About Eating Disorders

"I'm fat", complains an sixteen year old young girl who only wears the normal one hundred and twenty pounds. Like her many people suffering from eating disorders have an distorted image of their body. While they may feel their overweight, another person can see the opposite. Although many with eating disorders think and act similar the reason they have for those actions and thought are very different. Yes, many develop eating disorders for many different reasons.

Causes of Eating Disorders

Self Esteem Issues- The majority of eating disorder patients have big self esteem issues. They hate the way they look, dress and everything about themselves. They may have gone through painful experiences in life such as ; being teased because they were overweight, or because of their appearance. Maybe it was an bad break up or the loss of a friend that made them feel that if they were thinner, or dressed nicer then things wouldn't have worked out that way. They strive for acceptance by their peers and family members.

Social Problems- A lot of people with eating disorders especially teens crave acceptance from different cliques and people. They want to belong to an group, they want friends and they feel that if they were smaller than things would be different.

Family Problems- Some suffering from eating disorders come from an disordered family. There parents were mentally or physical abusive. Or their parents could have been extremely controlling and they feel that their eating habits is all they have control over. To them food is an way to numb the pain they feel.

A Traumatic Event - Statistics have shown that between one-third and two-third of patients with eating disorder have an history of physical, mental and sexual abuse. Some victims of sexual abuse tend to overeat or starve themselves to lose their attractiveness in order no to draw any kind of sexual attention to themselves.

Major Life Transition- Patients of eating disorders have often developed them because of an major change in their life. It can be the loss of an loved one, in which their whole life changed drastically. It can also be making the transition from elementary to high school, or high school to college.

Genetics- Scientists have been looking into this theory for years. If there's a history of eating disorders in a family it is possible that it can be passed on.

These are just a few causes of eating disorders, most of the causes depend on the individual and their feels. There's really no direct answer to "what causes eating disorder", but it can be treated. Read more about treatment...