 Finally, it is controversial whether or not we can really say that anorexia causes these values, even though it is clear that anorexia correlates with the existence of them. Like most mental disorders, anorexia nervosa is defined in terms of its symptoms rather than an underlying cause. Namely, the disorder is defined in terms of the strong desires for extreme thinness we have been discussing, as well as the behavioral consequences of these desires. And these desires in turn reflect the value these patients place on extreme thinness. It is thus not explanatorily helpful or illuminating in any way to say that these desires are caused by anorexia, for this amounts to saying (unhelpfully) that strong desires for extreme thinness are caused by strong desires for extreme thinness or that valuing extreme thinness causes the valuing of extreme thinness.