Eating Disorder - Unusual Eating Habits - Essay Example

Binge eating disorder; occurs when a person losses control over his or her eating habits and tend to consume large amounts of food and do not entail purging often leading to overweight or obese individuals.

Anorexia nervosa; emaciation characterized by a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a healthy weight.
Rumination; involves repeated painless regurgitation of food after a meal, which is the re-chewed and either re-swallowed or discarded.
Compulsive overeating; is a characteristic of binge eating disorder in which individuals tend to eat more than they necessarily need resulting in more stress

There is no single cause of eating disorders that acts in isolation. The actual causes of eating disorders appear to result from interactive factors including cultural and family pressures, emotional and personality disorders. Genetics and biological factors also play a dominant role (Schmidt, 596)

Social pressure and body image
Social attitudes towards body images have been ascribed to the onset of eating disorders. Social perceptions with regard to weight loss and weight gain have an immense effect on an individual’s body image. Western societies with superfluous rates of bulimia and anorexia exhibit societal trends where thinness is associated with attractiveness, success, and self-control. Being overweight is considered a personal failure and obesity is scorned and chastised (Schmidt, 591)

In theory, social attitudes towards beauty and weight loss produce unrealistic body images in people who develop bulimia nervosa making them believe they are heavier than they actually are and begin to diet to attain their distorted body image. The populace is also in-undated with myriads of the social image that equate thinness with happiness and success (Field, 162)

Family life and weight paradigms
Individuals with eating disorders often hail from family environments that are subjective to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse or families were losing weight and body image are considered pragmatic and met with appraisal (Field, 165)

Mental health
Anxiety disorders and depression commonly coexist with eating disorders and usually propel their focus on weight gain, body image, and losing weight. Patients suffering from bulimia nervosa often have difficulties with impulsive control which explicates the uncontrollable nature of binge eating. Many people with bulimia nervosa experience obsessive behavior like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as revealed by the study carried out by the national institute of mental health.

Family and twin studies coupled with recent development in genetic research indicate that heredity is responsible for about 50% of the risk of developing anorexia nervosa with the environment responsible for the other half (Schmidt, 164)

Some of the complementary factors like infant feeding problems, excessive thinness, or childhood obesity act in concordance with the genetic disposition of an individual such as serotonin level imbalance that is a physical cause of bulimia. Serotonin plays an important role in the controlling of anxiety levels, depression, and impulse control. Perception of hunger and appetite are also influenced by serotonin. This explains why a person may be motivated to eat as a result of increased serotonin levels in the body caused by the physical perception of food materials within the surroundings (Growers, 331)

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are composed of complex aetiologies of development, cultural and biological processes with these factors interacting to influence an individual to develop an eating disorder (Friedman, 1588).

For instance, the more a woman of any ethnicity rejects her own heritage and identifies with European American mainstream culture, the more likely than she will prefer a thinner body type and show more signs of eating disorder (Mershreki, 2004). This study showed a dialectical approach to body weight and body image perception whereby among the Hispanic women, having an overweight body does not necessarily reflect negatively upon the individual. The determining factor, to the Hispanic mindset, is whether the state of being overweight is an individual fault or not. For instance, if an overweight continually eats excessively and does not exercise, they are more likely to be stigmatized and blamed for their weight. However, if the individual is perceived as fat, through no fault of their own, they are likely not to be judged (Christian, 1996)

Moreover, recent studies on human cognitive behaviors that affect eating habits have shown that Asian women are more likely to feel fat and diet more than Asian Americans. More Japanese women are dissatisfied with their bodies and weight- almost to the level of American women (Mukai, 191-99)

Personal traits
There are various personal characteristics during childhood that are associated with the development of eating disorders. During adolescence, these traits may become intensified due to a variety of physiological, cultural, and psychological influences. For instance, as a result of hormonal changes ascribed to puberty, stress-related behaviors due to approaching demands of maturity, socio-cultural influences, and perceived expectations, especially in areas of the body image concern. Many of these traits have a genetic component and are highly heritable (William, 187-92)

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