The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Psychological Distress in People with Bulimia Nervosa

Introduction & Objective: Eating disorders are one of the most common mental/psychological disorders that cause many problems in physical health and mental function and also impair the quality of life of the sufferer and cause death. Eating disorders can cause eating disorders and threaten a person's health by altering their diet and receiving poor nutrients. Overeating disorder is an eating and eating disorder that is now officially recognized as a diagnosis. It affects approximately 2% of the world's population and can cause other health problems related to diets, such as high cholesterol and diabetes. Nutrition and eating disorders are not just about food, which is why they are known as mental disorders. People often use them as a way to deal with a deeper problem or other psychological condition such as anxiety or depression. People with anorexia nervosa may eat a lot of food in a short time, even if they are not hungry. Stress or emotional distress is often involved and may cause overeating. Lack of emotional regulation justifies overeating in various behaviors such as restricting food, valuing weight, shape, and negative emotions. Also, lack of emotion regulation has a strong relationship with overeating, so consuming too much food reduces the intensity of emotions. If emotion regulation fails, self-regulation in other areas, such as controlling eating behavior, can also fail; therefore, it seems likely that the models explaining overeating behavior in overeating disorder and overeating in obesity are related to failure in self-regulation due to intense emotions. Eating behavior is a complex phenomenon that involves the breadth and frequency of periods of eating and choosing daily foods and determines the amount of energy received by the individual and is the result of environmental, physiological, and psychological factors. Therefore, therapy can be effective in reducing eating disorders that can help the person in controlling his behavior and emotions. A meta-analytical look at the therapies used to treat eating disorders in the last decade shows that most research has focused on cognitive-behavioral therapy. The cognitive-behavioral approach of eating disorders focuses on cognitive distortions and attempts to change emotions and behaviors, and focuses on behavior. The therapist helps the patient identify their cognitive distortions and replace them with more positive and realistic ways of thinking. There is a vacuum of research in this area. Given the above, the present study seeks to answer the question of whether the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on psychological distress, obesity, and emotion disorder in people with bulimia will be different?   Method: Due to the nature of the subject of the present study, the method of the present study is quasi-experimental and is a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population was considered as high school students. Therefore, the statistical population of the present study is all-female high school students in Kerman in District 2 of Education. The sample size was selected as a multi-stage cluster from 4 girls' high schools. First, through bulimia (bulimia nervosa) Gormali, Black, Duston, Radin (1982) questionnaire, and clinical interview, 45 students with bulimia nervosa were identified and selected and randomly assigned to three groups of 15. Inclusion criteria were having the conditions to participate in intervention sessions (availability), determining students' satisfaction with cooperation, not taking medical and psychiatric drugs, not having acute medical or metabolic disorders through screening tests and exit criteria these included not being able to attend intervention sessions (unavailability), student dissatisfaction, taking medications and psychiatry, and having an acute medical or metabolic disorder. The research instrument was Gormali, Black, Duston, Radin's (1982) Overeating Behaviors Scale (DAS). The experimental groups underwent cognitive-behavioral intervention. Data analysis was performed using an independent t-test.   Results: The results of this test indicate that there is a significant difference between the depression subscale and the psychological distress variable of people with bulimia nervosa in the two post-test groups. Also, the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the rate of anxiety and depression in the post-test was not significantly significant.   Conclusion: The cognitive-behavioral approach of eating disorders is based on cognitive distortions and attempts to change emotions and behaviors and focuses on behavior. The therapist helps the patient identify their cognitive distortions and replace them with more positive and realistic ways of thinking. Explaining the result, it is stated that the disorder of emotions and feelings in students is one of the major problems in adolescence, which is a critical and sensitive period, which has unpleasant consequences, including bulimia nervosa. Is created. Adolescent students with bulimia nervosa develop unregulated emotions, feelings, and emotions. Emotional Dysregulation plays a significant role in the development and persistence of eating disorders. People with overeating disorders use inefficient and troublesome methods to deal with their emotions. These techniques may temporarily reduce arousal, but over time, not only do they intensify emotional coping, but they themselves become a problem, suggesting that overeating behaviors are in fact maladaptive ways to control emotion. Explaining the result also states that anxiety and worry is a good opportunity for common behavioral disorders such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Therefore, in these situations, restoring a sense of control and increasing self-confidence and a sense of self-efficacy can be an important factors in treatment and recovery. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the treatment approaches that help to solve the problems caused by dysfunction in emotions, cognitions, and behavior using a systematic and purposeful method. In other words, it can be said that in cognitive behavioral therapy, the strengths of behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy approaches, ie objectivism, evaluation, and measurement on the one hand and the involvement of memory in cognitive reconstruction and information interpretation, on the other hand, are gathered. And in the form of a single body in the form of a new approach. People with binge eating disorders are often more obese than people with anorexia nervosa. Therefore, the primary focus of treatment in this study was weight loss, and clients were told that the primary priority in treatment was to eliminate overeating behaviors and develop good habits. Eat, to achieve this goal. Second, issues such as obesity, nutrition, and regular exercise were considered. There is no difference in the cognition of people with bulimia nervosa.