Apa Case Study Of Eating Disorder

Introduction and Synopsis Psychology can be used to help people handle their problems. Andrea is a 19 year old freshman in college who struggles with eating disorders. It is believed that she struggles with anorexia and bulimia. Patients who deal with these disorders have a distorted body image and can even have a fear of obesity. Anorexia is an emotional disorder where one is obsessed with losing weight by not eating. Bulimia is also an emotional disorder involving extreme overeating, which is followed by self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. Andrea frequently starves herself until the hunger is so intense that she binge eats. For example, one time she ate half a gallon of ice cream in little over an hour. After she forced herself to throw up in order to lose the calories. These disorders are more common for women who suffer from depression. They sometimes can be subject to bully, leading to depression about their weight, causing these …show more content…
The biological perspective attributes human and animal behavior to biological events occurring in the body. For example, genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system can be causes. Developing an eating disorder may possibly be a predisposition, meaning that an eating disorder could have been biologically inherited if it runs in the family. The abnormalities in the structure or activity of the hypothalamus, a brain structure responsible for regulating eating behaviors may not cause the usual trigger of being full or finished, which results in bulimia. Neurotransmitters are related to this, they create serotonin, which has an affect on the behavior of bulimic. Tryptophan (converted sugars) use serotonin to regulate appetite. Low serotonin in the brain may be the cause of the binge behavior some bulimics have. Andrea may suffer from a predisposition or abnormality in the brain, which would be the cause of her eating