Eating Disorders: Emotional Differences in Patients

People suffering from bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa or others food disorders they often have more difficulty managing emotions. What does it mean to be able to regulate emotions? It means having the ability to regulate the intensity, duration and type of emotion in addition to cognitive and behavioral strategies. The latter are divided into adaptive or maladaptive. The latter are closely related to the functioning of mental disorders.

It seems that maladaptive strategies help regulate emotions by reducing negative emotions and increasing positive ones. People with eating disorders can express emotions differently than healthy ones. It was confirmed that patients teenagers with comorbid eating disorders and depression have a higher number of symptoms related to eating disorders. This is compared to patients with anxiety disorders.

Patients with eating disorders have great difficulty implementing emotional regulation strategies. If there are also anxiety or depression disorders, then it is even more difficult. Teenagers with an eating disorder greater difficulties in dealing with emotions compared to healthy ones. The study found that adolescents with eating disorders use more maladaptive strategies than those without eating disorders.

The study looked at 197 women ages 12 to 20. Of these, 118 participants were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and 32 with bulimia nervosa. Then there was a control group with 47 people without eating disorders. Here, the results showed that teens with eating disorders consumed more maladaptive strategies. Regulating anxiety is difficult for teens, but it is difficult whether or not they suffer from an eating disorder. It would be helpful to repeat the test with experimental (with eating disorders) and control samples (without eating disorders). In addition, the research focused on anxietysadness and anger, so it would be better to prove other emotions as well.