Body Image and Disordered Eating.

Body Image and Disordered Eating. What is Body Image? What are causes of Eating Disorders? What are eating disorders? Treatment Prevention

What is Body Image? • It is the mental picture you have of your body. • It includes: • your physical appearance • your perception of how others see you. • A healthy body image means acceptance

Causes of Eating Disorders. • Social Pressure • Control • Puberty • Family • Depression • Upsets

Social Pressure • In societies which do not value thinness, eating disorders are very rare. • In surroundings where people value thinness highly, they are very common.

Control • It has to be said that dieting can be a very satisfying activity. • It can be especially satisfying for girls in their teens who may often feel that weight is the only part of their lives over which they do have any control.

Puberty • A girl with anorexia may lose or not fully develop some of the physical characteristics of an adult woman • She may look very young for her age. • Dieting can therefore be seen as a way of putting off some of the demands of maturing, particularly the sexual ones.

Family • Accepting food gives pleasure to whoever is providing it, refusing it will often cause offence. • Some children and teenagers seem to find that saying no to food is the only way they can either express their feelings or have any influence in the family

Depression • Many sufferers with bulimia have depressive symptoms • it may be that their binges started off as a way of coping with feeling unhappy.

Upsets • For some people, anorexia or bulimia seem to be triggered off by an upsetting event • Sometimes it need not even be a bad event but just an important one

Types of Eating Disorders. • Anorexia • Bulemia

Bulimia • Signs and Symptoms • Fear of fatnessBinge-eatingNormal weightIrregular periodsVomiting and/or excessive use of laxatives

This condition usually affects women in their early to mid-twenties who also have been overweight as children. • It will affect 3 out of every 100 women. • Suffer from an exaggerated fear of becoming fat.

Anorexia • Signs and Symptoms • Fear of fatnessUnder-eatingExcessive loss of weightVigorous exerciseMonthly periods stop

Anorexia usually starts in the mid-teens • Affects 1 fifteen-year-old girl in every 150 • Other members of the family have often had similar symptoms.

anorexia begins with the everyday dieting • About a third of anorexia sufferers have been overweight before starting to diet. • In anorexia the dieting and the loss of weight continue until the sufferer is well below the normal limit for her age and height.

Sufferers with anorexia actually have a normal appetite, but drastically control their eating. • The teenage girl with anorexia may also develop some of the symptoms of bulimia.

Treatment. • Anorexia • Try to get back to somewhere near an acceptable weight. • Both she and her family will first need information. • It is also important that the family see the psychiatrist regularly

For most sufferers it will be important to discuss things that may be upsetting them • In-patient treatment consists of much the same combination of dietary control and talking, only in a much more structured environment.

Bulimia • Here, the priority is to get back to a regular pattern of eating. • The aim is to maintain a steady weight • Emphasis is on their keeping diaries of their disordered eating habits and developing self-control. • Again, information needs to be given to the sufferer

Psychotherapy • For those sufferers with depression in addition to their bulimia, anti-depressant medication may be necessary.

Prevention. • Inculde healthy body image and self esteem as a priority in children of all ages • Educate parents, teachers and other role models • Ensure access to body image resources and support services

Work to promote size acceptance • Increase use of healthy body image messages by media • Encourage youth and parents to focus on accurate portrayal of real life range of body image.

Body Image and Disordered Eating.