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Usually people who suffer from anorexia or bulimia are not aware that they are suffering from these eating behavior disorders. Those who are aware, usually also cover it from those around them and feel embarrassed if the people around them know about it.
Have you ever heard of the terms anorexia or bulimia? These two terms are different types of eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia each have their own signs. People with anorexia don't necessarily have bulimia, and people with bulimia don't necessarily have anorexia. However, sometimes people also have anorexia and bulimia. To know the difference between anorexia and bulimia, we must first know what is anorexia and what is bulimia.
What is anorexia?
A person with an eating disorder may not be aware that he or she has the disorder. They may even refuse to say they have an eating disorder. One type of eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by excessive fear of body weight so that they tend to limit their food intake by following a very strict diet. They tend to starve themselves because they are too afraid of gaining weight if they eat.
People who suffer from anorexia have a very low body weight, usually less than 85% of their ideal body weight. Some of the other signs of anorexia are:
- Amenorrhea (loss of menstrual periods)
- Hyperactive and tend to do excessive exercise
- Hair loss (and possibly lanugo)
- Low pulse
- Sensitive to cold
- Nervous eating
- 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 self-cleaning from food (purging), as through forced vomiting
What is bulimia?
Another eating disorder is bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is different from anorexia, if anorexia likes a body that is too thin, bulimia actually likes her normal body shape, or someone is even slightly overweight.
Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by repeated episodes of overeating or so-called binge eating and then followed by cleansing himself from the food he eats. This self cleaning can be done in a way purging , such as vomiting food by force and using laxatives or diuretics, other methods are fasting and excessive exercise. Some of the signs of bulimia are:
- Fear of not being able to stop eating
- Often vomits
- Irregular menstruation
- The glands in the mouth are swollen
- Body weight fluctuates rapidly caused by periods of overeating and then fasting
- Overeating behavior (binge eating) and then discarding the food it regularly eats
- Swelling on 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 attempts to lose weight with excessive steps
What is the difference between anorexia and bulimia?
Anorexia and bulimia are characterized by a strong desire to be thin and disturbances in eating behavior. The main difference between anorexics and bulimics can be seen in their body shape. Anorexia sufferers experience a significant weight loss of 15% or more of their ideal body weight, so that their body looks very thin. Meanwhile, people with bulimia are usually at normal weight or above normal.
Because of their very thin body weight, anorexia sufferers usually experience amenorrhea or do not experience menstrual periods. Meanwhile, bulimia experiences irregular menstrual periods.
If someone with anorexia avoids eating when feeling stressed, a person with bulimia may overeat when they are experiencing problems or are under stress. However, after that big meal period, the bulimic sufferer will then try to get back what he ate. Can be vomiting again by force, using laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or by doing excessive exercise.
Bulimia is characterized by regular diet cycles of periods of overeating (binge eating) and compensatory behavior by cleaning yourself from food or purging to prevent weight gain. Meanwhile, anorexic sufferers do not always have episodes binge eating and purging. When individuals with anorexia also do binge eating and purging on a regular basis, the individual may also have a tendency to develop bulimia.