Eating Disorders: Family Systems Analysis

Eating disorders come in many forms and have many causes. For example anorexia nervosa, this is an eating disorder where the person refuses to eat and then becomes malnourished. This disorder is commonly found in young girls who have over controlling parents. The treatment for this disorder is commonly family systems therapy. Family systems therapy is a therapy that treats the disorder and the family of the person, this treatment is used because the family tends to be at the root of this disorder, in this case. All throughout history eating disorders have been recorded among the human race. For example, a saint denying herself food for what sh called a spiritual denial of self. But it was not till the 70 's when eating disorders were …show more content…
In the beginning, it was believed that eating disorders were caused by environmental situations. But according to studies there is evidence that these disorders are genetic that can be passed down and triggered by environmental situations. “Like most psychological disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder tend to run in families” (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2013, p. 351). In another article I read, ghrelin levels were being researched in rats to see if they were the cause of eating disorders. But this study was inconclusive because there were too many variables untested and not enough human …show more content…
There are three main types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Anorexia is when a person has an intense desire to be skinny, so they refuse to eat and then become so skinny that it is unhealthy. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of the eating disorders. Bulimia is when a person eats then takes severe measures to not gain weight such as forced vomiting and laxatives. Binge-eating disorder was a person overeats to excess, for example going to several different restaurants to eat dinner. With binge-eating the person does not purge but instead has extreme guilt about their actions. According to Abnormal Psychology 6th Addition, girls are more at risk than boys that have the genetic predisposition of eating disorders to have their eating disorder triggered when puberty begins. Parents pass down their genes when the embryo is in the womb, the mother, and father both give 23 chromosomes each. They pair up and a that makes a gene, but when there are more than two of the same chromosomes then this creates abnormal genes. These genes can only be passed from the parents and they can lie dormant or be present from birth. These genes are what cause the hormone deficiencies in the brain. Such as the serotonin and dopamine hormones that are associated with eating disorders. According to Abnormal Psychology 6th Addition, “anorexia nervosa show