Causes of Anorexia

Throughout her book, Marya searches for reasons why she and others like her turn to eating disorders to deal with their problems. Although she does agree with some of the conventional wisdom about eating disorders she also adds her own experience and insight she has gained through actually having an eating disorder. She argues that the causes of the eating disorders are not simple and generally cannot be blamed on only one incident or factor. Marya argues that often there are factors in the eating disordered person's family, culture and personality that work together to create the disorder.

Although Marya's does not point to her family as the sole cause of her disorder, she does note that there are factors in her family that help to encourage her eating disorder. For instance, Marya writes that she believes her whole family is messed up when it comes...