Quiz Section 6 – Case Study 9

After attending lectures and reading this particular case study, bulimia nervosa seems to make a lot more sense. I noticed that with Rita, purging wasn’t an immediate response to her guilty feelings; she had tried many other techniques before resorting to throwing up her food. One part of the story I found interesting was that after a few months of purging, Rita often did not have to use her finger at all to purge – the feelings and gastrointestinal movements came naturally. Was this a sort of classical conditioning? Did the sight of the toilet gradually become a conditioned stimulus that, paired with an intention to throw up, elicited the conditioned response of purging?

Also, I recall Lexi telling us that eating disorders were some of the hardest disorders to treat. After reading about Rita, I can see how this is the case. Rita’s treatment was such a long, involved process, but she slowly seemed to make a lot of progress. I thought one of the most effective components was for Rita to eat “bad” foods in front of her therapist. In doing this, not only would she not want to purge in front of her therapist, but she could spend time talking to Dr. Heston afterwards (therefore allowing her mind to focus on other things). I wish we had been given a little more information on Rita’s relationship problems (that were introduced in the epilogue) and they related to her newly-healed eating disorder, but overall, I was satisfied with how Rita’s case was explained and handled.