Mine started when I was really little, 4 years old. I was physically held down and forced to eat on a regular basis. I never have looked at food normally. I struggle with control issues, and not just about food. But this is the battle, that if not well fought, could win over me. So I keep fighting:)

My step dad would call me fat names and make fun of me. Not sure now why he did it. But I was never able to view myself right after that.I was ten.

I can't point to a certain time or event when it started. I think it's a combination of abuse, low self esteem that others instill in you and wanting to control something in your life.

I just remember a bunch of things happening around the time I started:

I watched a talk show dealing with eating disorders, specifically Bulimia. For some reason, in my messed up head this seemed like a great idea...that was the first night I ever forced myself to vomit.
Also around that time I was having a lot of trouble at school...my best friend ditched me to become "popular". My baseball coach told me I ran like an elephant. Just lots of things during that year really affected me. If only I could have forseen the future.

I think it started when I was about 11 or 12, I was molested by a family member and for some reason it just started me thinking about my body, I quit eating and started throwing everything up. I think I just felt dirty and then unattractive at the same time. I figured if I was skinny then no one would peg me for the sexually abused girl. I'm not sure I even remember a time when I could sit and eat birthday cake without crying afterwards.

I don't know when mine started, really, either. But I would estimate that eating problems started around 6. And I had been a terror when it came to feedings since birth since I had colic, but that has nothing to do with an eating disorder. :)

Oh, but HOW did it start? Combination of several traumatic things in my life- probably the loss of my only friends at 5 and 6 (it's a big thing for a kid), physical/mental/emotional abuse by both my parents nearly daily, obsession with perfection in looks and academics by both my parents, being a constant disappointment to those around me, needing/wanting to punish myself for being alive, several "body conscious" comments as I grew up by important people in my life, feeling out-of-control of everything in my life except the food that went into my mouth (they couldn't force feed me when I got older- haha, and now they can). There is more, and probably has more detail and meaning, but we could all hypothesise and theorise and thinking about how and why we have an ED, or...we could set about righting it.

Although I didn't realise it at the time, I think my problems started around 12.

Kids at school would tease me about my looks - my parents would force feed me foods all the time (and the longer it took me to eat, the more food they piled in front of me) - my parents use to tell me to just 'accept' being a big girl - and that if I would actually work at it, I would fit in (size wise) with the other women in the family. That was all in childhood though...

As an adult, I think the negative self image that I brought forward as a person, was that which was scarred, and then to top it off, my stbx often made comments about supermodels, actresses, porn stars - who ever, and then compared them to my body - telling me I'd never look good naked!

Yeah - I have some mental problems, and it seems like I stick with them throughout life.