What is the difference between anorexics, bulimics and binge eaters?
In anorexia nervosa, the primary behavior is restriction of food intake and restriction of food selection, so the cuisine of the anorexic patient is markedly reduced from their food selections previously. They have body image distortion, fear of being fat, dissatisfaction with their appearance and they may have both mood and anxiety disturbances. Bulimia nervosa, usually these individuals are of, rather than being of low weight, as we see in anorexia, where the weight loss is fifteen to twenty-five percent, patients with bulimia nervosa usually are within five or ten percent of their normal weight. They have the bulimic symptoms, that is the food on the mind, binge eating and so on occurring day after day, week after week, and then they have compensatory mechanisms, including regurgitation that we mentioned. Binge eating disorder is a form of disturbance in which there's that normal intake, that is there's bulimic behavior, with no regurging, that is no vomiting, no laxatives and so on. Therefore, patients with binge eating disorder are more likely to become obese.