Anorexia and bulimia are both very harming eating disorders. Both of these disorders are very dangerous and can actually take over someones life. Anorexia and Bulimia are similar but also very different, both still very harming to ones body. According to the DSM-5, someone who is dealing with anorexia has a hard time to take in energy. The individual will maintain their weight low, meaning it is less than normal and less than what the expected weight to be. If battling this disorder, they have strong fear of gaining weight and becoming fat. They also will not realize the seriousness of their current low body weight. .
In the DSM-5, Bulimia is described as recurrent episodes of binge eating, which is characterized in two ways:.
1. Eating in a discrete period of time, the amount of food is usually larger than what most individuals would eat within a similar period of time. .
2. They have a lack of control over eating during these episodes. Have a feeling one cannot stop eating or can not control the amount that is being eaten. Someone may have inappropriate behaviors that will prevent them from gaining weight, including purposely vomiting, taking laxatives, fasting and maybe even excessive exercise. These behaviors occur on an average of at least once a month for three months. .
Anorexia nervosa can result in significant and potentially life-threatening medical conditions. This disorder affects most of our organ systems. Also when someone is this underweight, many people will begin to experience depressive signs and systems. Their mood will be depressed, social withdraw, irritability, insomnia are all common. The suicide risk is huge with anorexia. Someone battling anorexia nervosa should get an assessment with suicide behaviors as well as other risks for suicide. .
Individuals battling bulimia nervosa are usually within the normal or overweight range. With females, menstrual irregularity often occurs with bulimia.
