This makes sense to me...I had tons of anxiety as a child.

--- In edstudies@yahoogroups.com, "Rachel Richardson"
<sshutterbbug@...> wrote:
>
>
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/204_childhood-anxiety-may-make-anorexia-worse\
_5232605.pc
>
> Childhood anxiety may make anorexia worse
>
> Fri, May 16, 2008 (Reuters Health) — Anorexic women with a history of
> childhood anxiety may have particularly severe symptoms of the eating
> disorder, a study suggests.
>
> It's known that anxiety disorders, like social phobia and obsessive
> compulsive disorder, are far more common among people with anorexia
> than in the general population. Often, these anxiety disorders appear
> before the eating disorder does.
>
> In the new study, published in the International Journal of Eating
> Disorders, researchers looked at whether a history of childhood
> "overanxious disorder" was related to the severity of women's anorexia.
>
> Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
> Hill, and colleagues found that of 637 women with anorexia, 39 percent
> reported symptoms of childhood overanxious disorder. In nearly all
> cases, those symptoms arose before the onset of their anorexia.
>
> In general, the researchers found, women with a history of childhood
> anxiety exhibited "more extreme personality traits" and attitudes —
> like perfectionism and obsessive tendencies related to food — than
> women without a history of early anxiety disorders.
>
> They were also more likely to purge, by vomiting or abusing laxatives,
> in addition to strictly limiting their food intake.
>
> According to Bulik's team, childhood anxiety disorders "may represent
> one entree" into anorexia. This, they say, underscores the importance
> of recognizing and treating these conditions early on.
>