Abnormal Psychology

Running Head: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Abnormal psychology
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1Abnormal Psychology
1. Mental illness is referred to as wide collection of mental illnesses such as, depression,
eating disorders, anxiety, addictive behaviours and schizophrenia. To ensure the
uniformity of diagnosis for different mental health is maintained, diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders (DSM) are used. Eating disorder is included in axis I of the
DSM ( (Lavender, et al., 2015).
Anorexia nervosa is an eating illness identified by an uncharacteristically low
body mass. Patient suffering from anorexia nervosa have extensive fear of gaining weight
and hence us extreme effort to maintain their weight which damages their physical as well
as mental health. They may go through starvation or use diuretics and laxatives to lose
their weight, which results to unhealthy life, extremely thin body structure and mental
illness. People suffering from anorexia have amenorrhea, extreme weight gaining fear and
disturbance in evaluating weight. There are several factors involved in anorexia such as,
some people have high risk of anorexia, perfectionism and sensitivity due to some genetic
changes. Physiological and environmental factors are also responsible for developing
anorexia (Zipfel, et al., 2015).
Bulimia Nervosa is an disorder identified by binge eating trailed by purging.
People suffering from bulimia eat a lot in frequent intervals. People suffering from this
disease have high risk of death because of cardiac arrest. Symptoms observed in people
suffering from Bulimia, recurrent binge eating, recurrent episodes of purging, inapt
compensatory behaviour and excessive attention on weight and shape. If the treatment is
delayed it can lead to destructive behaviour, kidney damage, digestive system
complications and can also lead to death. Factors responsible are past trauma, low
developed self-esteem, stressful transition and negative body image (Lavender, et al.,
2015).