Eating disorders involve how a person eats, such as refusing to eat enough food, eating too much food, purging after meals, or a combination of these.
Eating disorders often include out-of-control behaviors and thoughts that powerfully reinforce unhealthy eating patterns. Also, women and men with eating disorders frequently experience distorted views of their bodies (usually believing that they are too fat).
Common Eating Disorders
Only two eating disorders are officially defined by the American Psychiatric Association to date: anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Anorexia Nervosa
People who have anorexia feel an overwhelming urge to lose weight and avoid gaining weight. A person with anorexia is unlikely to have an accurate view of his or her true body shape. Regardless of how much weight they may lose or how thin they may become, those with anorexia usually continue to believe that they have more weight to lose. Anorexia can include binging and purging behavior.
Because people can become visibly frail and thin, anorexia is perhaps the most dramatic of eating disorders. The eating disorder becomes obvious to others. Also, anorexia in celebrities is reported widely in media outlets.
Anorexia has the highest death rate of any known psychological disorder -- approximately 10 percent.
Anorexia Nervosa Statistics, Behaviors, Risk Factors, and MoreBulimia Nervosa
This eating disorder is somewhat easier to hide, but it is still a damaging disorder. People with bulimia binge eat and may have other inappropriate behaviors to avoid weight gain, such as purging food after eating. Others use excessive exercise to get the same result.
Because the symptoms of bulimia nervosa are not as obvious, people with bulimia can and do hide their symptoms from others.
Bulimia Nervosa Statistics, Behaviors, Risk Factors, and More
Other Eating Disorders
"Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" (Eating Disorder NOS) is an eating pattern that does not meet all the criteria for anorexia or bulimia.
This diagnosis is defined very loosely and covers many combinations of symptoms. For example:
- Binging and purging that occurs less frequently than is required to diagnose bulimia nervosa
- Chewing large amounts of food and spitting them out without swallowing
- Being of normal weight but having all other necessary symptoms of anorexia (for example, someone who has just started to restrict food intake severely)
Binge-Eating Disorder is essentially binge eating without trying to lose weight.
- Specifics of Binge-Eating Disorder
- Definition of Eating Disorder NOS
- Other Forms of Disordered Eating
Source:
American Psychiatric Association (APA). 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
