How to distinguish between anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders?

Eating Disorders (EDs) are psychological disorders that affect the relationship normal of the individual with the daily food intake, to the perception of the own body or to its habits food. In addition, they are among the most severe psychopathologies and with the greatest capacity to damage the individual's quality of life.

The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, and due to some similarities between them, many people are not entirely clear about the essential differences between all they. Therefore, here you can find a summary about how to distinguish between anorexia nervosa, the most “famous” and dangerous eating disorder, and the rest of eating disorders. But first, let's see what anorexia nervosa consists of.

• Related article: "What are the psychological consequences of anorexia nervosa?"

What is anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia nervosa is one of the most harmful Eating Disorders that exist and its essential characteristic is a drastic weight loss on the part of the person who suffers from it, and consequently, by an alarmingly low body weight linked to the malnutrition.

People with anorexia nervosa have a distorted perception of both their weight and their body and they develop an absolute obsession to control their caloric intake at all times, for fear of getting fat and gaining weight.

The psychological aspect and emotional anguish generated by anorexia nervosa is another of the fundamental pillars of this disease, since the person who suffers from it constantly suffers from the fear of gaining weight and from the distorted vision they have of their appearance physical.

In order not to gain weight, people with anorexia nervosa often put into practice all kinds of unhealthy strategies that they can significantly affect your health, among which we can highlight the use of laxatives, dietary supplements, diuretics or physical exercise obsessive

In addition to that, the continued practice of vomiting after a meal caused by social pressure for not leave nothing on the plate (that is, as something planned), and the obsession with the consumption of calories ingested, even reaching a count at all times and in detail the calories contained in each food they consume.

The physical symptoms of anorexia nervosa are related to the state of starvation that people who have this disease end up presenting and the most common They are: extremely thin appearance, fatigue, frequent dizziness or fainting, low blood pressure, constipation and loss of menstruation in the women.

On the contrary, the main emotional symptoms that people with anorexia nervosa present are: irritability, anxiety, stress, depression, low self-esteem, anguish, difficulty sleeping, and discomfort when eating.

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The keys to distinguish between anorexia nervosa and the rest of the main eating disorders

Eating disorders are especially prevalent among the younger population, particularly among young women or in adolescent age, and have a truly devastating effect on both their psychological and physical health. Therefore, it is important to know how to recognize its symptoms and seek professional help as soon as possible when identifying them, to obtain a diagnosis and start treatment.

In order to get to know in depth the main characteristics of the main TCAs that exist, below we will make a review of the keys to distinguish between anorexia nervosa, on the one hand, and bulimia and binge eating disorder, on the other other.

Bulimia

Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by periods of compulsive eating, which are followed by moments in which the person feels guilt, discomfort and anguish for all the food ingested, and by periods of self-induced vomiting last or other forms of purging to try to “compensate” for the overeating, such as taking diuretics or doing a lot exercise.

The main difference between bulimia and anorexia nervosa is the presence of binge eating, which precedes the use of compensation strategies such as vomiting or misuse of diuretics, laxatives or daily fasting.

In addition to that, in general, people who present cases of bulimia do not have such a distorted perception of their own body or its weight, and its most defining characteristic is the sudden and continuous changes in its volume bodily. Also, damage to tissues such as the upper digestive tract, teeth, or fingers is often caused by self-induced vomiting. On the other hand, bulimia nervosa is associated more with malnutrition than malnutrition, unlike anorexia nervosa.

• Related article: "What are the psychological consequences of bulimia?"

Binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder is one of the least known eating disorders, which is why it can be confused with any of the two eating disorders mentioned above.

As its name suggests, binge eating disorder is characterized by episodes of binge eating or binge eating for short periods that have a great effect on the person on an emotional level.

These frequent binges generate a great psychological discomfort mainly due to the consequences that this will have in their physical appearance and also causes them anguish, disgust and shame, which is why they usually do them hidden.

The main difference between bulimia and anorexia is that after binge eating, people with binge eating disorder do not they do not induce vomiting or adopt another compensatory strategy, and they do not have a very distorted perception of their physical image and weight bodily.

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Do you want to start a treatment for TCA?

If you want to have therapeutic support to treat anorexia nervosa, bulimia or binge eating disorder, get in touch with us.

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