• Some personality types such as obsessive-compulsive and sensitive-avoidant are more vulnerable to eating disorders than others. Studies suggest that genetic factors predispose some people to anxiety, perfectionism, and obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviors. These people seem to have more than their share of eating disorders. In fact, people with a mother or sister who has had anorexia nervosa are 12 times more likely than others with no family history of that disorder to develop it themselves. They are four times more likely to develop bulimia. (Eating Disorders Review. Nov/Dec 2002)
  
• Women who develop anorexia nervosa have excess activity in the brain's dopamine receptors, which regulate pleasure which may lead to an explanation of why they feel driven to lose weight but receive no pleasure from shedding pounds. (Journal of Biological Psychiatry; July 2005)
  

• People with eating disorders tend to be perfectionistic. They have unrealistic expectations of themselves and others. In spite of their many achievements, they feel inadequate and defective. (ANARED, 2007)
• People with eating disorders often lack a sense of identity. They try to define themselves by manufacturing a socially approved and admired exterior. They have answered the existential question, "Who am I?" by symbolically saying "I am, or I am trying to be, thin. Therefore, I matter." (ANARED, 2007)
• It is often said that the key to understanding an eating disorder is an appreciation of the person's need to control -- everything: life, schedules, friends, family, food, and especially one's own body. That is true, but there is another factor at least equally important: aspiration to perfection. By losing weight, they hope to transform their dull caterpillar selves into beautiful butterflies that lead lives of contentment, happiness, confidence and completion. (ANARED, 2007)
• Major events in a person’s life history such as positive or negative experiences. Symptoms of trauma can include low self-esteem and obsessive, compulsive eating disorders like anorexia. Physical or sexual abuse can trigger anorexia (Help-Guide.org, 2007).

• Families that include a person with an eating disorder tend to be overprotective, rigid, and ineffective at resolving conflict (ANARED, 2007).
• High expectations of achievement and success. As a result, children learn not to disclose doubts, fears, anxieties, and imperfections, they try to solve their problems by manipulating weight and food, trying to achieve the appearance of success even if they do not feel successful (ANARED, 2007).
• Research at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland has produced strong evidence that exposure to stress (abuse, neglect, loss of a parent) in childhood increases the risk of behavioral and emotional problems (anxiety, depression, suicidality, drug abuse -- phenomena frequently associated with eating disorders) in teenagers and young adults (ANARED, 2007).
• Other research suggests that daughters of mothers with histories of eating disorders may be at higher risk of eating disorders themselves than are children of mothers with few food and weight issues. Children learn attitudes about dieting and their bodies through observation. When mom is dissatisfied with her body and frequently diets, daughters will learn to base their self-worth on their appearance (ANARED, 2007)

• The media, especially advertisements and commercials for appearance-related items, suggest that we can avoid the hard character work by making our bodies into copies of the icons of success. As a result, people, especially women, look to the media to make themselves perfect and successful (ANARED, 2007).
• These differences are reflected in male and female approaches to self-improvement from the media, when a man wants to improve himself, he often begins by lifting weights to become bigger, stronger, and more powerful. When a woman want to improve herself, she usually begins with a diet, which will leave her smaller, weaker, and less powerful (ANARED, 2007).
  
  
  
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