Eating and Body Image Concerns

Question 1

What must we do when performing a functional analysis on someone’s eating fears?

Answer 1

have to try to assess the feared consequence: what is the person afraid will happen?

• Feared food - feared consequence: fear of weight gain, loss of control, guilty
• Exposures have to violate feared expectations to be effective

Question 2

what has to be done for people to get over their fear and fight the feared consequence?

Answer 2

Expose people to the feared foods and allow the client to see that the feared consequence won’t happen
- Allow the distress to occur

Question 3

Body focused exposured for body image anxiety:

Answer 3

• Mirror exposure - looking at self in the mirror and allowing thoughts and feelings to occur as they do
• Can be useful if people are engaging in avoidance
• This can be a way to modify how someone looks at themselves in the mirror
• Doing things that are the feared cues (revealing clothes and unflattering positions)

Question 4

What do exposures help a person realize?

Answer 4

Exposures help a person realize that they can tolerate the negative evaluation and not so much convince a person that they aren’t being negatively evaluated

Question 5

cue exposures for binge-eating:

Answer 5

Exposing them but not allowing them to engage in:
- seeing, smelling, tasting food
- locations where binges have occurred
- negative emotions before binge

Question 6

Compensatory behaviours: how to treat

Answer 6

psycheducation on the harm and consequences of:
- self-induced vomiting: doesn’t remove all calories
- laxative misuse: dehydration, only removes fluids which are replaced after drinking + eating again
- excessive exercising: if there is already a restriction, there is no fuel to burn -> heart problems, swelling, differences in bone

Question 7

Body Dysmorphic Dosorder

Answer 7

• preocculation with 1 or more percieved defects of flaws in physical appearance that another person would not notice
• repetitive behaviours (mirror checking, grooming, skin picking)
• significant distress
• perceived flaw can be weight, but eating is not an element

Question 8

what is BDD specified with?

Answer 8

muscle dysmorphia (mainly with men)
- his/her body is too small or insufficiently muscular

The degree of insight regarding BDD beliefs
- good/fair
- poor
- absent insight

The average insight among people is poor: the person holds a greater belief that there actually is a defect and is resistant to discussion

Question 9

Key areas of preoccupation

Answer 9

• facial features (nose, skin, eyes, lips)
• hair (thinning, texture)
• body shape/size (hips, thighs, breasts/muscle chest, shoulders)
• skin and complexion (discoloration, freckles, scars)
• genitals (size, shape)
• symmetry

Question 10

Camouflaging

Answer 10

Covering up the flaw
- With a mask
- With excessive makeup use

Question 11

Prevalence of BDD

Answer 11

Similar prevalence in boys and girls (but may be more common in girls during adolescence)

~2.4% in adults

Question 12

“BDD by proxy”

Answer 12

not preoccupied with part of your own body but with the part of the body on someone else (ex: a parent being preoccupied with their child’s nose), elements are VERY similar (ex: preoccupation, frequent checking behaviours and comparison checking)

Question 13

do cosmetic treatments help BDD?

Answer 13

no there’s often a poor response

• 11-13% among dermatology patients (Ribeiro 2017; Veale et al. 2016)
• 13%-15% among general cosmetic surgery patients (Dey et al. 2015; Ribeiro 2017; Veale et al. 2016)
• 20% in rhinoplasty surgery patients (Veale et al. 2016)
• 11% among adult jaw correction surgery patients (Veale et al. 2016)
• 5%–10% among adult orthodontic/cosmetic dentistry patients (Crerand and Sarwer 2010).