What Is an Eating Disorder?
Eating Disorders are serious and complex conditions that can be physically and emotionally destructive. Eating Disorders often start with a preoccupation with food and weight, but food is not the main issue. Eating disorder behaviors serve an adaptive function for the individual and represent their most effective way of coping with life. Eating disorders affect men and women of every age, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
Some individuals may not meet all of the criteria for a clinical eating disorder but are very preoccupied with weight ant food. Their lives are significantly impacted by their attitudes about weight and food and may be causing them to engage in behaviors that can jeopardize their physical and emotional health. This is disordered eating and it can quickly spiral out of control and develop into a full blown eating disorder.
Listed below are some of the factors that have been found to contribute to the development of eating disorders.
Psychological
- Low self esteem
- Feelings of inadequacy
- Feeling a lack of control in life
- Anxiety, depression, anger, loneliness
Interpersonal
- Difficulty identifying and expressing emotions and feelings
- Troubled personal and family relationships
- History of physical or sexual abuse
- History of being teased about weight or size
Social
- Cultural value placed on physical appearance
- Cultural idealization of “thinness”
- Narrow definitions of beauty that include only men and women of specific body weights and shapes
Biological
- Scientific research continues related to the possible biological and biochemical causes of eating disorders. Certain chemicals in the brain that control hunger, appetite and digestion have been found to be unbalanced in some individuals with eating disorders.
- Eating disorders often run in families and current research indicates that there are significant genetic contributions to eating disorders.
Adapted from the National Eating Disorders Association: www.NationalEatingDisorders.org 800-931-2237*
