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Causes of Anorexia nervosa

There is no single cause of anorexia nervosa, it is a complex condition probably caused by a variety of factors.

These factors may include:

• Social pressures to be thin and to be sexually attractive. Anorexia is triggered by weight loss usually beginning as a normal weight reducing diet. Young girls may try to conform to unnatural levels of thinness, in a desire not to stand out and so make themselves a target for bullying. Eating disorders are rare in societies that do not associate thinness with sexual attractiveness.
• There is an increased risk in families with a history of anorexia. This may indicate a genetic predisposition. Research suggests that genetics plays a part in developing an eating disorder.
• Personality: there is a tendency for the person with anorexia to have a conformist, organised, and hard working personality. They may be mildly obsessive and tend towards tidiness.
• Family relationships: the families of anorexics are often high achieving with high expectations of their children. Parents may be very controlling.
• Attitudes to stresses occurring outside the home may be a factor. Typical stresses include exam pressures and feelings of rejection arising from difficulties with friends or relationships with members of the same or the opposite sex.
• Research suggests that eating disorders may develop partly in response to difficult life experiences such as sexual or physical abuse, being bullied or suffering bereavement when growing up.
• Confusion with sexuality and sexual identity may be a factor with the individual unconsciously trying to return to the stage before puberty by making themselves smaller and losing their secondary sexual characteristics.
• People who have jobs in which body image or shape is particularly important, such as dancers or models, may be more at risk of developing anorexia.

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