Quantifying and Predicting Mental Illness Severity in Online Pro-Eating Disorder Communities

This study was carried out to establish the relationship between eating disorder and depression among public servants in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study adopted the expost facto design. The sample consisted of 1000 (533 males, 467 females) public servants who were randomly selected from state ministries, schools, boards and parastatals in the state. A Public Servant Opinion Questionnaire (PSOQ) constructed by the researcher was used for data collection. A null hypothesis was tested in the study using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. This paper also highlights some causes and mechanisms of eating disorder and depression, biological or genetic factors and addiction. The major findings indicated that eating disorder significantly led to some degree of depression, which is a mental illness. Based on this result, it was concluded that eating disorder was a significant factor in explaining the incidence of depression. The major recommendations are that depressed people should be referred to seek the services of social psychologists, psychotherapists, and clinical psychologists in psychiatric hospitals, and also that, government should help in providing good working conditions for her staff.

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The relationship between mental illness severity and stigma

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica ◽

10.1111/j.1600-0447.2005.00716.x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 113 (s429) ◽

pp. 41-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

W. Gaebel ◽

H. Zaske ◽

A. E. Baumann

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Illness Severity ◽

The Relationship

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Eating disorder as mental illness: Popular conceptions

International Journal of Eating Disorders ◽

10.1002/1098-108x(198705)6:3<443::aid-eat2260060317>3.0.co;2-0 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 443-446 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

T. J. O'Grady ◽

A. L. El-Sobky

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Eating Disorder

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Evidentiality in illness narratives

Pragmatics and Society ◽

10.1075/ps.16038.fig ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 356-380 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Carolina Figueras Bates

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Eating Disorders ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Severe Mental Illness ◽

Mental States ◽

Illness Narratives ◽

Epistemic Stance ◽

Different Sources

Abstract Narratives of severe mental illness can be regarded as the discursive efforts of a healthy self to restore a sense of selfhood disrupted by the illness. Focusing on a sample of 87 unsolicited online illness narratives of eating disorders in Spanish, this article explores how narrators deployed evidential constructions introduced by the perception verb “ver” (to see) to manage identity in the autobiographical telling. The analysis revealed that “ver” indexed information as coming from different sources (perception, mental states, inference). This evidential material was discursively evaluated (via the adoption of a specific epistemic stance) and applied to construe conflicting versions of self in the eating disorder narratives. Resorting to the evidential marking, narrators could rhetorically negotiate the transition from their perceptual self, created during the illness, to their cognitive self, elaborated in the recovery.

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Eating disorder public service announcements

Health Education ◽

10.1108/he-07-2015-0019 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 116 (5) ◽

pp. 476-488 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Irina A. Iles ◽

Anita Atwell Seate ◽

Leah Waks

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Public Service ◽

Public Service Announcements ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Mental Illness Stigma ◽

Control Group ◽

Theoretical Point ◽

Content Type ◽

The Social

Purpose – Previous studies have documented that exposure to stereotypical information about certain social groups leads to unfavorable perceptions and feelings toward that group. Integrating insights from the mental illness stigma and the social identity perspective literatures, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of eating disorder public service announcements (ED PSAs) that employ stigma formats through the lenses of the stereotype content model (SCM) and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes (BIAS) Map. Design/methodology/approach – The study followed an experimental control group design. Participants were exposed to either a stigmatizing or a non-stigmatizing PSA. Findings – Exposure to the stigmatizing PSA resulted in lower perceptions of warmth and competence being attributed to people who have an ED which further predicted greater feelings of contempt toward these individuals. The stigmatizing PSA also directly predicted greater feelings of contempt. Practical implications – The findings suggest that using stereotypes about EDs in PSAs aimed at preventing such diseases may elicit perceptions of low warmth and competence, further associated with increased feelings of contempt toward people who have an ED in healthy individuals. Social implications – The stereotyping effects of PSAs may reduce the social and emotional support that people with EDs receive and may exacerbate their emotional distress. Originality/value – From a theoretical point of view, these results extend the understanding of mental illness stereotypes from an intergroup, SCM and BIAS Map perspective as it applies to EDs. More importantly, this study draws attention to possible unintended consequences of PSAs, a matter that is rarely researched, but that can have severe implications.

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Making an expert: Sources and their contributions in news coverage of orthorexia nervosa

Journalism ◽

10.1177/1464884919859709 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 146488491985970

Author(s):

Amy A Ross Arguedas

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Media Coverage ◽

News Coverage ◽

Healthcare Providers ◽

Orthorexia Nervosa ◽

Source Selection ◽

Medical Journalism ◽

Nuanced Understanding

In 1997, Steven Bratman, a physician specializing in alternative medicine, proposed he had identified a new eating disorder, a pathological fixation with healthy eating. Soon after, orthorexia nervosa, as he called it, began appearing in newspapers – long before it did in scientific venues. Using a mixed-methods analysis of 492 articles published between 1998 and 2016, I examine the various actors who have participated in orthorexia coverage, including those who were assigned expertise on the unofficial diagnosis. The findings demonstrate a variety of credentialed and non-credentialed sources contributed to media coverage in different ways. Experts in mental illness appeared less often than other healthcare providers, including Bratman and dietitians. Based on the findings, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of expertise to better evaluate source selection in medical journalism and propose a typology that considers both the nature of the claims and the qualifications of the person making them. I conclude with several hypotheses about news coverage of novel conditions undergoing biomedicalization.

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Cultivating the Community

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction ◽

10.1145/3492826 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 6 (GROUP) ◽

pp. 1-33

Author(s):

Fayika Farhat Nova ◽

Amanda Coupe ◽

Elizabeth D. Mynatt ◽

Shion Guha ◽

Jessica A. Pater

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Eating Disorder ◽

Thematic Analysis ◽

Topic Modeling ◽

Eating Habits ◽

Individual Level ◽

Online Networks ◽

Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽

Growing Body

A growing body of HCI research has sought to understand how online networks are utilized in the adoption and maintenance of disordered activities and behaviors associated with mental illness, including eating habits. However, individual-level influences over discrete online eating disorder (ED) communities are not yet well understood. This study reports results from a comprehensive network and content analysis (combining computational topic modeling and qualitative thematic analysis) of over 32,000 public tweets collected using popular ED-related hashtags during May 2020. Our findings indicate that this ED network in Twitter consists of multiple smaller ED communities where a majority of the nodes are exposed to unhealthy ED contents through retweeting certain influential central nodes. The emergence of novel linguistic indicators and trends (e.g., "#meanspo") also demonstrates the evolving nature of the ED network. This paper contextualizes ED influence in online communities through node-level participation and engagement, as well as relates emerging ED contents with established online behaviors, such as self-harassment.

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Recovery and Personhood in the Diagnostic Formulation and Treatment of Serious Mental Illness: A Commentary

Journal of Humanistic Psychology ◽

10.1177/0022167818788758 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 59 (3) ◽

pp. 356-367

Author(s):

Aieyat B. Zalzala ◽

Emily C. Gagen ◽

Paul H. Lysaker

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Present Article ◽

Serious Mental Illness ◽

Illness Severity ◽

Diagnostic Framework

The present article is a commentary on Pavlo and colleagues’ alternative person centered and recovery oriented diagnostic framework. Three strengths of the framework are identified, including the incorporation of an individual’s environment into the diagnostic formulation, an emphasis on individual strengths and the belief that they exist regardless of illness severity, and a resulting avoidance of stigmatization related to diagnostic labeling. Three potential areas of challenge and clarification are also identified, including how this approach is linked to outcome, how it is created through dialogue, and with what it is systematically concerned. Discussion of these challenges and suggestions for potential resolution are provided.

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