Types of Eating Disorders

The three most common types of eating disorders are:

• Anorexia nervosa - starving yourself by eating very little or nothing at all. People who have this condition can have a strong fear of body fat and weight gain. To stay thin, a person may diet, fast, or exercise too much. Taking laxatives, diuretics, or enemas to rid the body of food is also common. Women with anorexia can have menstrual periods that are not regular, or none at all. Girls with anorexia often get their periods later than girls who don't have this illness. People with this illness may think they are overweight, even when they are very skinny. The process of eating becomes an obsession, or something you can't stop thinking about. Eating habits develop that are not normal, such as staying away from food and meals, picking out only a few foods and eating these in small amounts, or carefully weighing out food portions to eat. People with anorexia may also check their body weight a lot.
  
  Anorexia can cause the same types of problems that happen when a person is starving. The lack of food can cause a person to become very thin, develop brittle hair and nails, dry skin, and a low pulse rate, become not able to stand the cold, and suffer from constipation and sometimes diarrhea. It can also affect a person's blood count, causing mild anemia, reduce muscle mass, stop a woman's menstrual period, and lead to swollen joints. Lack of calcium, due to a poor diet, places anorexics at higher risk for osteoporosis (bone thinning) later in life. Many people with this illness have depression, anxiety, and problems with alcohol or drugs. The most serious problems include death from starvation, the heart stopping, or suicide.

• Bulimia nervosa - when a person binges, or eats an extreme amount of food all at once and then purges - vomits, takes laxatives or diuretics (water pills) - to rid the body of food. Exercising to excess and fasting can also occur to make sure no weight is gained after binge eating. People with this eating disorder feel no control during the times they are eating to excess. This illness most often starts in the late teenage years or early adult life. Like anorexics, people with bulimia have extreme worry about food, body weight, and body shape. Many bulimics binge and purge in secret, and still keep a normal body weight. By doing so, a person can often hide this illness for years. Feelings of disgust and shame after binge eating are common, as well as feelings of relief after purging. Eating binges can happen once or twice a week or as much as a few times a day. They can be triggered by depression, boredom, or anger. The need to binge and purge can be constant or can happen once in a while, with periods of time where no bingeing occurs.
  
  Health problems from bulimia are mostly related to electrolyte imbalance (when the amounts of sodium and potassium in the body become too much or too little) and repeated purging behaviors. Purging causes the body to lose potassium, which can damage heart muscle and increase a person's risk for heart attack. Frequent vomiting can inflame the esophagus (tube that connects the throat with the stomach) and damage tooth enamel. Other problems caused by bulimia include scarring on the back of fingers from pushing them down the throat to cause vomiting, loss of or change in menstrual periods, and no sex drive. People with this illness can have trouble dealing with and controlling impulses, stress, and anxiety. They may also have depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (an illness where you have unwanted thoughts and behaviors you can't stop repeating), and other mental illnesses. Problems with alcohol and drugs is not uncommon. Bulimics are also likely to be anorexic.

• Binge eating disorder (BED) - when a person can't control the desire to overeat and often keeps the extreme eating a secret. People with this eating disorder feel no control during the times they are eating to excess. During binge eating, a person may eat more quickly than normal, eat until feeling discomfort, eat large amounts of food when not hungry, and eat alone. Unlike bulimia and anorexia, a person doesn't try to rid the body of extra food by doing things like vomiting, fasting, or exercising to the extreme. Because of this, many people who have this illness are overweight. A person can feel disgust, shame, and guilt during a binge, which can lead to bingeing again, causing a cycle of binge eating. Like with anorexia, people with BED can fear gaining weight, want to lose weight, and dislike the way their bodies look. BED most often starts in the late teenage years or early adult years. Some experts believe BED is the most common eating disorder. The illness often develops soon after extreme weight loss from a diet. BED can be hard to diagnose and can be mistaken for other causes of obesity (being overweight). People with BED are often overweight because they maintain a high calorie diet without exercising. Medical problems can happen, like those found with obesity, such as high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and diabetes. BED also increases a person's risk for gallbladder disease, heart disease, and some types of cancer. People with BED often suffer from depression.

There are two other types of eating disorders. Eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) is the name for disorders of eating that don't fit into one of the three disorders described above. With EDNOS, a person has some form of abnormal eating but not all the symptoms needed to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. For instance, a person with EDNOS may purge themselves after eating, but do so with less frequency or intensity than someone who has bulimia.

More common than eating disorders is a condition called disordered eating. This is when a person diets, binges, or purges, but doesn't do so often or severely enough to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. A person may change how they eat after a stressful event or an illness, before an important speech or work event, or before a sports competition. Disordered eating can lead to weight loss or weight gain, but rarely requires treatment. But, if the disordered eating becomes long lasting, causes upset and stress, changes the way a person feels about themselves or how they look, or starts to get in the way of daily activities, they need to get help right away. Don't wait to see if the problem goes away by itself, talk with a health care provider about where to go for help.