Eating disorders occur when certain damaging patterns of eating take on a life of their own. Starvation diets, pills, juice drinks and other rapid weight-loss techniques are usually the starting point to eating disorders. Women and men have spent decades trying to obtain the perfect body image, which is generally contrived by society and the media. The ideal body image is what drives both men and women to extreme measures for fast results. Being thin is the main goal for these ailing people with eating disorders. Researchers are investigating how and why voluntary behaviors, such as eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, at some point move beyond control in some people and develop into an eating disorder. The main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa; the disorders have many features in common, though two distinct illnesses.
             Personality characteristics of people with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa often include depression, irritability, and withdrawal. They also have peculiar behaviors such as compulsive rituals, strange eating habits, and division of foods into "good/safe" and "bad/dangerous" categories. They may have a low tolerance for change and new situations; they may fear growing up and acquire adult responsibilities with an adult lifestyle. They may be overly dependent on parents or family. Dieting may represent avoidance of, or ineffective attempts to cope with, the demands of a new life stage such as adolescence or adulthood. However, bulimics tend to put up a brave front; they are often depressed, lonely, ashamed, and empty inside. Sometimes they are described as competent, and fun to be with, but underneath where they hide their guilty secrets, they are hurting. Feeling unworthy, they have difficulty talking about their feelings, which may include anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and a deeply buried anger. Impulse control may be a problem for them; for example sho...