual is engaged in excessive eating at a particular time, compared to the normal range that the person is required to eat at this specific time. People with this condition report having minimal control over their eating condition when the urge is there during these episodes. What follows eating is a disgust about oneself and hating themselves. Therefore, the individual will engage in compensatory behavior to rid themselves of excess calories in the body. This may include induced vomiting, fasting, the use of laxatives, or excess exercise (Mantilla et al., 2014). The symptoms include the individual avoiding eating in public places, hiding food cans, locking themselves up, all these as a result of the psychological disruption. They may also experience dizziness, have sleep disturbances, and even dental problems. There is also fluctuating body weight, without a particular size where the person is fat at one time and slim the next time.

Binge-Eating Disorder (BED)

Binge-Eating Disorder is a condition very similar to Bulimia Nervosa in that an individual engages in repeated binge episodes. However, for this condition, the person does not exhibit compensatory behaviors like in Bulimia Nervosa. The guilt of the practice is there, but the person would not induce voting, do excess exercise, or use laxatives. This would result in excess body weight, which would trigger obesity. The individuals are often embarrassed to eat in public places and the amount of food they eat. The individual would also engage in secret behavior like disposing of food cans and eating in secret where they believe that no one will see them. Men are more likely to suffer from this condition than women, and often affects adolescents at their states of adolescents and adults at early adulthood.

Rumination Disorder

This is an eating disorder characterized by repeated regurgitation of food, often after eating. The person brings back food that had been previously eaten into the mouth, chews them, and either swallow of spits it. These people are often malnourished and may face challenges growing (Hilbert et al., 2014). It becomes more severe for the ones that spit the food. The condition is not associated with any medical condition or gastrointestinal problems. The disorder can be frequent and out of control of the person. The people who have this disease may try to hide it by placing their hand over their mouth and avoid eating before going to public places. For infants with this condition, they tend to arch their backs in strain with the head held back and make sucking movements by the tongue. For children, I may often result in significant body weight.

Pica

Pica is an eating disorder which no related to food. Individuals with this condition often eat non-nutritive and non-food substances such as soap, paper, ice, hair, and combs, among other materials. The diagnosis requires that an individual has exhibited this behavior for over a month. Often children are not included because their teething may result in the practices. It is not a common condition but affects people with intellectual disability and, sometimes, pregnant women who may have a craving for such items as chalk, soil, pebbles, or ice.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the eating disorder for abnormal psychology is a common characteristic in the world, considering the keenness with which people are taking on body weight in the modern world. The developed countries report most of these cases as the pressure for proper body size and a good body shape influence this, in this case, slim and slender bodies. The conditions can be managed in various ways, including changing the personal perspectives of the individual and encouraging self-acceptance. Those with Binge eating disorder, however, are required to regulate eating to reduce obesity.

References

Hilbert, A., Pike, K. M., Goldschmidt, A. B., Wilfley, D. E., Fairburn, C. G., Dohm, F. A., ... & Weissman, R. S. (2014). Risk factors across eating disorders. Psychiatry Research, 220(1-2), 500-506.

Mantilla, E. F., Bergsten, K., & Birgegard, A. (2014). Self-image and eating disorder symptoms in healthy and clinical adolescents. Eating behaviors, 15(1), 125-131.

Stice, E., Gau, J. M., Rohde, P., & Shaw, H. (2017). Risk factors that predict future onset of each DSM-5 eating disorder: Predictive specificity in high-risk adolescent females. Journal of abnormal psychology, 126(1), 38.