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Research On How Eating Disorders Develop
The research into how eating disorders develop is relatively new, but many doctors and psychologists/psychiatrists agree that the main contributing factor as to WHY they begin is largely due to almost non existent self-esteem. Self-esteem is of course not the only thing that tends to bring on an eating disorder - there are many factors such as genetics, and certain kinds of occupations such as horse racing and modelling, which tend to require participants to be of a certain weight. In fact, within the horse racing spectrum, horse jocks tend to engage in bulimic practices of purging or "flipping" as it is known within that circle.
Consequently, within the modelling spectrum, models are usually waif-like creatures, displaying the new look of heroin chic, with pale complexions and ultra thin bodies. Anorexia and bulimia are well-known here. The same is true within other performing careers such as acting and ballet, where dancers are fully expected to maintain very low weights in order to keep their dainty frames as petite as possible, in order to pass them off as being graceful. With the emphasis on overexcercising and undereating, it's no wonder a good many end up with some form of disordered eating, and a possible drug/alcohol addiction on top of it.
While the above certainly contributes largely to disordered eating, more must be said on other factors of how disordered eating begins and how and why it is maintained. There is a great amount of cultural pressure to maintain a certain body type, and those who do not fall into that type are typically teased mercilessly by others around them.
According to Joanna Poppink, M.F.C.C., she states that eating disorders tend to surface in those with fairly severe emotional problems. In her own words, she states the following:
"People don't have eating disorders because of food. They binge, starve, compulsively eat and purge as a way of self medicating themselves. There are feelings they cannot bear to experience. Often they don't even know this. But when they eat to the point of emotional numbness, starve to an ethereal high, fill themselves up and get rid of it through vomiting or laxatives or excessive exercise, they are fighting off a terrible despair.
We don't try to find out what that terrible despair is right away. I doubt that we could succeed in a fast way if we did. But even trying in a focussed concentrated way can be too threatening. The person might not be able to bear so much pain.
When a person feels more pain than they can bear they may choose self destructive behaviour even more harsh than their eating disorder. Suicide can look like the only option to a person in total despair. The eating disorder helps the people not feel that despair.
So the work proceeds gently"..
As far as genetics are concerned, some eating disorders do tend to be passed down through the genes, according to Walter H. Kaye, M.D. & Michael Strober, Ph.D., who stated the following in a rather eye opening report -
"Emerging evidence suggests that both AN(anorexia nervosa) and BN(bulimia nervosa) are familial disorders with strong biological correlates. For example, the results of family and twin studies have pointed to significant genetic influences in the etiology of both disorders. Family studies have shown that the prevalence of eating disorders is 7 to 12 times higher among relatives of AN and BN probands than among controls. Significantly higher concordance rates reported among monozygotic (MZ) compared to dizygotic (DZ) AN and BN twins have suggested substantial genetic influence in the observed familiality. Indeed, heritability estimates indicate that approximately 55% to 80% of the variance in the occurrence of AN and BN can be traced to genetic factors.
Earlier theories about the biological expression of the observed genetic liability questioned whether people with AN had an underlying pituitary or hypothalamic disorder. More recently, as mechanisms of neurotransmitter modulation in appetitive behaviours have become better understood, researchers have begun to suspect that some disturbances of neurotransmitter function may be involved in causing AN and/or BN. It is important to emphasize that monoamine or neuropeptide disturbances could themselves be consequences of either dietary abnormalities or other premorbid traits that contribute to a vulnerability to develop AN or BN. One way to tease apart cause and effect related to neurotransmitter disturbances is to study people with AN or BN at various stages in their illness, that is, while they are symptomatic and after they recover".
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