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Expert Q&A
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| By Eve Eliot Eating Disorder Expert | ||
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What is the difference between anorexia and bulimia? I want to talk to my 10-year-old about these disorders soon, but I'm still a bit confused myself."
Anorexia and bulimia tend to be related, so it is no wonder you are a bit confused.
Anorexia, strictly defined, is the restriction of food, bringing one's weight to at least 15 percent below what is considered ""normal"" for one's size. However, the entire process is a continuum, so food restriction of varying degrees really describes the condition, even in the absence of radical weight loss. Sometimes the food restriction originates in a fear of fat. Sometimes there is a fear of loss of control, or a fear of having intense feelings, since food restriction can result in emotional numbing.
Bulimia is characterized by using strategies to get rid of calories just consumed. Though bulimia is widely understood as referring only to purging by vomiting, calories can also be subtracted by exercise, hence the term ""exercise bulimia,"" and by starvation dieting (hence the confusion with anorexia). Bulimics are able to take in large amounts of food, though, and prefer eating to soothe themselves, whereas with anorexia, the person feels safer when not eating.
The reason that bulimia and anorexia are often related is that food restriction during anorexia leads, understandably, to deep hunger and results in eating large amounts of food, which then becomes so frightening an experience that the person seeks to purge the calories.
The term ""bulimarexia"" has been coined to explain the latter situation."
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