Emotions and Eating Disorders

Cognitive Remediation in Anorexia Nervosa and Related Conditions: A Systematic Review

“…CRT's role in increasing motivation to change needs to be assessed further, especially in light of motivational interviewing also being increasingly used in AN as a client-centred directive method for encouraging intrinsic motivation to change by exploring ambivalence and considering readiness to change (Macdonald, Hibbs, Corfield, & Treasure, 2012). Socio-emotional processing also appears to be a commonality across the conditions, especially the processing of emotional material; emotion avoidance is suggested as a maintenance factor for AN (Treasure & Schmidt, 2013), and people with AN often experience negative emotions as dangerous and unpredictable and can strive to avoid them (Fox, Federici, & Power, 2012). Thus, as is the case in developments such as the cognitive remediation and emotion skills training intervention, focusing on both executive functions ('cold cognitions') and emotional processing ('hot cognitions') may be beneficial (Tchanturia, Doris, & Fleming, 2014) as an additional module to CRT.…”

Computerised analysis of facial emotion expression in eating disorders

“…Difficulties in social-emotional communication have been documented in eating disorders (ED) and are believed to contribute to the development and maintenance of disordered eating [ 4 ]. Specifically, it has been proposed that individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) perceive emotions as a threat [ 5 ], and behaviours such as dietary restriction or excessive exercise may help them to avoid distressing emotions and to provide a sense of control [ 6 , 7 ]. Thus, the ED would function as a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy numbing the expression of emotions, which leads to social isolation and family conflicts [ 4 , 8 ].…”

Self‐Disgust within Eating Disordered Groups: Associations with Anxiety, Disgust Sensitivity and Sensory Processing

“…Recent evidence has demonstrated that shame and eating pathology may influence one another clinically, overtime; in those with a diagnosis of an eating disorder (Kelly & Tasca, ). It has been argued that the experience of shame and self‐disgust may be similar, particularly within those who are suffering from an eating disorder (Fox, Federici et al , ). They are both emotions that involve avoidance and feelings of pushing away or social rejection (Chapman et al , ) and often result in a person withdrawing quickly from aversive situations (Powell et al , ).…”