By: Amit Kothiyal
Submitted: 2009-12-04 05:05:11 | Word Count: 563
Genetics do play a part in the onset of eating disorders although it is not fully understood how genes contribute to the development. It is possible that they operate through producing some predisposing factors. The two factors that are most likely to be genetically determined relate to personality and biological make up.
It is well known that people with anorexia tend to have an overly conscientious and perfectionist personality.They tend to be high achievers who strive to do things to the very best of their ability and will usually apply themselves to tasks in an obsession manner.
[ advertisement ]
They may spend hours on a particular homework assignment and can never finish it to their satisfaction. This attitude of perfectionism is applied to most areas of their lives and compared to their peers they have a tendency to be socially compliant and conforming. Usually parents of anorexics are bewildered as prior to the onset of the anorexia they believe they have the model child. Anorexics can tend to set themselves unrealistically high standards. When they can't achieve these peaks they feel a failure which reinforces their negative self belief and damage their brittle self esteem and confidence.
Case Study.
Julie aged 11 made very strict rules for herself. These included keeping her room obsessively tidy with everything in its place. She would spend 3 hours per evening on her homework and would only allow herself watch television or go on the internet on Saturdays for 2 hours. When she kept to this routine she felt good about herself but worried that she could be doing better. As time went by she made up more rules for herself which included a very strict exercise routine and more and more homework time. Julie's parents at first thought that this was terrific as she was so conscientious and a model daughter. They were proud that she was achieving so much academically and she was so compliant at home.
Unfortunately Julie became increasingly obsessed with these standards and became more and more depressed when she could not achieve them.
As time went by Julie began to develop a very negative view of her body and shape. She decided that she needed to pay more attention to her diet as she felt she was putting on weight and needed to control this. The rest of Julie's story is a familiar one in that she went on to develop anorexia. According to personality theory Julie was predisposed to developing an eating disorder due to her perfectionist personality.
Julie is one of the lucky ones. She is now 16 years of age. At 14 her anorexia became so entrenched that she needed a 6 week period of hospitalized treatment to address the medical issues. She was referred by her Doctor for treatment following this and is now in long term therapy for her anorexia.
Author Resource:-
Are you over concerned about your appearance and have an intense fear of gaining weight? If YES! Look over this list of warning signs of eating disorders, and if you match the majority of them, there is a good chance that you have an eating disorder.
Get extensive information on Eating Disorders, its signs, success stories and many more.
Kildare Street Clinic is a specialist eating disorder treatment center in Ireland offering effective Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for treatment of Bulimia nervosa, Anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.
