The role of pride in women with anorexia nervosa: A grounded theory study (original) (raw)

Exploring quality of life in women with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa

2021

Background Anorexia nervosa is a severe psychiatric disorder characterised by starvation and malnutrition. In severe and enduring anorexia nervosa, individuals may be unable to overcome persistent ruminations about their weight, food intake and body shape, so interventions may be required that focus on quality of life rather than on achieving full recovery. Aim To identify which factors may affect the quality of life of women with severe and enduring anorexia. Method Constructivist grounded theory was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight women receiving inpatient care for severe and enduring anorexia in a severe eating disorder unit in the Netherlands. Data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously, and theoretical categories with associated properties emerged from this process. Findings Four theoretical categories were identified: ‘suffering, but not in silence’; ‘one step forward, one step backwards’; ‘connective tissue’; and ‘best friend, best enemy...

Shame, Guilt, and Self-Consciousness in Anorexia Nervosa

Journal of Clinical Medicine

Background: the role of self-conscious emotions (SCE) such as shame and guilt in eating disorders (ED) has been systematically studied only in recent years, but it is still debated. This study aims to investigate the role of SCE in anorexia nervosa (AN), evaluating the role of self-consciousness. Methods: fifty-five individuals with AN and seventy-four healthy controls (HC) were enrolled and completed a battery of tests evaluating the proneness to feel shame and guilt, as well as comparing self-consciousness, eating, and general psychopathology. Results: individuals with AN showed a higher proneness to shame. Shame was correlated with body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness, which are core symptoms in AN, after controlling for scores of depression and anxiety. Proneness to guilt seemed to be less correlated with eating and body symptomatology, but it appeared to have a negative correlation with binge-purging symptoms. Furthermore, proneness to shame was independent of guilt or s...

Feminist approaches to Anorexia Nervosa: a qualitative study of a treatment group

Journal of Eating Disorders

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are now often approached as biopsychosocial problems. But it has been suggested by scholars interested in sociocultural factors that all is not equal within this biospsychosocial framework, with the 'social' aspects of the equation relegated to secondary factors within ED treatment contexts. Although sociocultural influences are well-established as risk factors for EDs, the exploration of whether or how such perspectives are useful in treatment has been little explored. In responding to this context, this article seeks to discuss and evaluate a 10 week closed group intervention based on feminist approaches to EDs at a residential eating disorder clinic in the East of England. Methods: The data was collected via one-to-one qualitative interviews and then analysed using thematic discourse analysis. Results: The participants suggested that the groups were helpful in enabling them to situate their problem within a broader cultural and group context, that they could operate as a form of 'protection' from ideologies regarding femininity, and that a focus on the societal contexts for EDs could potentially reduce feelings of self-blame. At the same time, the research pointed to the complexities of participants considering societal rather than individualised explanations for their problems, whilst it also confronted the implications of ambivalent responses toward feminism. Conclusions: Highly visible sociocultural factors in EDssuch as gender-may often be overlooked in ED clinical contexts. Although based on limited data, this research raises questions about the marginalisation of sociocultural factors in treatment, and the benefits and challenges including the latter may involve.

Becoming whole again: a qualitative study of women's views of recovering from anorexia nervosa

This study explored how women made sense of their recovery from Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Semi-structured telephone interviews were carried out with fifteen women who had received a diagnosis of AN and defined themselves as either recovered or in recovery. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The women described their experiences in terms of three broad areas; being anorexic; the process of change; and being recovered. Transcending these themes was a series of dichotomies involving splits between their mind and body, AN behaviour and cognitions and their rational and irrational side. Further, they indicated that recovery reflects the time when these many different components of their selves are no longer divided and that this was often facilitated through therapy and close relationships which enabled them to find non bodily means to express their distress. Therapy should therefore aim to facilitate a sense of becoming 'whole' again.

Anorexia nervosa and survival: Exploring self-preservation through eating disordered practices

Despite intensive research efforts, anorexia nervosa (AN) remains poorly understood. The clinical picture of AN consists of practices of food restriction and/or increased physical activity leading to physical degradation, co-occurring with significant psychological distress focusing on eating and embodiment. Several studies have analyzed binge eating as physiologically and psychologically functional responses to hunger and negative affect within larger cycles of body weight regulation and emotional mediation.However, eating in AN does not occur exclusively in the context of binge eating. Eating, in its myriad yet typically restrictive and idiosyncratic forms, is necessary to maintain the modes of embodiment and selfhood produced with and through AN. In turn, life itself is sustained, albeit ambivalently, precariously and paradoxically. Hence, eating, as well as not-eating, is constitutive of and integral to AN. By engaging with the multiplicity of embodied practices and sensations that shape the lives and experiences of individuals with AN, this paper asks what it means to ‘live’ with, within, through, or even for, AN.

The Phenomenology of Anorexia Nervosa: The Intertwining Meaning of Gender and Embodiment

The European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2015

Eating disorders affect 5-10 million females, triple the rates of people living with AIDS or schizophrenia. Traditional research acknowledged interconnecting factors in developing anorexia nervosa, yet few studies attempted to examine the meaning of gender and embodiment from the anorexic woman's unique perspective. Thus, this study attempts to describe and illuminate this rift in the literature regarding intertwining regions of gender, embodiment, and the presence of anorexia nervosa. Data were obtained from a mixed-methods approach, with interview reports of subjects' life experiences and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Female participants (N = 6) between 19 and 29 years old were interviewed in conformity with commonly accepted phenomenological data collection procedures. Results show the meaning of gender and embodiment in the experience of being a woman with anorexia is characterized by events that cause a downward spiral into hopelessness, depression, and negative self-esteem. The study identified no correlation between BSRI and the presence of anorexia, but revealed seven themes: