Family, desire and eating disorders

I, obviously, enjoy posting about psychology and its connection to philosophy. This week in class we were talking about virtue and family. Family is one of the ways a person has virtue or the desire for virtue instilled in her. We used the example of Dr. Layne having her young son go to bed at 8pm in the hopes of him wanting to go to bed earlier when he is older and makes bedtime decisions himself. This got me THINKING about the way family influences your thoughts and action
It got me thinking about eating disorders. Eating disorders are a complicated and multifaceted mental illness. Often times it can run in families. Mothers (or fathers in some cases) can consciously or unconsciously pass down poor eating habits or body image to their daughters (or sons.) These things, in a way, are values that Aristotle believes can be passed down from family member to family member just as easily as sleeping habits. I, of course, don't mean to devalue the severity of eating disorders by comparing them to sleeping habits. This is just another part of a difficult disease that has to be addressed in finding a way to cope with the illness.