Having an eating disorder can make it harder for a woman to get pregnant. It may cause early delivery, or premature birth, which can cause problems (sometimes life threatening) in a newborn. Women with eating disorders have higher rates of miscarriage than do women who don't have these disorders. If a woman doesn't eat lots of different healthy foods during pregnancy, she and her baby can have health problems. It is best to get treated for an eating disorder before you try to get pregnant.

Pregnancy is serious business. So is bipolar disorder. When those two conditions combine, it can be challenging for someone who is expecting a baby. It can even be deadly if that person doesn't seek help-and the right kind of help. Click here for more information. Find out a surefire way to beat drug and/or alcohol addiction if you are dealing with bipolar disorder. Click here fore more information.

ANRED, a national organization for Eating Disorders, supplies lots of information on anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating.

Yes. However, there is a risk of transmitting genital herpes from a pregnant mother to her baby, but it does not happen very often. (See Pregnancy for more information). In general, the risk of transmitting herpes to the baby is highest for those mothers who become infected with genital herpes for the first time while pregnant, especially during the third trimester. Women who have genital herpes before becoming pregnant are not at high risk of transmitting herpes to their baby.

This article provides insight into personality, environmental, and biochemical risk factors for eating disorders.

This article discusses causes of eating disorders and defines them. Personality, genetic and biochemistry issues are discussed.

Depression and an Eating Disorder can occur at the same time. This article discusses the biochemistry behind this.

This site contains traditional nutrition resources. The Urban Homemaker has many articles and recipes for healthy eating on their site. For more on beef, this article from Michael Pollan is enlightening. Michael Pollan decided that "If I was going to continue to eat red meat, then I owed it to myself, as well as to the animals, to take more responsibility for the invisible but crucial transaction between ourselves and the animals we eat. I'd try to own it, in other words.

First you must decide if you want to make helping people a career or a volunteer activity. If you want a career, prepare yourself by getting at least a masters degree in psychology, counseling, psychiatric nursing, or clinical social work. If you want more training, you could become a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. The people in your campus academic counseling center can help you arrange the classes you need for these options.

This information is provided by Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric & Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University.) Although there does appear to be a genetic component, just because an individual may be genetically predisposed does not mean that she or he will necessarily express the genes. Both anorexia and bulimia nervosa do run in families, and twin studies suggest that genetics do contribute to the familial tendencies.

There is no simple explanation and there has been a lot of research into the “causes” of eating disorders. We know that we cannot simply blame “the culture”, fashion magazines, family relationships, early traumatic experiences, or abuse or buried psychological problems like depression or anxiety.

Eat an extremely large amount of food within a 2-hour period (a binge) at least 2 times a week on average for at least 6 months. Common personality traits found in those with binge eating disorder and other eating disorders include excessive concern about body size and shape, low self-esteem, and depression.3 Binge eating disorder is different than bulimia because people with binge eating disorder do not regularly vomit or use other ways to get rid of calories.

Great site with information on why Prevention is so important and information on ways to prevent EDs.