Are there different types of eating disorders?

There are many different eating disorders, like binge eating, body image disorders, and food phobias, The two major types of eating disorders—anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

People with anorexia nervosa severely restrict calories to the point of starvation. They are obsessed with being thin and have an unhealthy and distorted body image. They may refuse to eat at all or only eat tiny amounts of food that has few calories. Anorexics are extremely thin, yet constantly think of themselves as overweight.

People with bulimia nervosa eat a lot of (binge on) huge quantities of food, then force themselves to vomit. They may also exercise compulsively and take laxatives to help rid their body of the calories they’ve eaten. Bulimics continue this cycle of binging and purging and may also diet excessively in between binges. Bulimics aren’t necessarily extremely thin and may often seem to be of normal weight.