Eating difficulties are straight forward and so, most of the time they are the end results of severe mental difficulties. With a view of enhancing on understanding of the above conditions, consideration must be given to how mental health can be associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Moreover, one must underline the importance of the joint installation of treatment which can illuminate the path of healing of the individuals who require it.
Eating disorder is a serious mental health problem that entails wrong or unhealthy eating habits. It can include extreme eating, dietary, weight, body image related behaviors which generally result in both physical as well as emotional harm. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and Binge eating disorder are some of the typical forms.
Relationship between Mental health and Eating Disorders
Mental health has had such a close connection with eating disorder. The co-existence usually makes it harder to diagnose and treat the diseases because one disorder might conceal under the other or flout it. It has always been specified that the victims of eating disorders are prone to a co-exist condition as far as the mental health is concerned and it could be composed of:
Anxiety disorders which are characterized by intense sense of concern and fear lead to many individuals with eating disorders and they are normally provoked by either food, a physical image, or a social situation. These can result in restrictive/ compulsive behaviour because of this kind of worry. The other common co-occurrence is with depression, which has symptoms associated with low level of energy, hopelessness and negative self report. This creates an effect of a cycle that eating disorder compounds the symptoms of depression and the other way round. Eating disorders generally turn out to be obsessive compulsive in nature wherein the individual engages in obsessive thoughts concerning the food and weight of the body as well as develops compulsive behavior of eating too much always or behavior of exercise and food restriction.
Contributing Factors
In order to appreciate the causes of eating disorder not to mention the correlation between eating disorders and mental issues, many factors are to be considered. Through the knowledge of these factors health professionals and educators can halt at risk people at the earliest stage and provide them with the assistance they require. These include:
- Genetics: Scientific research has found out that one has genetic predisposition which one can open them to develop either a mental disorder or to have an eating disorder.
- Individual Factor: The environmental causes of disordered eating include such factors as stress, trauma, and family issues, which lead to the beginning of development. To give a specific example, it tends to be more hazardous to those individuals who were forced to face hardship as children.
- Societal Pressures: The pressures that are inflicted on society by high standards of beauty wherein the expectations of retaining the same could only be unrealistic which are also advocated by media and other societal subjects or norms most of the times lead to insecurities particularly on the young people. This could lead to poor body image, self esteem and in the extreme situation, poor eating disorder.
The role of Body Image and Self-Esteem The role of Body Image and Self-Esteem Role
Negative body image and inadequate self-esteem are the usual catalysts of having disordered eating habits. Men and women with eating disorders reason differently but the biggest majority complains about the lack of beautifulness of their outlook and to win the ideal beauty; weight can be significantly reduced through starvation, constant over-eating and vomiting. That dissatisfaction is mixed with internal and external criticism. People can mostly spend their life with some feelings of inadequacy or judgment in that case this only contributes to the messiness of their lives. Such underlying problems should be minimized in a way that they learn to have a healthy relationship with food and bodies.
Integrated Treatment Kinds
Eating disorders and mental health issues are inseparable thus necessitating that the two are to be given attention during therapy. The most effective one is holistic treatment where one considers both physical and psychological aspects of such conditions. These significant sections include:
- Early Intervention: It is always rewarding to have an eating disorder and an accompanying psychological condition diagnosed earlier in order to achieve high success to recovery.
- Multidisciplinary Horsepower: It is a specific group of people who are effective and which in many cases, tries to model a unique therapy plan, since it includes a psychiatrist, a dietician, a medical physicians and a therapist.
- Holistic Care: Good treatment must not be merely a symptomatic one since care must be demonstrated on the bond that one is in with food and self-image among other close support people.
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: This is an evidence-based approach, and the subject of this therapy is the distorted pattern of thinking, that along with the disordered eating, leads to the inconsistent behaviors and allows the people to trade the unhealthy habits with more healthy ones.
Moving Forward
The connection between mental wellbeing and eating disorder reveals that it is important to consider mental problems as a whole. The health professional, the educator or the layperson needs to understand this interplay in a patient, so as to assist the patient and do away with stigma. When it seems to be gone bad when the authorities are not in the picture, the paths to follow which are natural or first tendency are reporting to the authorities to lend a helping hand. Diagnosis and inbuilt caring care could change it.
