Causes of eating disorders

Eating disorders are widely recognised to be complex conditions, which on the whole are not thought to begin from a single event or cause.
What is more likely is that they result from a combination of different factors which have caused someone to feel out of control and unable to cope.

Some commonly reported factors include;
  • Family or personal relationship difficulties
  • problems at work/college/university
  • a lack of confidence and low self-esteem
  • bereavement or other traumatic events
  • abuse; physical, sexual or emotional
It is often described by people with eating disorders that controlling food (through starvation or purging) is a way of regaining some control back over their lives – the problem is that it is the eating disorder and not the person that gains control.