Eating Disorders

EATING DISORDERS

Recent years have brought a growing awareness of the severity of eating disorders, mostly among young women. In the last few decades, eating disorders have become a fad in staying thin. There has been a long debate about what causes eating disorders, but there is no question that the rates of eating disorders in the United States are extremely high. Currently, 3% of American women suffer from bulimia nervosa, in which is characterized by repeated binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or excessive exercise to avoid weight gain, and the emotional effects of emptiness and self-worth (APA, 2000).

Many people remember Princess Diana for her very fragile and loving nature; however during an interview with BBC, she often remarks, “I am a very strong person,” an ironic statement for someone whose life was full of challenges and disappointments (Elliot& Pederson, 1995, p.62). Beginning with her birth on July 1, 1961 to aristocratic parents Viscount and Viscountess Johnnie and Frances Althorp, Princess Diana (then Diana Frances Spencer) believed she was a disappointment to her parents because she was not born a baby boy, the desired heir to the Spencer estate. Feelings of disappointment continued for Diana during her parent’s divorce at the age of six and her father’s second marriage to Raine (a woman she despised) when she was 16. Shortly after her father’s marriage to Raine, Diana failed her “O-levels” (or college placement tests), and was sent to a Swiss finishing school to develop her passion for skiing rather than focus on academics. Diana’s new sense of freedom caused her to exhibit problematic behaviors, such as relentless stubbornness and lying as well as early symptoms of an eating disorder (Elliot & Pederson, 1995). Thus, it is the purpose of this paper to examine how the events of Diana’s life in conjunction with psychological components contributed to her development of bulimia nervosa.

Biological Component

Eating disorders like bulimia are a significant public health problem for individuals across the lifespan (American Psychological Association, 2012).More important, the biological explanation of bulimia derived from the concept of multiple causality, suggests symptoms of eating disorders are heavily influenced by nongenetic factors and often co-occur with other disorders (Hansell & Damour, 2008,p.302 ). For example, in the case of Princess Diana, who was plagued with anxiety about her body (Triggs, 2011), bulimia offered her a temporary sense of security, wholeness, and relief from depression (Segal, 2009).

Even more interesting is Diana’s description of bulimia: “you fill your stomach up four or five times a day- some do it more- and it gives you a feeling of comfort, it’s like having a pair of arms around you, but its temporary.”(Segal, 2009, p.101). Consequently, Diana’s comment