Thread: anorexia vs bulimia?
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Re: anorexia vs bulimia? - September 10th 2011, 03:44 AM
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Originally Posted by Melody View Post
Well to be anorexic you have to be under 15% body fat. The other reason why you have to wait 3 months is because an eating disorder is a serious thing, it's not just based off your actions, but it's a state of mind too.
For example, if a girl eats half a cake then purges it the next day, she could go back to normal eating habits after that. She doesn't have an eating disorder, she just made an unhealthy choice for a couple days. Now if every day she counts calories and purges for 3 months, then her ways of thinking about food and eating is abnormal and unhealthy so it would be classified as an eating disorder.
However, you could have EDNOS which stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. This means you may have some habits of an eating disorder, but you do not fit all of the criteria.

Firstly, I want to say that I am not trying to attack you by posting this I just wanted to point out some things that have been, in my opinion misconstrued and could potentially lead to someone being misinformed.

There have definitely been things that have said that in order for someone to be classified as an Anorexic they have to be underweight a certain amount but that is not the only factor in diagnosing someone with an eating disorder. The fact is that eating disorders do not discriminate and there can be someone out there who is struggling with restricting (i.e. Starving themselves) and has not yet reached the point of being classified as underweight. This does not mean they are not anorexic. When I was in my treatment center there was a girl there who suffered from anorexia and she did eventually get to the point where she was very severely underweight however she wasn't always that severely underweight in fact some 'doctors' might have considered her to be overweight.

There are numerous factors that contribute to diagnosing someone with an eating disorder a persons weight is just one of them. It is important to note that eating disorders do not take on two forms meaning a person is either bulimic or anorexic there are all types of in betweens. Some treatment centers/professionals would classify this as an EDNOS but others will simply say that the person restricts and purges. I believe that EDNOS is the diagnoses that Psychologists and Psychiatrist use when their patients don't fit properly into the DSM IV but most doctors will be more specific in regards to what their patients have.

Now, I have never really heard of a three month rule regarding diagnosing someone with an eating disorder but I would suspect that the reason a doctor would be doing this would be because they do not want to prematurely diagnose their patient. I suppose I might be a tad bit confused on that part, have you gone into your doctor and told them about your concerns and they told you to wait it out? If so I would suggest that you try calling them and expressing your concerns. However if you have not talked to a doctor about any of this and have just heard "through the grapevine" so to speak that you have to wait three months I would suggest that you talk to a doctor.

The thing that you need to consider is that yes, there is such thing as disordered eating and there is a chance that this disordered eating can go away before it becomes a full blown eating disorder and that would be absolutely amazing. However, disordered eating has a potential to lead to a full blown eating disorder and I would hate to see that happen to you (if you are suffering from disordered eating and not a eating disorder). The thing is if you can work out the reasons behind your disordered eating it would be a really good thing to do. The best way to do this is to seek counseling and let them know what is going on. Let them know what you are struggling and why you are struggling with it and go from there. You shouldn't have to have a diagnoses to get some type of counseling.

I really hope this helped in some way and if you need anything please feel free to pm me.