EATING, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, SEXUAL, AND PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Eating, Substance Abuse, Sexual, and Personality Disorders

Eating, Substance Abuse, Sexual, and Personality Disorders

Introduction

There are many different types of people in this world. There are individuals that have eating disorders, who abuse substances, personality disorders, cannot control their impulses, and foremost sex/gender disorders. These types of behaviors all have biological, emotional, cognitive and behavioral factors.

Discussion

Today there are many adolescents that are anorexic or bulimic. Not many people see this as a disorder. From the cognitive-behavioral perspective, anorexia and bulimia result from a combination of dysfunctional thoughts and experiences that have reinforced eating disordered behaviors. Cognitive-behavioral explanations of eating disorders focus on faulty and distorted thoughts about food and weight, and experiences that have reinforced eating disordered behaviors. Cognitive-behavioral interventions are particularly helpful in educating clients about the psychological effects of eating disorders and helping clients to identify the thoughts and feelings that support self-starvation or the cycle of bingeing and purging. In general, cognitive-behavioral interventions seem to be more effective for bulimia nervosa than for anorexia nervosa. Salvador Minuchin believed that eating disorders occur in families that are overly enmeshed. Since empirical research has not supported the assertion that a specifickind of family dynamic causes eating disorders, recent family systems approaches emphasize family processes that perpetuate eating disorders once they have begun. (Hansell & Damour, 2005) Psychodynamic explanations of anorexia and bulimia have focused on anorexia as a complex reaction to perfection-oriented families, anorexia as a retreat from adult sexuality, and eating disorders as reactions to traumatic events such as sexual abuse or assault.

The sociocultural explanation of eating disorders focuses on the unrealistic images of female beauty presented by the media and their negative effects on women. Eating disorders usually arise from multiple causes. Most treatments, especially in cases where the eating-disordered behavior is severe, involve the combination of techniques from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Biological explanations of anorexia and bulimia focus on the role of genetic, hormonal, and neurotransmission factors. Studies of twins indicate that genetics play a role in the development of eating disorders, as they do with two other psychological disorders that often co-occur with anorexia and bulimia: depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is not clear if the hormonal and neurotransmission differences between people with and without eating disorders are a cause or result of the eating disorders. (Hansell & Damour, 2005)Biological explanations of substance use disorders include the hypothesis that drug use is a form of self-medication for biochemical deficiencies, and an emphasis on the role of genetic factors in substance use disorders.

Sociocultural and family systems approaches emphasize social and family dynamics that can contribute to substance misuse. Social support and family treatment can also contribute to recovery from substance use disorders. Behavioral and cognitive perspectives highlight the role of tension reduction, classical conditioning, and negative beliefs and expectancies in substance use disorders. Classical conditioning interventions such as covert sensitization, operant conditioning techniques such as aversion therapies and contingency management, and cognitive restructuring methods are among ...