Why Do I “feel fat”? The Neuroscientic Explanation and the Therapeutic Solution to a Distorted Body Image


More
Saturday, March 23, 2013: 2:00 PM-4:30 PM
Baraka Ballrooom (Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort)
Handout Handout Handout

Background: Body image disturbance is a core symptom of all eating disorders. By explaining the neuroscience of what is going on behind the scenes, the various therapeutic tools that address improving body image take on greater meaning, understanding and usefulness in the recovery process.

I Body Image: Personal Relationship with your body

–      Pictures in our minds

–      Feelings, thoughts, beliefs and actions

–      Convey who we are

–      Predict an eating discord

  1. Innate Preference for attractive faces
    1. Symmetry

                                          i.    Good Breeding Prospect

                                         ii.    Good genes

                                        iii.    Good Health

  1. What makes people attractive?
    1. Airport analogy
    2. Exchange  Places
    3. Relationships
    4. Happiness: is not “Survival of the thinnest”
    5. Challenge
      1. Cannot grasp logic
      2. Hesitant to accept they are thin
      3. 2% experience body image changes following Cosmetic surgery
      4. Only overestimate the size of their own body not the size of others
      5. Characteristics
        1. Perceptual aspect: how we experience our body
        2. Attitudinal aspect: how we evaluate our body
        3. Behavioral aspect: How we behave because of our body
        4. Abnormalities in processing our visual image
          1. Not unique to people with eating disorders
          2. Eating Disorder: more invested in body image
          3. Impacted by external factors
          4. How one experiences their body
            1. Genetic
            2. Damage to neural networks or structures
            3. Poor Visuospacial memory
            4. Allosteric Lock Theory
            5. Insular Hypothesis
            6. Weak Central Coherence
            7. Poor Set shifting
            8. Visual parietal domains: impaired visual memory and deficits in spacial processing
              1. EBA: Extrastriate Body Area
              2. FBA: Fusiform Body Area
              3. Medial Temporal Lobe
              4. AN: impaired visual memory and deficits in spacial processing
              5. Abnormal spacial processing: Decreased attention and body avoidance
              6. Body Awareness: Body sensations; emotions; motivations
              7. Insular Hypothesis: Embodiment: involved with construction of body image
              8. Allosteric Lock Theory: Impaired Spatial Memory: “Off-line” Representation

II. Assessments: Self-drawing

II. Treatments

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  2. Cognitive Remedial Therapy
  3. Mindfulness
  4. Expressive Techniques
  5. Movement Therapy
  6. Massage

Body Image Disturbance is a core symptom of all eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is an obsessional unrelenting quest for thinness. A severe distortion of body image resulting from any type of eating disorder (BED, BN, NES etc) is associated with elevated levels of depression, shame and decreased self esteem. The decade of the brain has helped to make neuroscience more accurate to a wider population. Through brain imaging, science can construct a complete neural map that tells us something about the underlying cause, uncovers biomarkers that predict the occurrence, identify indicators of recovery and warn of ensuing relapse. The more a person understands about what is happening neurobiologicallly and the more they will stay with the program. As a consequence they will be more successful experience a greater the likelihood of permanent recovery.  By explaining the neuroscience of what is going on behind the scenes, the various therapeutic tools that address improving body image become more important and useful in the recovery process. Through an informative and user friendly visual format, participants can clearly understand how memory, vision, somatosensory input and mental processing have gone awry. The good news is that the brain resurrected through neuroplasticity and returned to normal healthy functioning. This presentation combines the neuroscience explanation and therapeutic plan to assist the eating disorder patient in accepting their weight and size and halting a pathological drive to thinness.

Primary Presenter:
Ralph E. Carson, RD, PhD

Dr. Carson has been involved in the clinical treatment of obesity and eating disorders for over 30 years. His unique background in medicine (BS Duke University and B. H. S. Duke University Medical School) coupled with nutrition and exercise (BS Oakwood College, Ph.D. Auburn University) has prepared him to integrate biophysiological intervention with proven psychotherapeutic treatment. He consults with eating disorder programs and presents at conferences around the world. Dr. Carson is an IAEDP board member. He has recently published Harnessing the Healing Power of Fruit.



See more of: Workshops
<< Previous Proposal | Next Proposal >>