I answered that, at the age of 15, I felt a constant obsessive thought: My thighs are too fat. No different than many other teens. I took up dieting to shave down the offending flesh down.

But anorexia, for me, was more like a calculus problem. If I got on the scale, I asked myself, “How can I drop down from 110 to 109 pounds, 90 to 89?"

My solution came in a host of unhealthy ways involving food and exercise. The details are irrelevant. The point is that my disease was an ongoing game of numbers. A poker-like addiction born out of an innate drive.

Anorexia happens to individuals with a propensity toward overdrive. We carry an innate “voice” so powerful that it can override even the urge to eat--a basic survival instinct in and of itself.

So the individuals like me are the ones most driven to succeed in many other aspects of life. I got straight A’s in school, earned a PhD in molecular biology, and wrote a book. Quite a few challenges, all linked to what I made my biggest hurdle when younger: getting skinny.

The same is true for bulimia. The person who can gather, eat, and get rid of food--all in secret--is an individual with amazing organizational skills. Given the right job, he or she could fast-track right up to corner office.

This is not to say that eating disorders are fabulous resume builders. Rather, if the energy that goes into maintaining an eating disorder could be channeled into something positive, we’d see a cadre of people who lead productive and fulfilling lives.

I know this. I wrote the book.

(Mehmet Oz's interview of Trisha to air the first week of August. Stay tuned)