EDs are very difficult to treat disorders, which unfortunately have been increasing in the last 50 years, thanks, above all, to the promotion of an unrealistic image of what is beautiful and unhealthy eating habits.
In this article we are going to see risk factors for suffering from an eating disorder explaining them in more detail and highlighting how they influence the appearance, especially, of anorexia and bulimia.
Risk factors for eating disorders
The cause of eating disorders or eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and eating disorder not otherwise specified) is multifactorial. That is to say, Several factors are involved in its formation, which include genetic aspects, psychological characteristics sociocultural factors and environmental stressors.
Although today the specific weight of each of these factors or their components is still not known with certainty, it is known that gender influences the chances of suffering from an eating disorder. Of every ten people diagnosed with one of them, 9 are women, and there is a greater risk of the diagnosis occurring in early adulthood and childhood or prepubertal age
Risk factors are those that facilitate the appearance of eating disorders. They can be individual, group and social factors. The combination of these different risk factors can lead to the development and maintenance of the disease.
Next We will see these risk factors for eating disorders, grouped into individual factors, family factors and social factors with which we will better understand how these eating disorders occur.
Individual factors
Below we will see the factors associated with the person’s own characteristics, whether they are of biological or social origin.
1. Genetic predisposition
You are more likely to suffer from an eating disorder if a family member, especially a father, mother, brother or sister, has been diagnosed with one in the past. It has been seen that, in the case of anorexia, Genetics seems to explain about 70% of the vulnerability to receiving the diagnosis
Genetics can cause a person to have an unhealthy tendency with food, causing them to eat more than they need or, on the contrary, consume fewer calories than are needed to maintain organic functions.
The weight of this factor can be increased by other environmental factors, such as family environments in which excessive importance is given to weight or unhealthy eating habits, in addition to factors such as the group of friends.
2. Psychological traits
There are certain personality traits, such as having excessively high self-demands, perfectionist tendencies bordering on obsession, cognitive rigidity and need for control that are closely related to presenting an eating disorder. This makes sense when we consider how easily people with eating disorders focus their attention on their alleged defects and incorrect actions related to the way they eat.
3. Low self-esteem
Low self-esteem involves making a negative and unsatisfactory assessment of oneself, which can affect any area of ​​life, especially in relation to food and how one sees oneself in the mirror.
In the case of people with anorexia, this low self-esteem is easily observable by the way they see themselves, overestimating your body size
When looking in the mirror or trying on clothes, a whole series of negative emotions are triggered that further aggravate the fact of having low self-esteem and worsen the symptoms of ED.
4. Adolescence
A harsh and traumatic adolescence is a very common event in people who, as adults, are diagnosed with an eating disorder. It is during these years that there is a greater risk of developing an eating disorder, given that this is when it usually makes its debut, although the diagnosis worsens after reaching the age of majority.
Adolescence is a complicated stage, in which the person’s personality, social role and self-esteem are in full development, being more vulnerable to a social environment in which great importance is given to body image.
5. Female sex
As we were already commenting previously, out of every 10 cases of eating disorders, 9 are women and 1 is a man As you can see, there are many more chances that as a woman you can be diagnosed with one of the eating disorders. It is believed that this has a lot to do with gender roles, since the social pressure directed towards women to fit into beauty standards is significantly greater than that experienced by men.
Family factors
Now we are going to see the factors that come directly from the family, the way in which it relates to the person potentially victim of an eating disorder and the way in which they handle the diagnosis.
6. Unstructured family environment
In those families in which there is no stable and safe structure, a breeding ground is generated for the development of an eating disorder in some of its members, especially adolescent girls.
7. Overprotective family environment
Sometimes, wanting to protect family members is done in such an exaggerated and toxic way that it contributes to psychopathology among its members.
There is a greater risk of having an eating disorder diagnosed in a person who has experienced a family dynamic that is too rigid, controlling and demanding and.
8. Stressful family experiences
Changes in how the family is formed, whether due to separation, death of a member, or birth of a brother or sister who has not been handled in the best way, can make a family member see it as something especially traumatic.
It may also have happened that, within the same family, one of the members has committed physical or sexual abuse towards another family member, causing them to be traumatized for life and face the problem through the symptoms of ED.
Social factors
Finally we will see the risk factors that come from society itself how it is structured and the way in which it relates to and treats its members, especially women.
9. Current beauty canon
Although in recent years “curvy” seems to be more popular, in addition to a greater range of women with all types of physiques beginning to be seen as attractive, the canon of female beauty continues to be that of a thin woman, without no fat or muscle.
Excessive thinness has been praised in multiple media especially in fashion shows and the covers of gossip magazines.
Although great changes are being achieved, there are many women who, influenced by these media, continue to reject the idea of ​​looking fat, seeing it as something truly grotesque, and defending that extreme thinness is ‘healthy’.
10. Social pressure regarding image
Related to the previous point, in recent decades, for both men and women, greater importance has been given to image.
Not only are we talking about women being bombarded with images of extreme thinness as a synonym for beauty, but also that their family members, friends and other people pressure them to look alike.
This is not only visible in women, it also occurs in men, but since The male beauty canon is very different, prioritizing extreme bodybuilding and pressing to be fibered, vigorexia, the disorder associated with this, is not an eating disorder.
11. Some sports and professions
There are certain sports, such as dance or synchronized swimming, in which the appearance of an ED can be favored , due to the way the image is treated when practicing this type of activities. Other sports in which you run the risk of having a great obsession with weight and what you eat are those in which you compete by weight categories.
People who work in the world of fashion, entertainment or are actors and actresses also run the risk of giving too much importance to their body image, potentially entering the murky world of eating disorders.
12. Physical harassment
People who have received ridicule and ridicule for their physique, especially as teenagers and children, combined with a feeling of insecurity can end up developing an obsession with their body image and evolve into something more serious.
13. The sizing system
The sizes of clothing, shoes and other clothing items are not a unified system. Each manufacturer applies its own standards on which garment should be classified in one size or another. This means that size M in one store may be equivalent to an S or L in other stores.
It may seem banal, but it is not, especially if you are a woman who all her life thought she had one size, changes stores and sees that the same size is too small for her, and decides to lose weight, despite already being slim. It is very difficult to determine your exact size
According to the report “Not finding your size promotes anorexia”, About 40% of the population decides to go on a diet when, while shopping, they cannot find clothes in their size or they thought they had one and it turns out that, in the end, it is too small for them.
14. Pages that promote EDs
There are people who have these EDs who, Far from seeking help to try to get out of the hole or trying to understand their problem, they make an apology for it although this is not difficult to understand if you understand the way in which the beauty canon is still in force.
The existence of pages like Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia not only defend having an eating disorder as a way of life, but also dare to give advice to ‘help’ other girls to move forward with their anorexia or bulimia.
They also teach how to trick family members into believing that they are eating or that their body is simply that way due to genetics. Access to this type of pages is very easy and, despite the fact that more than one has been closed, they emerge as if it were an epidemic.