The root causes of Eating Disorders are complex and still being debated.
There's no one cause that influences an individual to develop an Eating Disorder. What was once thought to be an affluent, white, young female's "drug of choice" is now known to cross gender, wealth, social status, race, country, religion, age and upbringing. No longer can we fit the many facets of disordered eating into a neat little box; as more and more people begin seeking help, we're finding that there is no easy answer to the question: what causes an Eating Disorder?
Disordered eating is a way of coping with emotions and situations, both internal and external, that the person is not equip to handle on their own. Similar to a drug addiction, the use, or lack of use, of food is the vice that helps them survive; they depend entirely on their obsession with their body to numb the things in which they cannot deal with.
Our society helps to encourage the belief that obsessing about our appearance and the food we eat is not only normal, but admired. Anorexics revel in the attention they receive because of their strict diet and weight loss, while bulimics strive to live by the standards of perfection while not being able to stick to their "perfect" plan (hence, binging because they can't sustain starvation and purging because they want to reverse what they believe is their lack of willpower.
Starting in childhood, if a child isn't given the tools they need for the challenges ahead, they are more likely to develop one of their own: smoking, drugs, drinking, sexual promiscuity, cutting, an Eating Disorder, or whatever else they feel relieves the overwhelming sense of being out of control. All of these vices allow them to feel numb and many will indulge in a few of these while still trying to manage their disordered eating.
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