so what is an eating disorder EXACTLY?

Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia are categorized in what is called the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). This book is what therapist and doctors use to diagnose ALL psychiatric disorders. It is basically the bible of mental health. It has the symptoms listed, the amount of symptoms that can be present to diagnose a disorder, and a whole bunch of other guidelines that help mental health professional when diagnosing a disorder.

anyways, onto these definitions...first we have the most commonly known eating disorder in out society..

Anorexia: Characterized by EXTREME weight lost and excessive weight lost
some symptoms include
1. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height.
2. Intense fear of gaining weight or being "fat"
3. Feeling "fat" or overweight despite dramatic weight lose

Anorexia is the most lethal disorder to have out off any psychiatric disorder.
There are also two types of Anorexia.
Restricting type which basically means they severly restrict the amount of caloric intake on a daily basis.
There is also the Binge Eating/Purging Type:During the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior. Purging can include vomiting or the misuse of laxatives and diuretics.

Bulimia Nervosa:
Characterized by a cycle (usually secretive) of binge eating followed by purging(vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics). A binge can differ depending on the size of a person, but some people will consume anywhere from 1000-3000 calories in one sitting. It fluctuates per person and that is just my educated guesstimate lol.

These are the two MAIN eating disorders in today's society, and the two main ones that this blog will cover. But just to have it out there it, there is also an eating disorder known as Binge Eating Disorder. Most commonly known as compulsive overeating. To summarize, Binge Eating is summarized by periods of uncontrollable and compulsive eating that goes WAY beyond the point of fullness. But unlike bulimics, Binge eaters do not purge after eating, which the feeling of fullness they experience after a binge will lead to strong feelings of shame and guilt.

One important thing i have learned from reading about eating disorders, just because you do not have all the symptoms of an eating disorder in the DSM, does not mean you dont have a problem. There is a title for those who fall in this category, which is known as ED-NOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). This is usually when the patient has symptoms from both anorexia and bulimia but does not necessarily reach the amount of symptoms needed to be diagnosed in either category, but they clearly have a problem. A big downfall of being diagnosed with ED-NOS is that it makes it more difficult for those patients to be covered fully by their health insurance, which willl be a topic i will eventually write about.

The website I got most of this info on is
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/nedaDir/files/documents/handouts/WhatIsEd.pdf

Remember, all this information is a summarization of what they are. I tried to put it in simple terms, cuz if not I would be writing a book every entry lol
Well I hope this helps whoever is reading this to distinguish a little better what the different types of ED are. If you have any questions, leave a comment :) i would love to get my brain picked about this. If i dont know the answer you can guarantee ill try and look for it. Thanks again for reading!