The hidden faces of eating disorders

EATING disorders can be categorised by a range of psychological disorders characterised by not a lifestyle choice or diet, but as disturbed eating habits.

Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Bharathi S. Vengadasalam described three types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating.

“ Commonly what we see is anorexia nervosa which is self-induced weight loss. They may be overly dieting, purely restricting calorie intake or overly exercising. This goes on to an extent where weight loss is so significant that there may be a problem of losing period cycles.”

“ There’ s a certain amount of body weight where you can’ t hold on to below your BMI of 17.5.”

Arson, animal cruelty and lack of remorse

Traits of personality disorders

Bharathi S. Vengadasalam.

AVE you ever smiled or greeted

H someone repeatedly over a period of time, who in response walked passed by without even acknowledging your existence? You might perceive them as cold, when in reality they might just be suffering from a personality disorder.

“ People with personality disorders have maladaptive personality traits,” explained Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Bharathi S. Vengadasalam.

“ You won’ t see it as episodic. That’ s how they are throughout their lives. It’ s very fixed form of personality. For example, antisocial personality disorder – which doesn’ t mean that they don’ t have friends.”

“ What it really means is that they go against society’ s norms without feeling guilty of their actions. However, they can go through life without performing crimes,” she said.

She explained that it usually starts with conduct disorder in childhood and extends into adulthood which may be manifested when they’ re young through fire-setting and cruelty to animals.

Such forms of personality disorders are very hard to treat.

Obsessive compulsive personality disorder( OCPD)

Another form of personality disorder is OCPD where a person might have traits such as being overly meticulous, micro-managing and rigid.

“ They could be very good at their work but they would over extend themselves to the sense that they become over meticulous of what they do,” she said.

Paranoid personality disorder

This disorder can look like its schizophrenia, where a person who has it tend to be overly suspicious of the people around them.

“ That’ s their trait throughout their lives. It is a mixture of things – upbringing, their own temperament as a child, psychologically and socially,” Bharathi said.

Sometimes, the way people perceive and appraise things in their earlier years can cause them to develop a certain personality as they grow older.

Autonomy a crucial factor to psychological development

“ Social is about relationships. Relationships in the family contribute to happiness in children while the negative ones contribute to ill health. We have heard about child abuse— sexual and physical, in addition to that there is neglect.”

WHAT happens when a child is exposed to abusive parents at a very young age? What are the impacts and how does it affect the child later in life?

Taylor’ s University Clinical School, School of Medicine Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Associate Professor Dr Xavier Vincent Pereira disclosed that different age group has different issues.

“ We have to look at the developmental issues of children such as oppositional behaviour in childhood and in adolescence,” he said.

While pointing out that obedience is a requirement in our culture which is hard for children to do, he emphasised on the importance of the full aspect of autonomy.

“ That’ s the psychological, psychosocial developmental issue. People don’ t recognise that enough. Once we become

39 per cent of Malaysian school going children suffer anxiety

Info

THE 2017 National Health & Morbidity Survey: Adolescent Mental Health 2017 showed that the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 18.3 per cent, 39.7 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively.

This makes one third of the population.

“ The physical environment can be very insecure and lead to insecurities in the child, which can actually translate to mental health disorders— especially anxiety and depression.

Taylor’ s University Clinical

• THE 2017 National Health & Morbidity Survey: Adolescent Mental Health 2017

THE prevalence of anxiety was higher among females( 42.3 %)

The prevalence of stress was higher among students in urban areas( 10.3 %)

The HEALTH : June 2018 | Page 10

10 issue: mental health