What causes eating disorders and how do they evolve

Causes of eating disorders

There are many causes of eating disorders, and psychologists do not fully understand them all. The easiest explanation is that fashion and culture peddle the image of thinness as beauty; young girls succumb and hurt themselves in the process. That explains part of the matter. But eating disorders are much more than the fallout of fashion opportunism. Some say eating disorders are one way to assert power in a time of seeming powerlessness. They are a voice against oppressive authority, a lifeboat in a storm of transition. Others say eating disorders are a matter of genes unleashing a drive for thinness.

Whatever the reason, all of these forces converge in adolescence. When eating disorders start here, they typically follow a pattern. Stresses mount as new issues come up: I have a crush on John, but he likes somebody else. The old ways, the ways of a child, cannot solve the new problems: I guess I can't throw a tantrum or complain to Mom. A girl takes the problems out on her body: He must not like me because my thighs are too fat. She reduces the problem to something she can manage: I hate my thighs. I'll go on a diet. And for most girls, this is where the cycle stops. But a minority take the next step, and it is a big one. The dieting, exercise, and preoccupation with body move to center stage, taking over girls' lives, propelling them into the realm of eating disorders.

Dieting becomes perpetual starvation

Disease usually emerges as a gradual slide: dieting evolves into perpetual starvation; or dieting forces ravenous hunger, which in turn prompts bingeing. Or bingeing provokes extreme guilt, which leads to vomiting, laxative abuse, or overexercise; or attempts to squelch bad feelings with food, leading to runaway eating. In general, the progression of an eating disorder flows like this: A woman hates herself; her low self-esteem causes extreme concern about her shape and weight; this, in turn, prompts strict dieting. With anorexia it stops here.

With binge eating disorder, the strict dieting leads to binge eating; with bulimia, the binge eating leads to such guilt that it triggers the urge to vomit or purge in some other way. In a reverse flow, vomiting, bingeing, and strict dieting all feed back to make a woman even more preoccupied with her weight and shape, which in turn lowers her already low self-esteem.

Bulimia and anorexia are but two of a wide spectrum of eating disorders. Binge eating disorder falls into the mix as well. There are also more minor kinds of eating and body obsessions. And women can have subclinical disorders, which include the symptoms of eating disorders but not to the serious levels that meet diagnosis.

1. How does protein help me stay thin and look great
Protein Why do you need protein? Protein, which is found in fish, poultry, meat, dairy, and some grains, is essential for muscle repair and the complete maint...

2. Carbohydrates and fats to help you to stay in shape
Carbohydrates In recent years, carbohydrates have received a bad rap. The media and lots of fad diets have led people to believe that carbs will plump you up, ...

3. Ask for help and recover from eating disorders
Use your voice against eating disorders When you use your voice you communicate what you think, feel, and need in a healthy and appropriate way. Others can unde...

4. Eating disorders develop in teenage girls
Adolescence is a singular and intense phase in the overall development of a child. By this time, the healthy child has developed trust, autonomy, initiative, and the ...

5. Parents with children that suffer from eating disorders
Parents of teenagers say, "Hormones," and other parents nod knowingly. Hormones whip a girl from calm to anxiety, from euphoria to hysteria. She is trying to deal with ...

6. Why an eating disorder may affect your career
As girls reach adolescence, many of them bury their academic selves. Boys tease or ignore girls for many reasons: competition, insecurity, or lack of understanding, to ...

7. Beat eating disorders with help from your social self and your family
Just as parents hold up a toddler when she takes her first steps, a family can support a young girl taking her first steps into the world. There is a push-pull to this....

8. An eating disorder might take the place of a life partner
Eating disorder as a primary partner A woman with an eating disorder cannot do this. First, she did not define her identity in late adolescence. Insecure and pe...

9. Women with eating disorders avoid intimacy
Some women avoid any intimacy. Others venture forth but only partway. They pick a partner who will keep his distance: a person with a low drive, a narcissist, a loner,...