High school was terrible for me. It turned out to be terrible for my kids as well. You spend years teaching them to think for themselves, and then they get teased for it.
But as I told my daughter at the time..."Watch...kids who do well in high school don't develop skills to do well the rest of their life."
And this has turned out to be true. I'm not talking about academically skilled, I'm talking about the kids who were popular and "gods" in high school now working at the local restaurant and gas station, because their later maturation came so easy they never learned to cope with adversity.

"Other people believe the disorders have genetic or chemical components, and many people with eating disorders respond well to anti-depressants, for example."
I just had to comment on this...if you are depressed you will probably respond well to anti-depressants, for heaven's sake!