I always used to wonder why my cousin went to the bathroom after most every meal. It just seemed like she may have had some internal stomach problems but it turns out she was going in there because she thought she wasn't beautiful. Let me explain; when you are struggling with the eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa, a person eats a lot of food and then needs to purge themselves of it so that they never gain weight and instead lose weight. I thought it was just random when she had the disorder but it turns out her mom had struggled with the exact same problem as a child. There are many different kinds of eating disorders and as of now there is no agreement on the causation of any of them. I hypothesize that genetics and the imbalance of serotonin causes eating disorders and therefore explains there heredity.

Are people more likely to have an eating disorder if a parent or relative has had one? Or do the pressures of the modern world alone cause them. These "Closet Disorders" stem from a certain lack of pride in ones appearance. Most people are quick to label these people extremists or say that they are in a phase. We need to look beyond our time period and really examine why people have eating disorders. This paper will seek to answer these questions while trying to gather the data to show the genetics of eating disorders. Many of the teenagers who struggle with eating disorders today, had a parent who struggled with the same disorder. Eating disorders are genetically caused and looking at neurotransmitters will help to prove it.

It is estimated that 8 million people in the U. S. struggle with some type of eating disorder. The American sense of being "perfect" certainly doesn't help this astounding figure. No pun intended. But I urge you to take a look past the American ideas of perfection and toward the scientific approach. Countless studies are showing that the imbalance of neurotransmitters can lead to eating disorders while sometimes incorporating depression. Depression is a state of being that is not healthy. Therefore when you are depressed it is easy to associate one unhealthy act with another, especially if the depression regards you body. Eating disorders are the most common disorder without a known cause! Genetics can tell us a lot about a person and they can also reveal the mystery behind eating disorders in regards to depression and neurotransmitter imbalances.