The Silent Hunger: Bulemia Nervosa And The Bulimic

Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over & evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning. (Boud, Keogh and Walker 1985, p:43)

They often have an intense fear of fat and gaining weight and often have distorted views of their own body image (Shapiro 2). Thus, they resort to severe food restriction, periods of fasting and even various purging methods for weight loss (Grilo 5). On the other hand, Bulimic patients often binge-eat and then looking for methods to get rid of the food due to guilt by various purging methods (i.e., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics and excessive exercise) (Grilo 5). Although many say that the media causes eating disorders, studies have shown that the media is not the main cause of eating disorders. The media does have a part to play in causing the rise in eating disorders in today’s society. From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed

There are many different opinions regarding eating disorders whether they are genetic, ethnic, cultural problems, or a culturally reactive problem. Stereotypes from the past believe that white middle class adolescents have the most related problems to eating disorders because of their anglo-saxon cultural backgrounds. Research has shown that imagery of the ideal Western body has had a chain reaction of body shape and eating habit conflict between all ethnicities, cultures, and sexes. The issue between the two viewpoints is whether the problems associated with eating disorders is cultural or culturally reactive.

Eating disorders can be classified as many different characteristics that affect a person’s mind and body. This mental illness distresses people of any age, gender, race and ethnicity of any group in society. A person who suffers from this illness has abnormal or disturbed eating habits. Eating disorders will result in a life time of psychologist help along with medication to maintain the illness from progressing. With poor treatment and lack of attention the illness could potentially deteriorate the mind and body to death. As many symptoms can occur it is not unusual for the symptoms to change over the course of time. And most of the time the symptoms worsen in most peoples cases. Having an eating disorder doesn’t always mean you will be super

Eating disorders is an issue effecting people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. Not only can eating disorders effect the development of a client, but also it can eventually lead to death. Eating disorder could be an issue that a client is facing, therefore as social workers we need to be aware of the factors that influence this disease. Social workers must be able to help their client by helping their client built their self-esteem and encourage healthy attitudes about nutrition and appearance. A social worker must understand the severity of this issue that requires immediate attention from helping professional. It is important for social worker to know affective prevention measure or resources to get aid for the client. By conducting

I agree, often people have a misconceptios or are not well informed on how eating disorders are often developed. I myself was ignorant over the matter until reading and listening to our class lecture. One of the best and first treatment options is seeking medical and professional assistants for proper health concerns. Furthermore, having a strong support group and dependable people are part of their recovery.

In “Suicidal Anorexics: Determined to Die” Kingsbury discusses that people with anorexia are choosing to take their lives with whatever they can get their hands on. Throughout this article, Kingsbury discusses different important measures that are linked to anorexia and includes that people are already on the border of dying and are so small and ill that even the smallest attempt with suicide would lead to death. Another important point made by Kingsbury is that anorexics have a very high chance of dying when trying to commit suicide. People with anorexia have tried using household cleaners, jumping out in front of trains, and setting themselves on fire. With an anorexic’s body weight already anything could kill them. New findings came to be that millions of men and women in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. And therefore anorexics are so used to the pain they go through that they are fearless of death and try anything to end their lives. Kingsbury believes that loved ones or relatives of anorexics need to be aware that some kind of mental help is necessary for these sick people.

The teen has denied having any traumatic experience related to food that could have triggered an eating disorder. She was empathic about not making herself sick to throw up intentionally.

In “Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: The Development of Deviant Identities” By Penelope A. McLorg and Diane E. Taub, the many issues in today’s generation, as well as many before regarding societal norms state that we envision the idea of masculinity for men and thinness in women. As with many other norms, deviance, or not conforming to masculinity and thinness, results in negative sanctions. To avoid these sanctions, some turn to Anorexia Nervosa, intended starvation and excessive exercising and Bulimia, intended cycles of binging and purging/laxative abuse. Both showing forms of behavioral deviance and Anorexia embodying visual deviance. Within the past two centuries, Anorexia and Bulimia have become not just major health issues, but also social

Feldman, M. B. and Meyer, I. H. (2007). Eating disorders in diverse lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 40: 218–226. doi: 10.1002/eat.20360

Medication can be prescribed to help treat eating disorder co-morbid symptoms. Medications usually used to treat eating disorders are antidepressants. Antidepressant medications have been documented by evidence based scientific treatments. There is a range of antidepressants currently approved by the FDA, including SSRIs, MAOIs, and TeCAs (Erickson, 2012). All of the drugs affect the uptake and processing of different brain chemicals including serotonin, which affect mood.

Trepal, Boie, and Kress (2012) examine the relational cultural theory (RCT) with evidence-based treatment to use as a prevention or individual counseling for clients dealing with eating disorders. Growth and connections with others are a part of RCT 's principle. According to RCT, people want to have real, meaningful connections in relationships. When clients don 't show connections, RCT views the eating disorder as the disconnection. Clients use the eating disorder as a strategy for disconnection; therefore, RCT explores the eating disorder as the disconnection to help clients gain self-awareness; in additions, to using relational images to improve connections in relationships and encourage the support clients need to overcome eating

Prior to this class I did not know the severity of just how deadly eating disorders were. Growing up you heard about eating disorders and there may have been a few girls in high school that you knew were suffering from an eating disorder but that was the extent of what you knew. The fact that 8 million people are affected by an eating disorder is a staggering number that should alarm parents and peers alone. But although it affects this many people and has the highest mortality rate among psychiatric disorders it is rarely talked about until it hits close to home. As clinicians, this is a huge epidemic that we need to be well versed in especially since the stakes are so high.

The Binge Eating Disorder is one of the main issues of our society nowadays. This disorder is suffered by a variety of people. It is not exclusive to people of a specific age or sex, but it attacks anyone who might be undergoing depression, has unhealthy and unsupervised dieting plans, and coping skill problems. As it is known that stress is common in our world today, it is not common knowledge how we are all on the verge of getting an eating disorder that is not as easily identifiable as the rest. The Binge Eating Disorder is not widely known among the society, however, its effects and coverage is growing as our population increases as well.

I believe that it would be most appropriate to diagnose Miss Diagnosis with Borderline Personality Disorder, Moderate Bulimia. Borderline Personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of instability across multiple domains in life, including interpersonal relationship, self-image, and affect. People who have this disorder make decisions in the moment with no prior thought or planning. They are very impulsive. Additionally, the have a strong fear of abandonment, which often leads to desperate attempts to keep people close and irrational reason for ending relationships before the person can get abandoned. They have interpersonal paranoia and, often, parasuicidal behavior. Their reasoning and logic is often very flawed and it seems that they are very black and white with no understanding of the gray area. Additionally, their