There is now ample scientific evidence that these disorders are biologically based mental illnesses. Anorexia nervosa has a higher mortality rate than alcoholism or schizophrenia, and...

With the end of the 2008 spring fashion Season in Paris coinciding with Eating Disorders Awareness Week next week, it seems a good time to ask what became of the international designers' grand promises to replace the look of starvation with a glow of health on the catwalks.

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This campaign, Maria Shriver said, is really "about us, and what we can do when we come...

The holidays present a special challenge for people who are vulnerable to emotional over- or under-eating. Too much stress, social pressure, family tension, performance anxiety, and - of course - the omnipresence of food. Every one of these holiday elements can trigger the urge to binge, purge, or starve. But...

The holidays present a special challenge for people who are vulnerable to emotional over- or under-eating. Too much stress, social pressure, family tension, performance anxiety, and - of course - the omnipresence of food. Every one of these holiday elements can trigger the urge to binge, purge, or starve. But...

Through one of those involuntary subscription switch-and-baits that seem to occur with increasing frequency lately, Us magazine started showing up in my mailbox last month. For the first few weeks I tossed it directly into the trash. Each cover, it seemed, featured an alarming photograph of some starlet over a...

History denied is destined to repeat itself. This adage is as true in the realm of psychology as it is in politics or war. But mothers can play a profound role in arresting the cycle of denial and changing the course of their family history. I recently witnessed a remarkable...

Tis the season for college rejections - and then some. My Yale alumni listserv is crackling with pain over sons and daughters with 800 SAT scores who were denied admission by Ivy League colleges. Not even a perfect overall score was a guarantee at Yale, and thousands with 4.0 grade...

We live in a how-to world that trains us to demand quick fixes and instant solutions. So it should come as no surprise that people in the grip of eating disorders want to know "how to" recover. But this question reflects an assumption that there is a single, one-size-fits-all solution...

We all do it. We imitate the way our mothers exclaim when they answer the phone. We take fashion cues from Vogue Magazine. We raise our voices to meet our mates' and assume the poses of bosses and admired colleagues at work. We copy recipes from our friends.

Imitation is...

What's political about anxiety? This is a question I've been asking myself a great deal over the past months. I consider myself a political person. As a novelist I've written about espionage during the Cold War, China during the pre-Communist era, anti-miscegenation laws and interracial marriage, and the realities...

"She's been in a moody puberty phase, and she's just starting to push off from her mom." Jenny was trying to describe the emotional change she'd seen in her half-sister, who was in treatment after seven years of anorexia nervosa. "She said to me last night, 'I just wasn't...

On my kitchen bulletin board hangs a newspaper article titled "Growing in Life." The clipping features a sunny photograph of my friend Carolyn with her dogs Ola and Jake. The lead sentence describes the carpet of daisies around Carolyn's Santa Fe farmhouse. Not until the end of the paragraph...

Two big stories about eating disorders are currently making headlines, but this is not altogether good news for those who suffer from anorexia and bulimia. The first story spotlights the fashion industry's role in promoting eating disorders. The second focuses on families who have begun to sue insurers for denying...