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The bony, protruding shoulder-blades and flat chests on these otherwise beautiful young women were the least of it. The facial expressions exhibited by these young stars just lacked energy. While talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell has no body-build that I would want, her face is alive.

Reviewing the psychological literature, I found something unusual. Most all schools of thought are in agreement on the personality characteristics most likely to lead one to engage in the profoundly maladaptive behavior known as anorexia nervosa….or self-starvation. The young woman afflicted with anorexia nervousa is usually a tense, hyperactive, alert and rigid person. She is inordinately
ambitious, drives herself hard, is markedly sensitive and obviously feels insecure. Additionally, there is a mulish stubborness not amenable to reason. She’s introverted, willful and lacking warmth and spontaneity.

Holding a strong sense of a deficit in personal competence, these young woman use a ritualistic control of food and weight as a focal point for a sense of purpose and accomplishment. In a study reported in the 1994 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the authors noted that no matter how questions are posed or by what school of thought, food restricters replies were consistent. They
were reticent, constricted, conforming perfectionistic children who, under the strains that adolescence put on their limited social repertoires, developed a psychopathology fully consonant with their temperamental style. 

The problem with self-starvation is the profound effects on the psychological state of normal humans. Depression, anxiety, rigidity, obsessiveness, irritability, concrete thinking and social withdrawal appear in previously well-adjusted individuals within weeks of restricted food intake and progress as starvation continues. I think you can see this in the mask-like smiles on most of their faces.

Skinny is not pretty!

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