Emotional intelligence: A management tool for orthorexia nervosa

Pages: 738-741
Vinod K. Shanwal (Gautam Buddha University, U.P.)
Poulami Dasgupta (Medanta-The Medicity, Gurgaon, Haryana)

The highly competitive world forces us to perform number of tasks in a time bound manner. The pressure and burden encountered while meeting these demands produce stress which can have profound effect on human biological system. The intensity and coping ability of stress depends upon the circumstances and emotional conditions of the person experiencing it. Stress has also been related to various metabolic and psychological aberrations in an individual. Obesity is currently one of the most prevalent health concerns globally which is directly associated with stress too. Study by Costarelli et al. (2009) have shown that overweight preoccupation is a significant factor in predicting disordered eating, which is in accordance with many other studies. Previous studies suggest that there’s a number of Eating disorders which have been associated with chronic stress. “A person can know a lot about nutrition, know what foods are not healthy, but can still make poor decisions when unable to recognize, reason, and solve problems based on emotional patterns,”. For example, compulsive eaters may understand nutrition, but they may not realize their emotions affect their food choices. Therapy is often successful in teaching individuals with ED’s to recognize the feelings that trigger the behaviour associated with their diagnosis. The current article aims at developing EI as a management tool for preventing the occurrence or managing existing eating disorders leading to obsessive dietetic limitations in an individual.