An uninformed public might believe that eating disorders are a choice. A person can choose when to start and stop the behavior. However, there are emotional and physical causes of eating disorders and these are the causes that must be dealt with in order to begin managing the illness. Psychological factors stemming from depression, perfectionism, anxiety, loneliness, shame, or relationship difficulties are often responsible for causing a person to restrict, binge, or purge. An eating disorder can begin after a traumatizing event such as death, divorce, rape, abortion, sexual experience, or even something as simple as public humiliation. These events can cause pain in which the person does not know how to handle and will turn the pain inward. Maybe someone would be able to handle one traumatic event, but sometimes life can cause numerous events to occur in a short amount of time and the person is unable to handle such a large amount of stress/pain repeatedly. A variety of emotions might arise from each event and then get mixed up, thus being unable to define the feelings and manage them. An example might be if someone experiences the death of a loved one, a job loss, and ends a relationship in a matter of a year or two. Sometimes eating disorders are caused by years of physical, mental and/or emotional abuse . Living in an unhappy marriage or unstable family can cause amounts of pain in which the person can no longer tolerate. Maybe the person grew up in a seemingly perfect family but emotions and problems were not acknowledged or validated. Then, as he/she grows up, is unable to handle emotions properly. On the other hand, some families do not allow emotions to be expressed thus resulting in a behavior designed to act on those emotions. Someone with an eating disorder does not choose to restrict, binge, or purge to get attention, be thin, or to cause harm to the body. The body becomes an emotional tank that eventually becomes full and must be dealt with. An eating disorder is an outward sign that the person is suffering on the inside. Feelings of guilt, anger, loneliness, fear and low self esteem feel uncontrollable. The person realizes that when nothing else is controllable, eating is. Too much food or not enough does not matter. It is a sense of control. Food brings a feeling of comfort while starvation is a pleasant distraction. Recovery coaching through its goals, plans and support is the best way to end the eating disorder. Appropriate coping methods and discoveries of healthy addictions lead to health, happiness and a stress-managed lifestyle.   Copyright © 2006, positivereflections-edt.com. All rights reserved.