Introduction
Genes and the environment are powerful forces in building the brain during the development of a child. They help in ensuring normal brain functioning. These powerful forces can also be the root causes of psychological problems.
The way in which brain architecture is built before birth and in childhood determines how susceptible we are to such diseases as depression, anxiety or attention disorders, which can severely disturb brain functioning. For these reasons, brain controls such aspects as weight gain in a psychological perspective (Pat & Keel 2006). A preoccupation with ones’ weight is as a result of eating disorders.
There are a number of eating disorders that can jeopardize the health of an individual. Several cultural aspects that view weight loss as an advantage to attractiveness are also some of the factors that bring about such eating disorders.
This paper discusses some of the eating disorders in both infants, early childhood stage and in adults. It also discusses such factors as demographic aspects and gender in determining particular kinds of disorders.
Defining and classifying eating disorders
There are those essential features of rumination disorders that are defined in the DSN-IV-TR category. They entail the rechewing and regurgitation of food repeatedly flowing a period of feeding. A child or infant often develops this habit following a normal functioning period.
The child or infant may not even show signs of gastroingenital disorder before regurgitation the partially digested food (Dziegielewski 2010).
Bulimia nervosa is also another eating disorder in which the symptoms include bouts of overeating and subsequent troublesome methods of controlling weight. It is important to note that such eating disorders are mostly prevalent in females of the ages between 14 to 26 years.
Culture and increased personal pressure may also have some effects that induce this kind of behavior. For this reason, men may find themselves getting depressed especially when the effects of these disorders encourage them to engage in such exercises as excessive weight lifting.
This eating disorder also occurs much frequently in women, and in particular, Caucasian women. In the situation involving African American women, body image is much more of several factors that include how others react to them, comparisons of their bodies with those of the others in the same environment, and comparison of social and cultural ideas.
In Caucasian women, some of these factors are overlooked. These women view body image as a major component of attractiveness (Dziegielewski 2010).
Anorexia nervosa is also another kind of disorder whereby the essential feature is refusal to maintain a minimum body weight. This can lead to death due to starvation. Thus, it is not uncommon to find out that the most common psychiatric disorder that causes mortality is anorexia nervosa. Another characteristic trait of anorexia nervosa is the sense of denial.
This situation leaves many individuals refusing to acknowledge or simply becoming unaware that they have a disorder. This is one of the reason why treating the disease is quite problematic.
Anorexia nervosa is often associated with particular culture, age and gender. The symptoms of this disorder actually begin in late childhood or early adolescence after the start of body image concerns. Many cases of this particular disorder are reported amongst women. This is not meant to suggest that men do not experience such kinds of disorders.
They do experience but the prevalence is less frequent in males than in the female population. Research shows that more than 90 percent of all the cases of these disorders reported are accounted for among the female population (Dziegielewski 2010).
Another factor that affects the occurrence of this disorder is the factor of industrialization. It has been reported that anorexia nervosa appears more frequently in industrialized countries. One of the reasons is because there is plenty of food in these countries and the cultural norms of such societies dictate the fact that appearing thin is more attractive.
Most individuals who have this disorder are actually at the mean age of 17 years. The peaks in this disorder usually appear between 14 and 18 years of age. Therefore, middle to late adolescence is most likely the period of greatest vulnerability for the onset of eating disorders.
The results of these disorders come in various forms. Some individuals experience only one episode while some may experience a chronically deteriorating course over many years. People having these disorders are advised to be hospitalized sometimes in order to maintain weight and restore the functioning of the body.
One of the biggest factors to consider when dealing with this situation in a person is that individuals do not seek medical attention on their own. Instead, most of these individuals are usually brought to health facilities by their own relatives.
One of the reasons for this is because individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa actually think that seeking help on their own will lead to weight gain. Also, the individuals usually lack insight into their problem and the overriding characteristic is denial (Pat & Keel 2006).
Diagnostic assessments are therefore important to such individuals and they should aim at getting accurate information regarding symptoms and duration. Such information should be collected from family members or other outside reliable sources in addition to what has been stated by the client.
The diagnostic criteria may take on several formulas that act as guidelines to effective treatment. Some of the criteria include, persistent eating of non nutritive substances for a period of at least one month. Action has to be taken when the eating of non nutritive substance is inappropriate to the development level.
This situation is also applicable when the eating behavior occurs exclusively during the course of another mental disorder. It is vital to offer independent clinical attention to people who have the above behaviors in the society.
Eating disorders and body image
Physical appearance is very vital to any individual in the contemporary society. This is the reason why the media has been engaged so much in creating awareness so that people may know how to take care of themselves. There have also been cultural messages about how people should take care of themselves in order to have a good body image.
In spite of these efforts by the media, it is still common to find people developing eating disorders or having serious body image problems, or even both (Dziegielewski 2010). This suggests that the media has a stake as a causative agent of body image problems and eating disorders. This is because the media always portrays thin images as the ideal body shape.
That is why people end up emulating such shapes by engaging in activities that control their dietary intakes. This problem mainly affects ladies due to a couple of reasons that will not be discussed in this paper.
Negative and/or traumatic experiences that are associated with appearance can be internalized by a person and hence trigger some aspects of negative assumptions that will later affect a person’s individual body image. It is important to note that these assumptions can lead to a low self esteem, affect the personality of a person in one way or the other, and other behavioral norms of the individual (Pat & Keel 2006).
Conclusion
Genes and the environment are powerful forces in building the brain during the development stages of our growth. They help in ensuring normal brain functioning. These powerful forces can also be the root causes of psychological problems. There are those essential features of rumination disorders that are defined in the DSN-IV-TR category.
They include repeated regurgitation and rechewing of food occurring after feeding. People having these disorders are advised to be hospitalized sometimes in order to maintain weight and restore the functioning of the body. Physical appearance is very vital to any individual in the contemporary society.
This is the reason why the media has been engaged so much in creating awareness so that people may know how to take care of themselves.
Negative and/or traumatic experiences that are associated with appearance can be internalized by a person and hence trigger some aspects of negative assumptions that will later affect a person’s individual body image. It is important to note that these assumptions can lead to a low self esteem, affect the personality of a person in one way or the other, and other behavioral norms of the individual.
Reference List
Dziegielewski, S. (2010). DSM-IV-TR in Action. London: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pat, L. & Keel, P. (2006). Eating Disorders. New York: InfoBase Publishing,