Anorexia Case Study Essay

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702172798 Psych 139 Spring 2016 Case Study #2 Case Study: After stressful changes young adult suffers from anorexia nervosa Jody is a 19-year-old female who has been through a lot of change: she has completed her freshman year of college miles away from home and her parents recently became divorced. Due to high conflict throughout the divorce Jody’s anxiety levels have heightened, especially when thinking about or talking to her parents and Jody’s grades also began to decline. She has been seeking help from the school-counseling center and with her free time plays club volleyball. Jody started going to the gym more to get into shape and started liking the results, which escalated into working out more than necessary, and restricting her diet. …show more content…

Anorexia nervosa has many different symptoms. Some of those include restriction of food intake, intense fear of gaining weight, disturbed perception of weight/shape or lack of recognition of seriousness of current low body weight. Jody has all of these. She has failed to see how serious her weight loss has been. She is also restricting her eating to only 400 calories a day. As a result of always been over weight Jody has become more confident because of the compliments she has been receiving. Anorexia has developed as a result of all of the stress that she has been put under. It is typical for a teenager to undergo a great deal of changes at the age of 19. Jody recently moved away from home for college and her parents were going through a divorce. After the time she found out about the divorce, it seems that her exercising habits increased. After receiving compliments for the weight she has been losing and her increased stamina. Looking at her symptoms it appears that she has a restricting type as opposed to binge eating and purging. This just means that rather than having behaviors that are compensatory from eating too much she doesn’t eat enough. I diagnosed Jody with anorexia because this eating disorder does not have much to do with food but rather than emotional problems. She believes that by being skinny that she would be able to feel better about …show more content…

Biologically Jody can be prescribed antidepressants or can go to a refeeding program. Before she goes through all of this she needs to be hospitalized because of her low body weight and her inability to exercise without being dizzy within a minute. This shows signs of serious medical complications. Jody is extremely underweight and now refuses to eat. This can cause serious medical complications such as anemia, dermatological problems, heart irregularities, menstrual irregularities, muscular weakness, GI problems, dizziness, hypotension and even death. Jody has been suffering from menstrual irregularities, dizziness and muscular weakness. Medical complications are deemed to be serious and medical assistance is needed immediately. Since she has these medical complications there is a possibility that she will have many other underlying ones. Jody needs to go to the hospital immediately because her life could be in danger. It is extremely important that this is the first step taken so we know how to further the treatment that she receives. She can also go through a form of therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy. I believe that Jody should attend therapy. This therapy will allow her to receive the exposure to food that she truly needs. It will also challenge any maladaptive thoughts that she may have. She should also put on antidepressants because she suffers from anxiety because of

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