Existentialism: Counseling Clientele With Anorexia Nervosa

Existential psychotherapy is a dynamic, philosophical approach to therapy that is based on the premise that an individual’s conflict within is due to their concerns with the givens of existence (Yalom, 1980). These givens, or ultimate concerns as noted by Yalom (1980), are inescapable properties that are part of the human existence in the world: meaninglessness, freedom (and its associated responsibility), isolation, and the inevitability of death. Confrontation with these givens can result in existential anxiety (Corey, 2009).

Anorexia Nervosa is usually psychological as well as possibly an eating disorder which is life-threatening well-defined by a tremendously low body weight comparative to stature, great and needless weight loss, fear of gaining weight and distorted discernment of an individual’s self-image and body. There are several clinical factors of this eating disorder, and they are the following: the victim has a tendency of fearing his normal body weight where in this case, a person fears to be fat. In other words, the fear of normal body weight is very common in this eating disorder which is observed as a pathognomonic of the situation. In the case of Joshua, his parents should understand that he fears to get fat such that he already feels that his body

The thought of a diet has crossed the mind of many females. Maybe she wants to lose a few pounds to fit in her prom dress, or get back down to her college size. However, what if the mental capacity of that person, would not let them end the diet. In her mind she is still fat, even if she weighed only ninety pounds, this happens to a female with Anorexia Nervous (AN).

Eating disorders are diseases in which people have an unhealthy relationship with their food, and negative image reflecting how their body looks, such as, the fear of gaining weight. This type of body dysmorphia can lead to damaging eating habits, such as; starvation, purging, and even binging. Furthermore, there are numerous eating disorders recognized today, the most common being binge disorder, causing the affected person to eat far too much and experience pain, discomfort, and irritable bowel symptoms, bulimia which causes the affected person to purge their food through vomiting, and one of the most common eating disorders -- anorexia nervosa. (Eating Disorders, 2008) Many of these disorders can be treated in multiple ways, the most common way is through counselling with a social worker, the social worker helps develop a treatment plan for the client and aids them in their recovery.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of self-regulated food restriction in which the person strives for thinness and also involves distortion of the way the person sees his or her own body. An anorexic person weighs less than 85% of their ideal body weight. The prevalence of eating disorders is between .5-1% of women aged 15-40 and about 1/20 of this number occurs in men. Anorexia affects all aspects of an affected person's life including emotional health, physical health, and relationships with others (Shekter-Wolfson et al 5-6). A study completed in 1996 showed that anorexics also tend to possess traits that are obsessive in nature and carry heavy emotional

Death involves biological,psychological,spiritual,societal,and cultural components.All through history, humans have pondered the meaning of mortality and developed defense mechanisms against the terror of death both at the individual and cultural levels. “In sum, all human activities are framed by death anxiety and colored by our collective and individual efforts to resolve this inescapable and intractable existential given (Tomer, Wong,2011).” Furthermore, Tomer and Wong discuss, to achieve a complete psychology of death one must use terror management theory and growth oriented models such as self-determination theory. These two theories, help to emphasize the meaning-seeking/ making as basic human motivation. Therefore, it is important to discuss the importance of terror management theory and how it affects depth

The purpose of this group is to help aging adults cope with the process concept of death and coping with the end of life to which an existential approach will be applied. The everyday aging adult faces many challenges that have to do with the process of aging, such as loss of certain privileges (e.g. driving), loss of vision and hearing, loss of friends and family, loss of freedom, just to name a few. One of the resources to be established is existential group counseling for the elderly. In existential group counseling, members will explore their purpose and meaning of life.

Anorexia nervosa is a disorder which heightens the ideas of fear in an individual, particularly the phobia of gaining weight. People with the disorder pine to achieve a body that is unattainable, leading to obsessions about food. Fear is a driving emotion for the disorder, and often it is this emotion which causes prolonged suffering. This paper will go over the DSM-5’s diagnostic criteria, the prevalence of the disorder, the circumstances of onset, etiology, and finally a case example. The case example will illustrate how the disorder can be long-lived and affect relationships. Having a clinical understanding of anorexia nervosa allows for persons outside of the disorder the ability to relate to the victims.

"If we affirm life and live in the present as fully as possible, however, we will not be obsessed with the end of life"(Corey p.153). This is the way of thinking for the existential theorist when it comes to patients who deal with death anxiety. Dr. Yalom dealt with this issue when he did a study on bereavement. He put an ad in the

If your one of those people who goes on strict diets to lose a couple pounds, your probably someone who is in a movie role trying to get in shape for the role, someone who enjoys fitness, or someone who wants to lose a 100 pounds to be thin. The thing about going on strict diets is that if you go to far, it can cause health risk. Most people understand that and usually know what their doing however, their is a disorder that makes people think that their not eating the right amount of calories everyday. The disorder is called anorexia nervosa. It is a type of eating disorder that represents an obsessive desire to lose weight by any means necessary. The articles, “Adults with anorexia” by Lauren Pellet, “Anorexia: overview and statistics” by

For many of us death is a thought, a topic that brings up fear and often avoidance. In yet, death is something that each one of us will face during our lives. Even the people that surround us and the people we love will face death also. Death is a part of our everyday lives and the more consciously that we explore it for most people the better that experience become and the less fear that there is surrounding it. Death helps us to define more fully how we want to live and as we learn about death in our own thoughts and feeling about it. It often helps shape how each of us lives today and the choices that we made of our own dying. Throughout this paper, we will discuss how death and dying occur, how it affects Religion and Belief,

Existential therapy is a self-help style of therapy based on choices. Existential therapy focuses on the here and now and the changes an individual can make in their lives if they are willing to honestly explore, self-evaluate, and make changes in their beliefs, traditions, patterns and behavioral issues. Questioning such things as death, the meaning of human existence, God’s existence, and relationships is done through a close client therapist relationship built on trust, transparence and understanding. Existential therapy can help a person determine direction, set and accomplish goals and achieve self-actualization. Existential therapy can also benefit individuals struggling with addiction, anxiety, and depression. Individuals seeking immediate relief, not willing or able to be honest in self-evaluations, have been reprimanded to therapy or resistant to the process are less likely to benefit or make any meaningful progress. With the help of therapy individuals are able to ask and seek answers to questions that will help them to aspire to become their true authentic self.

Within all these theoretical standpoints, the theme and process of coming to terms with death and relationship could be regarded as the essence of an existential quest; one

Teens all over the world are leaning on Anorexia to look, and feel better. Anorexia is the third most common long-term illness among teenagers. People that are diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa is greatly affected by the disorder, in more than one way. People with Anorexia Nervosa have to deal with not only health issues, but also mental and social issues. They are put through a lot after being diagnosed with a disorder that is this serious.

Berman, Boutelle and Crow (2009) conducted an experiment in which they investigated the positive effects of acceptance and commitment therapy to treat patients who were treated for Anorexia Nervosa in the past. Participants received several therapy sessions and interviews to determine whether they met the criteria for anorexia nervosa. The participants communicated with their family members throughout the experiment. Overall, the participants showed improvements in terms of the reduction of Anorexia symptoms. Fluoxetine may also take part in reducing the relapse for the symptoms of anorexia nervosa. A Study conducted by Duvvuri et al. (2012) describes such phenomena. In their research, Duvvuri and his colleagues (2012) uses twins who are malnourished due to