Anorexia comes with physical, mental, and behavioral symptoms. People suffering from anorexia often fear gaining weight and restrict food and calorie intake. They have a distorted body image, and they are often underweight and malnourished.

You can take a self-assessment, know the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, and recognize the signs and symptoms of bulimia nervosa (BN), but a professional medical opinion should alway be considered when trying to determine if you do have bulimia or any eating disorder.

Signs of bulimia can be subtle and easy to explain away. But if you look closely, you could discover that someone you love is struggling. Together, you can seek out services and find a path forward.

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a mental health condition, but the eating disorder impacts all facets of health, including physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Physically, untreated bulimia can lead to heart disease, digestive distress, kidney disease, and more. The condition also often interplays with other mental health issues like depression and anxiety, and that can lead to emotional health concerns, as well.

People with bulimia nervosa will go to great lengths to hide their illness from others. Few people with this eating disorder will tell their friends and family about their bingeing and purging episodes. But some symptoms are hard to ignore, and you must speak up when you see them.

Researchers say the lifetime prevalence of bulimia nervosa is about 1%. But is that number accurate? (1)

Out of every 10 people with an eating disorder, only about one gets treatment. Chances are, there are many other people in the world right now with bulimia who are undiagnosed.

Traditional therapies for bulimia nervosa (BN) fall into two categories: pharmacologic (medication) and nonpharmacologic. This section will briefly describe the nonpharmacologic therapy, or psychotherapy options for bulimia nervosa, how they can help, and how to get the best results.

There are several criteria that need to be met in order to have a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, including eating a large amount of food in less than two hours and excessive concern about body weight and shape.

In addition to symptoms, those suffering from bulimia nervosa also have accompanying feelings of distress, remorse, and self-loathing.

Those with bulimia nervosa (BN) often struggle with negative perceptions about their body shape, size, and weight. To attempt to prevent weight gain, they might abuse medications, a type of compensatory behavior. Medications misused by people with bulimia nervosa include diet pills, laxatives, diuretics, emetics, and enemas.

It’s not uncommon for someone with bulimia to suffer from a co-occurring mental health disorder. Sometimes an eating disorder will develop after a different mental health condition, or the conditions may start simultaneously. In either instance, treatments are available to help individuals with bulimia and a co-occurring mental illness.

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a complex eating disorder affecting millions of people of all genders in the United States. (1) The causes of bulimia nervosa can range from person to person, and include multiple factors. Some individuals are more heavily influenced by environmental factors and genetics, while others develop bulimia nervosa due to mental health conditions or their relationship to exercise and dieting.

If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, you may want help but not know where to turn. But there are a number of eating disorder hotlines, which can help you get relevant information about eating disorder treatment, associated mental health issues, and more.

ANAD Eating Disorder Helpline: 1-630-577-1330

Eating disorders are mental illnesses defined by abnormal dietary habits, such as eating excessively small or large amounts of food, that have the potential to cause major physical and mental problems. Most common eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Eating disorders are extremely damaging to your mental health because feelings of anxiety, shame, and guilt tend to build up and push you into isolation from your loved ones. Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder in the United States, yet, due to the social stigma attached to it, most people who have the disease do not seek the treatment they need. (1)

Eating disorders are one of the most dangerous types of mental health disorder, responsible for an estimated 10,200 deaths every year. (1) There are a number of different types of eating disorders, which all impact people in different ways. 

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that causes an unhealthy body image. You may think you’re too heavy, even though a doctor might disagree. Your intense desire to lose weight or avoid weight gain causes you to diet, exercise to excess, or lean on medications.

Binge eating disorder (BED) describes a pattern of disordered eating that revolves around episodes of rapid and uncontrollable food consumption, similar to a “binging” episode of bulimia nervosa, but without any reciprocal purging or compensating behavior.

Diabulimia is intentional insulin restriction. People with diabulimia skip or shrink their insulin doses to lose weight.

Most people with diabulimia have type 1 diabetes. Some doctors call the condition type 1 diabetes with disordered eating (T1DE) or eating disorder diabetes mellitus type 1 instead. There is no official diagnostic term, as this condition is relatively new and poorly understood.

While some people may be concerned that they aren’t getting enough exercise, there is such a thing as too much exercise. Regular exercise can be great for physical and mental health, if it is medically appropriate and done in combination with adequate rest and nutrition, but when exercise becomes a compulsion, it can become physically and mentally harmful.

What is Purging Disorder? Some people may assume that if a person is purging regularly, then they must be suffering from bulimia nervosa (BN). However, individuals who are purging, but don’t have binging episodes associated with BN, may have a different eating disorder: purging disorder.

Non-purging bulimia involves eating a lot of food at once (bingeing) and then using methods like diet and exercise to limit weight gain. People with this form of bulimia can feel invisible, as their symptoms aren’t commonly discussed. But their suffering is real, and the dangers of non-purging bulimia are significant.

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a specific type of eating disorder revolving around cycles of binging and purging.

Affecting people of all genders, BN has a prevalence of approximately 0.5-1.5%. The disorder can have grave effects on someone’s health, but thankfully, a majority of people who seek treatment for bulimia nervosa are able to recover. (1)

Bulimia nervosa is a serious disease that can affect every area of a person’s life. In the United States alone, approximately 30 million people have diagnosable eating disorders, and 1.5% of American women have bulimia. (1)

Family members are sometimes among the last people to know when a loved one suffers from an eating disorder. Often, eating disorders develop gradually and the changes in a person’s body are either not obvious or happen so slowly that parents and siblings do not notice the difference.