Specific Forms of Eating Disorders - Case Study Example

Bulimia Nervosa Eating Disorder Name Institution Bulimia Nervosa Eating Disorder Introduction Eating disorder is a condition that is characterized by abnormal eating habits that involves taking of excessive or insufficient amount of food leading to severe physical and mental changes in a person’s life (Rushing, Jones, & Carney, 2003). The two common specific forms of eating disorders are Bulimia nervosa and Anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a condition that is characterized by one refusing to take sufficient food despite of feeling hungry and sometime restricting the eating habit to a point of starvation in order to become thin or fearing to become fat (Santonastaso et al., 2006). Bulimia nervosa is a condition where a person binges and purges food. Eating disorders are recently increasing in world today among both women and men but women in the western world have high chance of developing them due to westernization that increases the risk. Most of eating disorders are linked to culturally idealization of thinness, medical situation and conditions. This paper will discuss the symptoms, etiology, treatment or management of the Bulimia nervosa disorder. Background Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder which is characterized by a person eating a lot of food (binges) at once, then he or she tries to get rid of (purges) the food by over-exercising, vomiting, use of laxative or diuretics like caffeine, taking enemas, fasting or combining two or more other forms of purging. The word Bulimia was derived from two Greek words bous and limos where bous means an ox and limos means hunger and was first discovered in 1979 (Goldfield, Blouin, & Woodside, 2006). This indicates a state of extreme hunger. A person with Bulimia nervosa disorder is preoccupied with his or her body image and weight. This means the he or she will feel guilty and engages in an unhealthy way to get rid of the excess calories by for example having a forced vomiting or abusing of laxative drugs. The person with this disorder will feel loss of control over eating (the urge to eat cannot stop once it began even if the stomach is full) and will be accompanied by psychiatric disorders and depression. Studies have shown that this condition often occur in women than in men, (Hay, 2007) where 90% females are affected in 1% to 3% of the population (Levine & Smolak, 2006). Symptoms The most common symptom of Bulimia nervosa disorder is a regular basis binge. During a binge, a person with this disorder will eat or take very larger amount of food in a short period of time in less than two hours (Perez et al., 2007). The amount of food which the person with the disorder takes is larger than what most people would take for the same period of time under the same conditions or circumstances. The binge will be followed by inappropriate behaviors of trying to get rid of the excess calories gained by taking excessive food to avoid weight gain. This is because a person with this disorder will base his or her self-esteem on weight and physical appearance (Mehler, 2003; Touyz, Polivy, & Hay, 2008). Therefore, this person will have compensatory behaviors like self-induced vomiting, enemas, the use of laxatives, diuretics or other purgatives, long periods of excessive exercise, or long periods of starvation or fasting and sometimes combining all these forms of purging. Other symptoms of Bulimia disorder are secrecy eating habits. For example, when a person going to kitchen to take meals when everyone else is sleeping. This is because they feel ashamed of overeating and change in weight and hence they will have privacy eating and consequently having binge-purge cycles. This will cause them have hypokalemia and dehydration due to frequently self-induced vomiting (Zeeck et al., 2007). They also have a symptom of damaged tooth enamel and swollen cheeks as the acid produced during vomiting will definitely damage the tooth enamel. Moreover, sore throats and bleeding, scarring on the back of the hands from self-induced vomiting are clear and alarming symptoms of Bulimia. Bulimia can also have other symptoms like anxiety, depression, irregular menstrual periods, substance abuse, impulsiveness, promiscuity and medical problems like oral, electrolyte complications, gastrointestinal and in extreme cases, toxic effects in the form of muscle weakness and cardiomyopathy (Rushing, Jones, & Carney, 2003). Etiology The etiology of Bulimia nervosa disorder is not all that clear since it results from combination of psychological factors, family history, socio-cultural factors such as admiring thinness, personal traits, biological and genetic factors. All these factors play a significant role in the etiology of Bulimia nervosa eating disorder but with the individual having the highest contribution of the disorder (Kim, Lim & Treasure, 2011; Mehler, 2003; Thompson-Brenner, Weingeroff, & Weston, 2009; Touyz, Polivy, & Hay, 2008). Bulimia nervosa has been among female adolescents, and young adult white women in the middle and upper class socio-economic backgrounds in the western cultures which shows a contribution of socio-cultural factors to etiology of this disorder though the recent research showed that there is increasingly eating disorders across class, gender and culture (Hay, 2007; Levine & Smolak, 2006). In terms of family history, the risk of developing this condition increases if your sister, brother or parents have this disorder. Family pressures from the mothers who are very much concerned about their daughter’s weight and physical attractiveness will directly help to cause the disorder (Santonastaso et al., 2006). Obese parents will more likely cause their children to have this condition due to their negative attitude towards the overweight. Children are also more likely to suffer from this condition if their family history is associated to depression and alcoholism. Additionally, it has been discovered that girls with eating disorders often have brothers and a father who criticize their body weight (Santonastaso et al., 2006). Psychological factors are the most contributing causes of Bulimia nervosa eating disorder. Often many females will be affected by the Bulimia eating disorder because of perfectionism of trying to take control of their body weight through food. According to Papalia in her book ‘the Human development’, low self-esteem affects psychological development which leads to eating disorders (Papalia, Feldman, & Martorell, 2012). Psychological development according to Papalia can be affected in puberty stage where many young people will be troubled by family and personal relationships which will in turn cause eating disorders as they try to cope up with their emotions. Other psychological factors that contribute the causes of Bulimia are impulsive behavior, poor anger management, depression, anxiety disorders, feeling of inadequacy and hopelessness (Crow, Peterson, & Swanson, 2009). In terms socio-cultural factors, research have shown that the idealization of thinness via media contributes to low body images in most women in western world for physical attraction (Mehler, 2003). This leads to eating disorders which can also develop pathological dieting (Rushing, Jones, & Carney, 2003). This accelerated by the pressures from the society that encourages women to have thin body rather than women with huge body images and hence many women will find themselves with this disorder while trying to have thin body images. Magazines, newspaper, radio or television has frequently encouraged rapid body weight loss whereby they communicate through unrealistic thin images. This has lead to thinness be associated with many positive qualities such as attractiveness, success, love and health. In addition, as body develop and changes, many people in the society get concerned strongly with the image wanting them to be thin which makes one to have body dissatisfaction and poor dieting (Uher & Treasure, 2005). This consequently leads to development of this eating disorder. Biological and genetic factors are believed to be root cause of most eating disorders. People with parent or siblings with Bulimia nervosa eating disorder are more likely to be affected by this disorder which suggests a possible biological and genetic link. Research has also shown that there is a higher rate of developing Bulimia nervosa disorder in identical twins than in the fraternal twins (Goldfield, Blouin, & Woodside, 2006; Oltmanns et al., 2009). Genetics have also shown that there are specific chromosomes linked to Bulimia eating disorder. Families with higher incidences of mood disorders like depression and substance abuse traits like alcoholism will have genetic components that make the Bulimia to run in these families. Treatment For successful and effective treatment of Bulimia nervosa eating disorder, various approaches are used either in combination or separately. These include the psychotherapy, medication, nutritional counseling, family therapy, inpatient treatment, individual or group therapy, eating disorder education and medical monitoring (HAll, Friedman, & Leach, 2008). In psychotherapy method, cognitive behavior therapy is performed in individual or group sessions which successfully change the disorder’s behavior of binging and purging thereby improving a person attitude towards food. The therapy was originally carried out for an individual but it has been found to work well in a group (Hall, Friedman & Leach, 2008: Touyz, Polivy, & Hay, 2008). It has three phases which last for about 10 to 20 weeks with phase one being characterized by Bulimia education, phase two follows by introducing the victim to procedures of reducing dietary restraint and finally the last phase involves maintenance. This psychotherapy treatment takes about four months with about twenty visits by the therapist. Antidepressants are used in medication method of treating Bulimia. The most common antidepressants used in treatment of Bulimia disorders are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These include the Fluoxetine (Prozac), Sertraline (Zoloft), Paroxetine (Paxil) and Fluvoxamine (luvox). In nutritional counseling method, cognitive behavior therapy is often combined but bearing in mind that the primary treatment of bulimia disorder is medication and then followed by nutritional counseling (Zeeck et al., 2007). The counselor will help the victim to normalize his or her diet and also look the food in a more healthy way. The overall treatment of Bulimia nervosa eating disorder might take up about six months or longer if there other behavioral disorders present like substance. This treatment is not all that easy since there are no guarantees that the treatment will sufficiently work due to its diverse causes of this disorder. However, with a better psychotherapy and medication treatment the disorder is eventually stopped. Effective treatment for Bulimia nervosa eating disorder addresses more than just the symptoms but also the destructive eating behaviors (Thompson-Brenner, Weingeroff, & Weston, 2009; Lena, Fiocco, & Leyanaar, 2004). It will address the root cause of the disorder and also the emotional triggers that lead to abnormal eating that was associated with difficulty in coping up with stress, fear, anxiety, sadness and any other form of uncomfortable emotions. With the above, one will recover from Bulimia disorder and reduce the episode of binging and purging of food. Conclusion Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that was recently discovered in late 1970s which is characterized by a person eating a lot of food (binges) at once, then he or she tries to get rid of (purges) the food by over-exercising, vomiting, use of laxative or diuretics like caffeine, taking enemas, fasting or combining all purging forms. The symptoms of this eating disorder includes the regular basis binge where a person takes very large amount of food in a short period of time in less than two hours followed by compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting. The victim will have these compensatory behaviors in order to get rid of the excess calories gained by taking excessive food at once. Other symptoms associated with bulimia eating disorder are secrecy eating habits, anxiety, depression, dehydration among others. Bulimia nervosa eating disorder is caused by various factors such as the psychological factors, family history, socio-cultural factors, and personal traits, biological and genetic factors. The disorder is greatly accelerated by the pressures from the society and mostly in western world that encourages women to be thin since thinness is associated with many positive qualities such as attractiveness, success, love and health. This explains why the disorder is commonly associated with young women. There are several ways of treating bulimia nervosa disorder which includes the psychotherapy, medication, nutritional counseling, family therapy, inpatient treatment, individual or group therapy, eating disorder education and medical monitoring. However, the primary treatment of bulimia disorder is medication and then followed by nutritional counseling. A good treatment method is that not only focuses on the symptoms but the root cause of the disorder and also the emotional triggers that lead to abnormal eating that was associated with difficulty in coping up with stress, fear, anxiety, sadness and any other form of uncomfortable emotions. The treatment will enable the victim to recover from bulimia nervosa disorder and reduce the episodes of binging and purging of food. References Read More