What is the Difference between Anorexia and Bulimia?

Medical Video: What is the difference between dieting and an eating disorder?

Usually people who suffer from anorexia or bulimia are not aware if they suffer from eating disorders. Those who are aware, usually also cover it from people around and feel embarrassed if people around him know that.

Ever heard of the term anorexia or bulimia? These two terms are eating behavioral disorders of different types. Anorexia and bulimia each have their own signs. People with anorexia may not necessarily have bulimia, and people with bulimia may not necessarily have anorexia. However, sometimes there are also people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia. To find out the difference between anorexia and bulimia, we must first know what anorexia is and what is bulimia.

What is anorexia?

People who suffer from eating disorders may not realize that they suffer from the disorder. In fact, maybe they refused to be said to suffer from eating disorders. One type of eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder of eating behavior characterized by excessive fear of body weight so they tend to limit their food intake by taking a very strict diet. They tend to let themselves starve because they are too afraid of gaining weight if they eat.

People who suffer from anorexia have very low body weight, usually less than 85% of their ideal body weight. Some other signs of anorexia are:

Amenorrhea (loss of menstrual period)
Hyperactivity and tend to exercise excessively
Hair loss (and possible growth of body hair aka lanugo)
Low pulse
Sensitive to cold
Nervous during meals
Cut food into small pieces
Isolate yourself from family and friends
Perfectionists tend to be very self-critical
May have episodes of overeating (binge eating) and cleansing yourself of food (purging), such as through forced vomiting

What is bulimia?

Other eating behavior disorders are bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is different from anorexia, if anorexia likes a body shape that is too thin, bulimia actually likes its normal body shape, or even has a little overweight.

Bulimia is a disorder of eating behavior characterized by repeated episodes of overeating or commonly referred to as binge eating and then followed by cleansing themselves of the food they eat. This self cleaning can be done in a way purging, such as forcibly vomiting food and using laxatives or diuretics, another way is to do fasting and excessive exercise. Some signs of bulimia are:

Fear of not being able to stop eating
Vomiting frequently
Irregular menstruation
Glands in the mouth are swollen
Rapid fluctuating body weight caused by periods of overeating and then fasting
Overeating behavior (binge eating) and then throw away the food that has been eaten regularly
Swelling of the face (under the cheeks), ruptured blood vessels in the eyes, enamel erosion and tooth decay, esophageal damage, and internal bleeding
Perfectionists tend to be very self-critical
Repeated efforts to reduce weight with excessive steps

What is the difference between anorexia and bulimia?

Anorexia and bulimia are characterized by an overwhelming desire to be thin and a disruption in eating behavior. The main difference between anorexia sufferers and bulimia can be seen through their body shape. Anorexia sufferers experience significant weight loss of 15% or more of the ideal body weight so that their body looks very thin. While bulimics are usually at normal or above normal weight.

Because of his very thin body weight, people with anorexia usually experience amenorrhea or do not experience menstrual periods. Whereas bulimia experiences irregular menstrual periods.

If anorexics avoid eating when feeling depressed, bulimics actually overeat when they are facing problems or are depressed. However, after that large period of eating, bulimics will then try to get back what they ate. It could be by forcefully regurgitating it, using laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or by doing excessive exercise.

Bulimia is characterized by a regular diet cycle from periods of overeating (binge eating) and compensation behavior by cleaning themselves from food or purging to prevent weight gain. Whereas, anorexics do not always do episodes binge eating and purging. When individuals with anorexia also do binge eating and purging regularly, maybe the individual also has a tendency to suffer from bulimia.

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