Sheena's Place Support Groups Paper

Eating Disorder.” Advice for Parents, Family Members, and Friends. Jan. 2016. Web. 28. Jan. 2016.

In the past few decades researchers have focused on eating disorders, the causes of these disorders and how they can be treated. However, it has mainly been in the last decade that researchers have started looking at eating disorders in children, the reasons why these disorders are developing at such a young age, and the best recovery program for these young people. To understand this growing problem it is necessary to ask a few important questions:

Around 10-15% of all Americans suffer from an eating disorder. “More than 7 million women suffer from an eating disorder whereas only one million men suffer from an eating disorder” (Mirasol). In modern society, we are surrounded by media and images. Both men and women struggle to meet the expectations set forth in magazines, websites, and on television. The pressure to imitate the ideal body can lead many down unhealthy paths. Teens today face a lot more challenges which leads them to illnesses like Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge eating. Although there are a lot of similarities in this disease, the differences can also affect people differently, which means different treatments are required.

Nowadays, when people emphasis more and more on healthy lifestyles, both exercise and food intake have become a big part of the consideration. With the goals of being fit and losing weight, some people eat irregularly or do not eat at all. As a result, eating disorders seem more often on news and reports. However, some people still view it as a joke. With the increasing number of people diagnosed with eating disorders, people should raise awareness on the effects of eating disorders and treat them seriously.

“Dying to be Thin,” produced by PBS, is a documentary that examines the troubles that persons who are affected by eating disorders go through and the constant, daily struggles they face with health and body image. The film tells the story of a number of young women who battled mainly anorexia and bulimia and mixes a variety of ages to give a “during” and an “after” perspective. Many of the women in the video were ballet or some similar type of dancer. Dancers, by their own account, are encouraged to be thin. The issue really came to the forefront after a young ballet dancer from Boston died of heart failure at the young age of 22, with an eating disorder deemed to be the cause. The narrator goes on to introduce more young women and detail the potential illnesses that their eating disorders can cause. Chronic low blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, severe early osteoporosis, and heart failure are all common things seem in patients who suffer from eating disorders. Most patients have dangerously low body weights, body fat percentages, and, often, young women will experience amenorrhea, which is the loss of menstruation. All of the people in the video wanted to be better and were seeking a road to recovery. The video showed though, how difficult that can be since the eating disorders can be so wide ranging and have a number of different root causes. Often patients develop eating disorders as something that they have control over, in a world that they feel is out of their

Up until 2004, there was virtually no clinical trials to prove that families should be incorporated in the treatment process. Krautter and Lock (2004), disproved all of the critics to show that family based therapy worked in a clinical trial on an adolescent girl with anorexia. Family Based Therapy works in three steps, otherwise known as the Maudsley Approach. In the clinical trial, the first step for the therapy is to ensure the patient will not die from starvation, hypothermia, or heart problems. The therapist helps the parents learn tactics on how to get their children to eat more at the dinner table, but still being gentle and caring by letting their child know it is not their fault for their eating disorder. The second step in the therapy involves more freedom given to the child because they are not in a life-threatening situation anymore (if they have gained weight), but the parents still press eating meals along with this freedom. The third step helps the adolescent find their identity and how they will organize their life with their parents being involved. These three steps in Family Based Therapy were shown to be effective in a clinical

Thesis Statement: It is important to understand eating disorders and the types of eating disorders to overcome them and seek the proper treatment.

Communities can be divided into a series of subsystems. The particular subsystem that was chosen for this topic was the health and social services subsystem. This subsystem is about what resources are available for the community and chosen population. This includes resources such as the types of healers available, traditional and/or non-traditional, as well as other assets including: nursing homes, hospitals, clinics, as well as those who work in the hospital and clinical settings. This subsystem is relevant to the topic because eating disorders require specialized care and treatment that can only located within certain subsystems, including this one.

Mental health professionals recognize that Family Systems Therapy (FT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) have had successes as a treatment methodology for individuals who develop eating disorders (Jones, Volker, Lock, Taylor, and Jacobi, 2012; Park, Waller, and Gannon, 2013). In this paper, I compare and contrast an individual approach involving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a family systems approach. Definitions and descriptions of studies involving both approaches will be provided, and a comparison will be made. Finally, a discussion of the ethics of both studies will be discussed.

Eating disorders have long been a problem in the United States. Most fail to grasp the severity until someone close to them experiences the difficulties. Personally, I realized the prevalence of eating disorders when several children endeared to me commented that they feel “too fat” or skipped meals in order to not become obese. Instead of a teenage friend at school that one would assume, younger children that range from seven to ten years of age made these comments. Realizing the problem, I decided that I would create a program that would educate younger children regarding the seriousness and effects of eating disorders.

This paper will talk about some of the things that people with eating disorders go through in their daily lives and give a general description of what exactly an eating disorder is and why it is important. Schwitzer Alan M., Bergholz Kim, Dore Terri, and Salimi Lamieh all talk about a few things that they did in order to prevent eating disorders among college woman as well as some of the treatment methods and preventative measure someone can take in order to prevent something like this from happening again. It will also talk about something called the “three-legged stool” which was created by Sackett et al. in 1996. The “three-legged stool” is a treatment method for eating disorders which considers research evidence, patient preference and values, and clinical expertise. There will also be some evidence included to explain why those three things are important in treating eating disorders. Carol B. Peterson, Carolyn Black Becker, Janet Treasure, Roz Shafran, and Rachel Bryant-Waugh all mention how these things will help optimize treatment of eating disorders because patients won’t be forced into doing something that they don’t enjoy in order to overcome their eating disorder. The last thing that will be talked about is a case study conducted by Joanna Steinglass, Karin Foerde, Katrina Kostro, Daphna Shohamy, and Timothy Walsh. This case study attempts to develop a new paradigm

In my research, I explored the world of eating disorders. I wanted to see if there was anything specifically encouraging eating disorders and if there was a way to stop it. Eating disorders affect the community greatly because often times, they go unchecked or unrecognized. As a recovered anorexic, I feel it’s very important to address this issue. It’s a very big problem that is often not addressed at all, or is seen as normal, like counting calories. I hoped to find a way to improve the way that eating disorders are viewed and explain to people about what defines an eating disorder, because many people will never know if it is not explicitly explained to them. My study’s purpose is to bring light into the dark world of eating disorders

Similar to the form of group therapy in the previous case study, the use of family therapy is a common treatment for coping with an eating disorder. In a controlled study on the effects of family therapy as a source of treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa, an observational study was conducted comparing two forms of family therapy. In addition to observing the patients in treatment they also examined the five-year follow-up of 40 patients who utilized conjoined group family therapy and separate family therapy (Eisler, Simic, Russell and Dare. 2007). The study included interviewing 40 patients who received either separate or conjoint family therapy. In addition to the interviews with the families, all participants also took part in 6-question surveys. The data collected measured the relationship between symptomatic outcome and psychosocial

Thorough this further oral activity, analyzing one of the NEDA's campaigns, I came to a much greater understanding of eating disorders, especially exercise bulimia and how those issues can be presented to the public eye in order to raise awareness and prevent further problems. NEDA is the national eating disorders association based in US, which is a non-profit organization that helps people fight against different eating disorders and raises awareness. Finding one of their campaigns online, it really caught my attention, which is one of the reasons why I decided to analyze their campaign. Another important reason was having a friend who went through an eating disorder and by who's side I was, meaning that it is a very

People suffering from eating disorders cannot solely help themselves. Although they may be able to stop for a short time, in the long run they will be back in the same path of self-destruction. Kirkpatrick & Caldwell (2001) state, "Because eating disorders are a complicated mix of physical and psychological abnormalities, successful treatment always includes treatment of psychological issues as well as restoration of a healthy diet" (p. 131). Trained therapists should treat eating disorders. The severity of the disorders will determine the need for outpatient therapy or an in-hospital program (Matthews, 2001, p. 178). There are many goals of therapy but the return to normalcy is the main goal. The eating disorder sufferer needs to restore and maintain a normal weight as well as develop normal eating and exercise routines. Kirkpatrick and Caldwell (2001) state,