Exploring the Cause of Eating Disorders - Familial...

My sister is bulimic and has been in therapy for several months now. She seems to be making progress, but this eating disorder seems to rule her life nevertheless. Overwhelmed with conflicting desires, she is obsessed with food and her appearance. I see her suffer and wonder what has caused her to develop such behaviors. I know that there are several factors that can play a role in the inception of an eating disorder. Because of my sister’s problems, I have become interested in the interplay between familial relationships and bulimia. Is there a relationship between family interactions and bulimia? There have been numerous studies about the characteristics of a bulimics family. One of the earliest by Laurence Igoin-Apfelbaum (1985),†¦show more content†¦The patients who were the most self-reproachful and depressed after binges were those who drew the worst images of their father. According to this study, the patient is overcome by her desire for a loving family. The patients realize that their families are beyond any patching up, and to escape the reality, they become bulimics. They cannot give up the idea that their families are forever lost, and to have a sense of their own existence, they make up a fantasy. Bulimia then, is a secret behavior, that is a celebration. The patients regress to a time when the family was together, and this psychological state is accompanied by bingeing. The occurrence of bulimia may be related to the combination of a history of violent separations in the family, and the endless denial of these separations (Igoin-Apfelbaum, 1985). I have several problems with this study. The first and foremost is that I have trouble understanding how the author was able to conclude from the evidence that bulimic patients binge because they are going through a regression. The evidence that led to that theory is not shown, and the theory itself is not explained very well. I can see how a bulimic might want their family to be together as it was when they were younger, but I dont see how that leads to bulimia. Laura Lynn Humphrey (1986) studied 20 women who fulfilled the DSM-III criteria for bulimia. She used Benjamins Structural Analysis of SocialShow MoreRelatedRelationship Between Environmental Factors and Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescent Girls3097 Words   |  13 PagesRelationship Between Environmental Factors and Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescent Girls Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a visible, psychological illness that is detrimental to both the physical and mental well-being of an individual (Bulik et al., 2005). It is an eating disorder that is characterized by not only an unwillingness to gain weight, but a fear of gaining weight. 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