What do anorexics and bulimics have in common?

Anorexia and bulimia are both eating disorders. They can have similar symptoms, such as distorted body image. However, they’re characterized by different food-related behaviors. For example, people who have anorexia severely reduce their food intake to lose weight.

What describes the relationship between bulimia and dieting?

Bulimia is characterized by a cycle of dieting, binge-eating and compensatory purging behavior to prevent weight gain. Purging behavior includes vomiting, diuretic or laxative abuse.

How do anorexia nervosa and bulimia differ?

The main difference between diagnoses is that anorexia nervosa is a syndrome of self-starvation involving significant weight loss of 15 percent or more of ideal body weight, whereas patients with bulimia nervosa are, by definition, at normal weight or above.

Can anorexia cross over to bulimia?

Research has shown that about one-third of those with anorexia cross over to bulimia and 14 percent of those with bulimia cross over to anorexia ( Eddy, Dorer, Franko, et al., 2008 ). Between anorexia subtypes, up to 62\% of patients with restricting-type anorexia later develop the binge eating/purging-type ( Eddy, Keel, Dorer, et al., 2002 ).

Can a person with anorexia nervosa have a low body weight?

The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa. Provided they meet the other criteria, a person who engages in bingeing and purging and has a low body weight would likely be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, binge-eating/purging subtype.

How many people with an eating disorder have bulimia?

The article also estimated that around 40\% of people with an eating disorder have bulimia, 10\% anorexia, and the rest other conditions, such as binge-eating disorder.

Is anorexia more important than other eating disorders?

Those with eating disorders often do attach their identity to their illness, interpreting a diagnosis not merely as a description of symptoms but of themselves. For many suffering, anorexia exists at the top of a diagnostic hierarchy. It is viewed as more “serious,” more “legitimate,” or otherwise more “important” than the other diagnoses.