"Looking good" and "being how you look" are two of the more dangerous ideas that modern culture serves up. Face it. Not every one can look either super model reed thin or flex that muscled "cut" look of the super athlete. Getting there sometimes drives people to resort to life threatening binge eating and purging behavior.

Athletes At Risk - Intense Body Image Perfectionists Gone Awry. Imagine that over 70% of all gymnasts are advised to "drop some weight" or they'll never get the highest marks. People pleasing, competitive and performance perfectionists by nature, athletes are especially vulnerable to binge eating disorders when these "positive" performance-oriented attributes become dangerously focused on body image.

* Body Fat Restrictions. "Making weight", "reducing body fat percentages" or creating a more sculpted body image are only some of the pressure points routinely applied to male and female athletes by coaches and judges every day. Think of the wiry bones-and-muscle only physiques associated with the major "endurance sports" such as cross country running, cycling.

* Body Weight And Body Image Sports. Who'd have guessed that over 50% of dancers, ice figure skaters and gymnasts suffer from eating disorders? In like fashion, you don't have to drill too deeply into weight-specific sports like horse racing jockeys, wrestlers or varsity crew rowers in order to locate binge eating disorders.

Injury ridden cheerleaders are athletes typically "on show" and hugely concerned about their female body shape so revealed in their costumes. Body builders intensify their risk with muscle build-up eating binge behavior followed by the shock of rapid weight loss in order to create that "cut sculptured look".

Eating Disorder And Diuretic Abuse. Binge eating satisfies one-half of the addictive body image obsession. The calorie cramming immediately triggers the opposing half of the eating disorder, namely to "purge" the body of the food via self-induced vomiting and abuse of diuretics.

* Losing Water Is Not Losing Weight. Body image obsession, when wound up inside an anxiety depression disorder, scrambles for any short term "fix". Addictive like this is where diuretic abuse kicks in, where body water levels are purged in the illusion that the "drop in body weight" somehow releases the sufferer's short term anxiety and fulfills an illusory body image obsession.

* Serious Health Risks. The purge side of binge eating, especially when abusing diuretics can trigger kidney damage, headaches and dizziness, rapid energy loss, cardiac irregularities...early stage warning signs of life-threatening dehydration and bodily electrolyte imbalance.

Body Image And Teen Obesity Depression. Puberty and the sometimes radical body changes arrive at the same time as peer pressure and "awareness" levels are going through the roof. Add the occasional ribbing remark from friends, or even family members, about "hey, you're looking fat" and any young girl will cave-in with panic over her self esteem and body image.

Very quickly "being attractive" becomes defined entirely in terms of appearance. The slippery slope towards eating disorder is readied for the unsuspecting person. The tipping point may be chance remarks, or the secretive world of teenagers concocting all sorts of imagined concerns and phobias.

Genes And Stuff Contributing To Anxiety And Depression. The jury remains out, however some evidence is accumulating to suggest a genetic basis to eating disorder. The research focus area? You guessed it...the brain and critical mood-altering hormones. Preliminary data suggest that binge eating disorder persons consistently express significantly reduced values for the behavior regulating hormones, serotonin and neuroepinephrine. These same hormones act at the nexus between binge eating disorder and depression, accordingly with regulation might offer useful intervention therapy for eating disordered persons.