In almost every case of anorexia, if you dig beneath the surface, you will indeed find an unhealthy home life. In bulimia, statistics show there may also have been sexual abuse. Every ED victim has low self-esteem.

To outsiders, the family with an anorexic may seem regular and happy. These are typically educated, informed, middle-class families, so there is usually no physical abuse. However, for the same reason, there appears to be mental, psychological and emotional abuse. A controlling, overbearing atmosphere at home is a known factor in cases of anorexia. I believe it is the dominant parent at home who is the cause of the psychological damage on the victim.

I have seen this happen with the children of two close friends. From young, the children were scolded, nagged, berated, insulted, dictated to and put down by their mothers, constantly, even in front of strangers and in public. There is pressure to live up to their parents’ expectations. I have never seen the mothers praise, encourage or give moral support to them.

I watched these children grow into very emotionally-insecure teens, which perhaps opened the door for mental illness to take hold. Each of these friends has an anorexic daughter. One of the girls appeared to have recovered recently but is now back to active anorexia. The other girl also has an obese brother.

It takes years and years of relentless, subtle abuse before anorexia shows up, and by then it may be too late. It will take just as long for the victim to return to normality, and many never fully recover.

The sad thing is that the families themselves will deny there is anything wrong, asserting they are normal families. They can’t seem to bring themeselves to admit their parenting skills may be lacking. They blame the media, fashion and entertainment industries, society, magazines, their children’s peers, any scapegoat to cover up their inadequacies, anything except themselves.

There is even a movement going on saying that it is a myth that parents cause EDs, that it is a physiological disorder of the brain. Which is all nice and neat, because if it is a brain disorder, then the next step is to invent a proprietory, synthetc drug to block off this or that brain chemical. Isn’t that just treating the symptoms?

Without looking at the causes honestly, how can these victims be helped? It will get worse and will soon be called an ‘epidemic’, if it is not already, as long as people continue to be in denial and the real causes are not addressed.

Beckinsale might not have said it so crassly, but both drugs and eating disorders are addictions, and become a modus of coping and survival. And I do think one’s home life situation and relationships with parents and relatives deeply influences the formation of one’s disorder. One isn’t born with an eating disorder, one develops it. There is a genetic predisposition there, but there has to be a trigger for it to flourish.