Essay on Low Self-Esteem and Eating Disorders

Adolescent females often have to face physical and social changes that can affect their self-esteem. The self-esteem of an individual can affect his

Eating Disorders (ED) are a real “epidemic” plaguing industrialized and developed societies, affecting mostly adolescents and young adults (Benas & Gibb 2011). In general, the flawed thinking of people suffering from such diseases is characterized by an obsession with perfection of the body. The impact that eating disorders have on women has always been more prevalent than on males. (Benas & Gibb 2011; Polivy & Herman 2002). The culture-bound syndromes are constellations of signs and symptoms, that are restricted to certain the cultural pressure to lose weight, which is considered a key element of the etiology of these disorders, therefore, along with biological, psychological and family factors have been generating an excessive preoccupation with the body, an abnormal fear of becoming fat and anxiety markedly accompanied by changes in the body schema. These are therefore the characteristics of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The following ten literature review attempt to demonstrate and support the theory of cognitive approach on eating disorders, briefly understanding the neurobiological mechanisms.

Engel, B., Reiss, N., & Domback, M. (2007, February 2). Introduction To Eating Disorders. Retrieved

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, “the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideals is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.” (“ANAD”) Body image has been a controversial theme because of the influence of the media. It is a widely known fact that eating disorder cases are on the rise. The concept of body image is a subjective matter. The common phrase, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” holds true meaning in this sense. One’s view and value of their body is self-imposed. Falling into the destructive eating disorders reveals much about a person’s psychological and emotional state. Examining the mental, physical, and emotional conditions behind recognized eating

The occurrence of eating disorders are a serious problem worldwide. A major problem with this disease, abnormal eating behaviour that can threaten your health or even your life,(1)

Today, people seem to be judged on outward appearance more than ever. The people who face this judgement the most are young women. With the constant bombardment of beauty standards that must be met, many young women turn towards the advice of magazines. However, most of us don’t recognize the perfect girl on the cover, she’s supposedly the product of listening to the magazine’s advice. However, to the dismay of many young women, she is pure fiction, edited beyond realistic expectation, and yet our young women are expected to emulate this image. The result of such pressures can prove to be too much to handle and young women often resort to pathogenic dieting and experience body image and eating disorders. The increase in mental health disorders associated with body image in teen girls attributed to the unrealistic standards set in magazines targeted toward young women, therefore magazines need to use images that reflect the realities of the target audience and should not be heavily edited.

Many of the patients deny the fact that they have an eating problem and majority of them that have been diagnosed with the disorder escape from getting help and treatment. Compared to other disorders and diseases, eating disorder is said to be due to choice and brought upon self by the public and professionals. In this article, Lowry and Puckett explained that the problem with eating disorder is that people don’t understand that it is a serious disease that can potentially lead to death triggered by starvation, heart failure, and people becoming depressed and commit suicide (2014). They also talked about how the causes of eating disorder are not definite but there are different aspects that play an important role in increasing the chances of developing eating disorder. Some of those aspects include genetics, certain personality traits, Puberty, body image, and family (Lowry & Puckett,

Our culture has portrayed the “thin ideal” in every avenue of the media such as; magazines, social media, movies, and commercials. In the past 70 years, the number of all eating disorders incidences have dramatically increased. For example, bulimia cases have tripled since 1988 from ages 10 to 39 (Grabe et al 462). Body dissatisfaction and low self- esteem has put

     “Self-esteem is how you think and feel about yourself-how you regard yourself.' ; (McWilliams and Roger, 361) Most people have a healthy level of self-esteem, but in the case of anorexics and “people with low self-esteem [they] don’t think they’re worth taking care of.'; (Johnson, 122) This pattern of thinking develops into a lifestyle in anorexics. The anorexia is

The correlation between eating disorders and other psychological disorders is very important for our understanding of the causes and possible treatments for eating disorders. It is known that many people with eating disorders also fit the criteria for several DSM-IV psychological disorders. If researchers can find patterns of comorbidity between these two types of disorders they may be able to better diagnose and treat patients with both of these disorders. The question that I pose it what is the relationship between eating disorders and personality disorders(axis 11 disorders in DSM-IV)? It is important to look for comorbidity between the two disorders to determine the impact they have on each

Wellness requires a balance between mental health and physical health. Researching the effect between exercise behaviors and physical self-esteem on eating behaviors looks at one facet of this relationship. Exercise behaviors that will be looked at will take into account intensity of exercise, exercise frequency, and motivations for exercise. Self-esteem is multifaceted, but focusing on physical self-esteem pinpoints the physical appearance factors. Eating behaviors will be defined as the presence of significant eating disorder symptomology further detailed in the methods section. Eating disorder categories covered are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and orthorexia. For the purpose of this study binge eating disorder (BED) will

There are two theories that fit to explain the occurrence of eating disorder; these are that either emotions or biological defects are the cause of eating disorders. For instance, body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and social pressures all lead to an emotional distress (Parke, 2009). Following this distress, the child will tend to adopt a maladaptive coping strategy such as controlling their food intake (Parke, 2009). On the other hand, scientists have also found that eating disorders can also be biologically controlled where some children lack certain chemicals that control appetite, hunger, and digestion. Often, these chemicals are lacking or they are unbalanced in a child who develops an eating disorder (Hudson,

The group will service adolescent females in ages eleven to fourteen. This is a transitional time for most young girls. Most girls in this age group are in middle school or entering high school. Before 15 years old, adolescents will have been exposed to events that can influence their self-esteem in positive and negative ways (Young, 2009). Searcy (2007) states that “life decisions impacted by self-esteem included: (a) whether to engage in protected

“Research Review” was written with the purpose of analyzing the several causes of eating disorders and utilizes accredited sources from each discipline to do so. Throughout the article, the authors synthesized available data and literature on PubMed, which is a service provided by the United States National Library of Medicine. Because this is a national database that is updated daily, it is credible and can be cited. In addition, other reliable sources such as the American Psychiatric Association are referred to. Authors refuse to include factors that have not been approved based on several criteria, including “if less than two studies were conducted or findings have been inconsistent, we emphasize the need for replication and refrained from classifying the factor” (Culbert 1143). These criteria increase the strength of the argument, but also weaken the authors’ ability to expand on certain subtopics due to the fact that formal testing of causation models is limited. For this reason, behavior genetic data is thoroughly analyzed; “epigenetic effects have been tested by examining differences in mRNA expression and/or DNA methylation between cases and controls, primarily during the ill state (see Table 5)” (Culbert 1150).

During a session with a client who has long suffered with an eating disorder I was discussing what it would be like if she could feel positive about herself. I was shocked with the response she gave me. Instead of reporting a desire to feel better about herself, this client laughed at me and retorted, "Self-esteem is laughable to me. I hope to be rid of the disturbing behaviors of the eating disorder, but I know it 's asking too much to like myself." This encounter has been as intriguing as it has been disturbing. In this interaction I believe I came to understand, in small measure, what many women who suffer from eating disorders must feel about themselves. And, I better understand that when therapists, dietitians, and other helpers meet these women, survival is often the goal rather than happiness or feelings of self-worth. This interaction has come to symbolize for me the lie of the eating disorder in that it so efficiently creates such hopelessness, self-hate, and shame in women.