by Angel Edwards

Created on: April 07, 2011   Last Updated: April 09, 2011

Many people seem to assume that eating disorders occur as a result of models that we see in the media today. However this perception is far too simplified. The obsession of modern society to find one thing to blame for everything is creating an ignorant society and could be seriously damaging hopes for helping sufferers of eating disorders.

Often eating disorders begin, not as a result of the media, but due to life situations of the individual. Anorexia and bulimia and eating disorders of those families can become a really good way of gaining some control over the sufferer's life. This is particularly prevalent in situations of abuse where the sufferer may have very few other ways of controlling their own lives. In this kind of situation it is very difficult to overcome the illness because it can be the only thing giving a person the mental strength to carry on. In cases like this it seems highly inappropriate and in many ways offensive to put an eating disorder down to the media alone. There are many other factors that may influence the development of an eating disorder, these include:

-a low self esteem, often caused by bullying at school or work. A sufferer may believe that this may be due to the way they look and therefore their own self image becomes warped causing them to see themselves as several times larger than is actually the case.

-separating or busy parents. Anorexia is particularly common amongst children whose parents are working or divorcing. This may be a cry out for attention rather than an attempt to look like a model.

-stress. Stress can cause people to forget to eat and lose their appetites which can eventually lead to an eating disorder.

-in the genes. People who suffer from anorexia (not so often with bulimia) often come from families where anorexia has been suffered by their parents and grandparents. They will most often have a high metabolism anyway.

-phobia. Some sufferers are what many would see simply as fussy about food, but it can actually go deeper than that to the extent where the person is scared to eat a particular item of food. In severe cases, even the concept of eating food is repulsive. Certainly in this case "ultra-thin" models are not the root cause of the problem.

There are many other causes of anorexia and bulimia, more often to do with the mental health of the sufferer than the media representation for "ultra-thin" models, who in any case are quite often perfectly healthy. The models who the media choose to view as "ultra-thin" are usually extremely tall and as a result of this probably have fantastic metabolisms; it is therefore unfair to assume that these women too have eating disorders. It is ignorant and unthoughtful to simply assume that all sufferers of eating disorders do so in a hope to conform. These assumptions often cause more resentment from sufferers and make them more stubborn to continue with their illness. Comments from the media often lead to the general public taking these views into their own hands and making outrageous comments of these kinds to the faces of those who should otherwise be considered to be suffering from a very serious and life threatening illness.

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