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Ten Common False Pursuits of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing psychological, interpersonal, and social conditions. Scientists and researchers are still learning about the underlying causes of these emotionally and physically damaging conditions. We do know, however, about some of the general issues that can contribute to the development of eating disorders.
While eating disorders may begin with preoccupations with food and weight, they are most often about much more than food. People with eating disorders often use food and the control of food in an attempt to compensate for feelings and emotions that may otherwise seem over-whelming. Dieting, bingeing, and purging may begin as a way to help some people cope with painful emotions and to feel as if they are in control of their lives, but ultimately, these behaviors will damage their physical health, self-esteem, and sense of competence and control.
Various Causes Come Together to Create Disease
*Graphic from When your Child has an Eating Disorder, see reference
Psychological Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:
 | Low self-esteem |
| Feeling of inadequacy or lack of control in life |
| Depression, anxiety, anger, or loneliness |
Interpersonal Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:
| Troubled family and personal relationships |
| Difficulty expressing emotions and feelings |
| History of being teased or ridiculed based on size or weight |
| History of physical or sexual abuse |
Social Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:
| Cultured pressures that glorify "thinness" and place value on obtaining the "perfect body |
| "Narrow definitions of beauty that include only women and men of specific body weights and shapes |
| Cultural norms that value people on the basis of physical appearance and not inner qualities and strengths. |
Other Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:
Scientists are still researching possible biochemical or biological causes of eating disorders. In some individuals with eating disorders, certain chemicals in the brain that control hunger, appetite, and digestion have been found to be imbalanced. The exact meaning and implications of these imbalances is still under investigation.
Eating disorders are complex conditions that can arise from a variety of potential causes. Once started, however, they can create a self-perpetuating cycle of physical and emotional destruction. All eating disorders require professional help.
Common Triggers
Some triggers can predispose a child/person to developing an eating disorder:
| Changes in environment (home, school, parents divorcing, moving) |
| Losses (could be relatives, pets or significant others) |
| Wanting to be healthy for a special event |
| Parent or grandparent being on the Atkins Diet (this makes the whole family very obsessive about food and calories |
| Fat Caliper Testing in middle pr high school or Fat Impedience Testing |
| Depression (which takes away the appetite, makes the person lose weight, everybody comments on it and then it becomes an obsession) |
| Accutane triggers off depression which can then set off the eating disorder |
| Trauma of any sort (most patients with eating disorders are affected by little traumas, not necessarily big traumas). Persons prone to eating disorders are very sensitive individuals. |
New Evidence of the role familial factors play - Familial Transmission of Risk for Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa
In what may be the largest study to date of the genetics of
eating disorders, researchers have established familial links to the risk of
developing anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Am J Psychiatry 2000: 157:
393). The study offered new evidence of the importance of familial factors
in the risk for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Whereas anorexia nervosa
was rare in families of the comparison subjects, full and partial syndromes of
anorexia nervosa aggregated among female relatives of both anorexic and bulimic
probands. Further, milder forms of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa also
showed a tendency to run in families. The researchers noted that in
cross-transmission in families suggest a common, or shared, family diathesis.
References:
EDAP (1998). Handout, Causes of Eating Disorders
Fairburn C. (1998). A Clinical Perspective: Why All the Fuss? Published on the website of the National Eating Disorders Organization: www.laureate.com
NIH (1993). Binge Eating Disorder, National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases. November 1993. Publication #94-3589.
Natenshon, A. (1999). When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook, Gurze Books.
Ten Common False Pursuits of Eating Disorders
The following ten falsehoods are what men/women with eating disorders pursue in place of, and often at the expense of, emotional nourishment in their lives:
1. An eating disorder can give a false sense of control. Many who suffer from eating disorders experience a tremendous fear of losing control or "not being in control." Experiencing vulnerability and trust in a safe relationship and environment is a beginning step towards healing.
2. Eating disorders are a false form of communication about pain and suffering. People with eating disorders eventually recognize that their behaviors are an indirect way of communicating. Healing comes out of directness and honesty in their relationship with themselves and others.
3. An eating disorder can give false sense of being the exception or exceptional. The pursuit and feeling of being special or unique can be a tremendous barrier to recovery from eating disorders. Healing can start when there are no special rules or requirements for them that are different from other people.
4. An eating disorder can be a false crusade for evidence and proof against self. In time, a woman with an eating disorder uses the very eating disorder itself as her evidence that she is bad, unacceptable, and deserving of punishment. The truth is that the illness is not who they are. Healing begins when they separate who they are from what they do.
5. An eating disorder can be a false pursuit of perfection. Women with eating disorders have deceived themselves into thinking that if they obtain perfection in their bodies, in self-control over their bodies, or in body image, that somehow this perfection will make up for their other perceived inadequacies and failures. Healing occurs when these women learn that it is okay to make mistakes, and that through their mistakes and learning processes, the journey becomes a positive one instead of a negative one.
6. An eating disorder can be a false form of comfort and safety. For many, eating disorder relieve anxiety and help them avoid painful emotions. True safety and comfort for these women comes from loving and accepting relationships and from knowing that they are not alone in facing the ups and downs of life.
7. An eating disorder can give a false identity and perception of self. Women with severe eating disorders talk about how the eating disorders has become their identity. By treating the eating disorder as who they are, then what they believe is, "nobody could accept me as an eating disorder." Believing that others can accept all of them with their strengths and weaknesses and do so unconditionally, is an experience that can help in the recovery process.
8. An eating disorder can be false compensation for the past. Sometimes an eating disorder is an attempt to compensate or make up for past childhood abuse or trauma, family problems, and sometimes past personal mistakes. Letting go of the past is a process in which they can dismiss what they cannot correct from the past and ask for help to do things differently in the present and future.
9. An eating disorder can be a false attempt to avoid responsibility for life. An eating disorder can become a tremendous explanation and justification for the absence of an abundant life. One cannot change something or let go of something until they first take ownership for it. Healing occurs when proper ownership is taken for themselves and they face their lives directly, without blame so they can begin to make better choices and see options beyond their eating disorder.
10.An eating disorder can be a false pursuit of approval. Many women with eating disorders have substitute approval for true acceptance and as a substitute for love. Approval becomes a false form of worship in which they let go of everything else that has meaning or matters in life. Healing happens with inner approval, which can bring peace, comfort, and hope rather than worry, anxiety, and pressure to please others. Love is a change agent. Approval is not. Self love is the key to healing.
Source: Hardman, R.K., Berrett, M.E., Eating Disorder Recovery: A Spiritual Perspective, Hope and Healing, August 31, 1999, Vol. 4, No. 3
