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Having been through anorexia and now binge eating/bulimia I figure I know a little bit about what is going through the head of someone suffering from an eating disorder and it is not necessarily what you might expect.

It is difficult to identify what sets these things off, it can be something very trivial but once it takes a hold it s very hard to break free. For me as for many other sufferers I have spoken to the addiction, and I'm certain that eating disorders are a type of addiction, is much more the result of a desire to be in control than to be skinny.

Of course weight is a huge factor in the process; there is no denying that if there was not so much emphasis on the need to be attractive, and focus on the idea that only skinny is attractive many eating disorders would not arise. However this is not to say that the desire to be thin is the root cause of eating disorders or that had the sufferers not developed the disorders the root causes would not have manifested themselves in another form. The pressure felt, particularly by young girls, to conform to society's "ideal" figure is clearly important. However, equally important, if not more so, is the individual's desire to take control.

Anorexia and bulimia give the individual a sense of control - they have to power over their bodies, they have controlled their desires and overcome the urge to eat or protected themselves from the calories and fat they have consumed. Binge eating is often a manifestation of a feeling of being out of control and having no way of changing the course of one's life.

Eating disorders usually begin as coping mechanisms for feelings of loss of control or a feeling of lost identity and lack of self-esteem. These are the real issues surrounding eating disorders and many other forms of depression and self-harm; and these are the areas of people's lives that we really ned to target if we are ever to succeed in putting an end to eating disorders.

Learn more about this author, Pippa Cole.
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