Eating disorders are complex and the fashion industry and media are already bombarding young girls, boys and adults with distorted images of what their body should look like. Skinny jeans are back and whereas a size 6 used to be thin, now it's a size 00. I can only imagine where it will go from here. Size Sub 0 perhaps. If jeans came with warning labels that would be the time to add one, such as Warning: Attempting to squeeze into these jeans could cause an eating disorder.

Recent studies suggest there is a genetic and environmental component which predisposes certain individuals to eating disorders. They have what is referred to as a vulnerable personality which is highly sensitive to the environment or what are clinically called triggers. The odds for recovery get stacked against them when the outside environment is bombarded with them.

Supermarkets and News Stands showing bikini-clad unhealthy images are pervasive, so you don't have to go far to be exposed to them. Then, when someone achieves this look, they are told they have a disorder. It's psychologically confusing. When we learned cigarettes cause cancer, the television and print ads with the macho, attractive Marlboro man on a horse stopped. It took awhile, but common sense prevailed. Hopefully, the fashion and media industry will take note that there is a correlation between their mixed messages and behavior.

Change could begin within the medical community as well. No one would dream of calling fat people fat anymore. It may be time the term "eating disorder" be revisited. Most celebs would readily admit to alcohol or drug dependence, but mention an eating "disorder" and all the defenses go up. Who wants to admit to having a disorder? The very word has a stigma to it, and serves only to reinforce or trigger the negative beliefs that are already a part of the eating disorder struggle.

The insensitivity doesn't end there as the same people who would never dream of saying, "You're so fat" to someone who is obese or deemed obese by whatever the latest Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator dictates-- thinks nothing of saying, "You're so skinny" to someone who may be suffering from an eating "disorder".