Assignment 2

Weight stigma, Body Dissatisfaction, and Eating disorders recovery through

Mindfulness-based therapy

Literature Review:

Eating disorders are usually misunderstood by the concept it’s just eating choices and lifestyle,
but those are fatal and have pathological cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns.
According to DSM 5 eating disorders are severe behavioral deficit associated with distress and
cognitive impairment. Eating disorders negatively affect psychological, social, and occupational
functioning. Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating disorders not
otherwise specified are the commonly reported disorders. Eating disorders are not a new concept
historical data shows during medieval times there was the concept of purification through the
denial of drives and physical needs emerged as a cultural norm. The first case was reported
Cathrina from Siena starved herself to death in the pursuit of holiness. William Gull 1872 first
used the term Anorexia Nervosa, Ernest Charles Lasegue worked on individuals having self-
starvation and published the description of symptoms as ‘Anorexia Hysterique’. Pierre Janat in
1902 worked on a patient having fear of being fat, restricted food intake, and episodes of
uncontrolled eating, which was similar to modern bulimia nervosa another case having
symptoms of bulimia nervosa was reported in 1932 by Mosche Wulff patent presented with
symptoms of starvation, binging episodes leads toward vomiting.

A case series was published by Gerald from 1970 to 1978 which reported about 30 individuals
having unhealthy weight control behaviors of restricted food intake, self-induced vomiting, and
fear of being overweight (Lauren Muhlheim, 2020). Binge eating disorder was initially reported
among the obese patient while they were trying to lose weight some of them developed the
uncontrolled eating patterns. C. Fairburn and G. Wilson worked for the development of
clinician’s manual for managing eating disorders during 1993, Eating Disorder Examination
(EDE) was the first manual of eating disorders assessment and Cognitive Behavior Therapy was
another manual focused on treatment modalities.
There are multiple factors contributing to etiology of eating disorders such as genetic, personal,
and social. Those biological, psychological, and socio-cultural are not conclusively explaining
the nature of disorders. The etiology of eating disorders are still controversial as researchers are
fail to make a set of known factors, eating disorders needs more in-depth researches to figure out
other complexities. Study concluded that there are more complex relation of body
dissatisfaction, prolonged disturbed or disordered eating patterns and desire of perfectionism
along with other mood disorders are the root cause of many symptoms of eating disorders and
needs to be further assessed and studied in holistic way (Azadeh A Rikani et al., 2013).
Childhood obesity, behavioral deficits and dieting are the commonly reported onset predictors of
anorexia and binge eating disorder (Anja Hilbert et al., 2014).

Eating disorders are morbid conditions and that range from behaviors to neural changes and
impaired an individual’s functioning which requires a holistic management approach. Sara. J
Javier et al., (2015) studied the patterns of disordered eating and the relation to developing eating
disorders which reveled that the thin body perception considered being the major predictor of
disordered eating among Asian American college teens, and media has another factor linked with
body dissatisfaction and thinness internalization. Perfectionism and being thin are the other
major concerns of youth; this is evident that the eating pathologies are reported among young
college students where the genetic and environmental factors are noticed the predictor of
disordered eating and self induced vomiting. Environmental competitive behavioral influences
significantly precipitate unhealthy weight control management (Jennifer J. Thomas BA 2005).

Human personality mainly shaped with childhood experiences and from the environmental
factors, healthy family bounding and positive flexible parenting style enhances the child’s self
confidence and motivates them to accept their strengthens and weaknesses in more realistic way.
In some families there is an appearance focused culture and they usually focused on a control
dietary intake and more physical activity to maintain the thin appearance which progressively
increase the risk of developing disordered eating and distorted self image among children. Body
dissatisfaction is linked with the family focused on appearance which can be developed eating
disorder later at young age. Body dissatisfaction directly linked with mood disorders and anxiety,
so while we are identifying the contributing factors for the mental health disorders don’t forget to
highlight the anxiety and depression related to body image distortion and in some cases self harm
and suicide can be the result of body dissatisfaction, need of perfectionism and self control.
Adolescent suicide ideation is connected with self image distortion and mood disorder (Amy M.
Brausch, Peter M. Gutierrez, 2011).

Eating disorder management required a holistic approach as different type of eating disorders
needs to be addressed in a multidisciplinary way. Psychological innervations usually have a set
of therapies such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Family
Focused Therapy. Over period of time significant changes have been made for intervention
modules. Cognitive behavior therapy mainly focused on the distorted thinking processes related
to body image and food, behavioral issues are addressed through self monitoring strategies.
Eating disorders have social and interpersonal maladaptive behaviors such as social isolation,
emotional distress, rigidity, and being nonassertive which can be treated by adopting skills
through Interpersonal Psychotherapy. Maudsely Model of Treatment for Adults with Anorexia
Nervosa (MANTRA) designed for Anorexic patients having cognitive and behavioral deficits
affecting their emotional wellness. Cognitive distortions and behavioral issues related to anorexia
such as stubbornness, body image distortion, and obsessions related to food can be maintained
well by adopting a realistic goal setting and reassurance based interventions (Schmidt U, et al.
2012).

Mindfulness is a concept which gives us opportunity to think rationally in the present moment,
avoid the judgments and train us to use our senses to create a balance between logical mind and
emotional mind to achieve the state of wise mind. Mindfulness enable an individual to think
logically, with regard to eating disorders patients usually develops unrealistic body image, avoid
social connections and have disturbed relation with food ended on feeling of discomfort and
guilt. Mindfulness based interventions focuses on empowering individual to express their
emotions, accept themselves non-judgmentally and not to criticizing themselves. Mindfulness is
a useful tool to protect individuals from eating disorders through developing self acceptance and
break the chain of ED pathology, reduce the guilty feeling through emotional ventilation and
connecting bodily sensations to emotions is the central node for control (Sala M, Vanzhula I,
Roos CR, Levinson CA, 2022). Further studies suggested filling the gap between identification
of the specific therapy technique to treat the hyper- focused cognitive and emotional approach of
body shape and weight.
Eating disorders are the area of psychology which still needs to work on the psychological
treatments approaches because of its complicity. It is very important for long-term treatment
goals evaluation to divide the symptoms and work to incorporate narrative treatment
technologies for effective implementation of ED treatment to increase evidence-based care
protocols (Kass AE, Kolko RP, Wilfley DE, 2013).

Individuals have different emotional distress management tools, some people express more when
they face any emotional challenge, others have some socialization and recreational activities for
stress management, and introvert people usually over think and find outer source solutions such
as food to resolve internal emotional issues. Psychologist uses different term for emotions related
disordered eating such as compulsive eating, stressed eating, boredom eating and reward eater.
Emotional eating is a psychological and health concern because it can leads toward developing
physical health issues and psychological disturbances such as binge eating disorder, but still this
is controversy concept and need to study more to consider as the early warning sign for
developing Eating Disorders. Psychometric assessment of disordered or emotional eating helps
to understand the fundamental relation of emotions and behavior (Disordered eating), and helps
to identify unhealthy eating patterns at an early stage (J. Reichenberger et al., 2020).