I think alot of ED's are about control...From personal experience: Girls/women who have set standards for themselves that are unrealistic (looks, collage, relationships, careers) , often they have demanding,controlling mothers and more often they come from affluent or at least high middle class backgrounds and are very attractive- the one thing you feel totally control of in life is your weight so dieting becomes your secret little "fix" - the one thing that you feel you TOTALLY have a handle on. Until the weight loss becomes extreme most often you are looked at as a Pretty, together and accomplished.
I was bulemic as a teenager. I was never fat. I would not wish that hell on anybody.
As a 30ish woman I STILL have "issues" with my body and I'm 5'3 and flucuate between 115-123lbs. I no longer barf my food up (have not for over 15 years) - but I still have I deal with the urge to "starve" off the pounds once I hit 120. Its a on going battle and one that most of my friends and family have no idea about.
I do understand...
Sadly, a high % of those of us in the nutrition profession do have some kind of food issue. I used to freak out if my weight got over 113#....the least I ever weighed was 99# and that was during a period when I simply forgot to eat for long stretches of time.
I never threw up or anything like that....I was just super-obsessive to the point of lunacy.
And I had a ballet teacher, post-grad who was a stickler about weight and would scream at me that I needed to lose "10" pounds when I really needed to lose just 1 or 2.
Yeah, it was strange when I broke the weight barrier ;) and entered into the 'Plump' zone....like a paralell universe sorta.