All eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, obesity and in this case the binge eating disorder, which is little known, they have a lot in common and sometimes it is not easy differentiate them. It is even quite common for people to present all or almost all disorders over time so they may be alternating between one and the other. In this case we are going to focus only on binge eating disorder and bulimia, which are the ones that can be most easily confused.
To begin to know the difference between bulimia and binge eating disorder, it is necessary to mention that what we call "binge eating" is the episodes in which a person She feels a great need to eat very large amounts of food and doing so causes her to experience a great feeling of guilt that does not leave her calm and generates a lot discomfort. In this article from Psychology-Online: difference between bulimia and binge eating disorder, we are going to explain in detail the concept and characteristics of both disorders to finally let you know their main differences.
Bulimia
Bulimia or bulimia nervosa it is a serious eating disorder that can even lead to death. This type of disorder is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with body image, which causes the person to experience a loss of control over your impulses with respect to food. This loss of control is reflected in the constant binge eating that the person does followed by inappropriate compensatory behaviors that are performed for the purpose of weight control, such as self-induced vomiting, fasting, excessive use of laxatives and / or enemas, etc.
Bulimia nervosa is divided, according to compensatory behavior to control weight, into two types, purgative and non-purgative, which we will briefly explain below:
- Purging type. This refers to the fact that the person chooses as a compensatory method of weight control to carry out behaviors such as causing vomiting, the use of laxatives, enemas and / or diuretics.
- Non-purgative type. The person chooses as a compensatory method to perform behaviors such as fasting for a long time, exercising excessively, following a strict diet, etc.
Symptoms of bulimia
There are some physical, emotional and behavioral signs and symptoms that indicate that a person may be suffering from bulimia. Among the main signs and symptoms are the following:
- Exaggerated fear of gaining weight.
- Sudden changes in body weight.
- Losing control regarding food intake.
- Food rumination, meaning that the person chews and regurgitates the food many times before swallowing it.
- Sore throat caused by constantly self-inducing vomiting.
- Spit out the food before swallowing it.
- Constant mood swings
- Depression.
- Dissatisfaction with body image.
- Wear of tooth enamel caused by constant contact of the teeth with stomach acid.
- Fatigue and tiredness
- In women, irregular menstruation.
The Binge eating disorder is characterized by constant bouts of binge eating. The person suffering from this type of disorder frequently consumes very large amounts of food at a time relatively short time, having the feeling of having lost control over this uncontrolled intake or binge. So after that episode, the person begins to experience excessive anguish and worry for having done it but above all for thinking about the consequences that this can bring to your body image.
To know if it is really a binge eating disorder, it is necessary that the following characteristics be present:
- Uncontrolled eating or binge eating should occur at least once a week for a period of 3 months.
- The person must eat much faster than is considered normal.
- A large amount of food is consumed despite not being hungry.
- Due to the shame that the person suffering from this disorder feels, they usually eat alone so that others do not see how much they eat
- It eats up feeling uncomfortably full.
- At the end of the binge, the person experiences a lot of anguish, guilt and feels bad about himself for having carried out this type of behavior.
After having explained in detail about both disorders, below we will know the three main differences between bulimia and binge eating disorder.
Compensatory behaviors
- In bulimia, the person performs inappropriate compensatory behaviors to control his body weight, such as exercising excessively, make yourself vomit, the use of enemas and / or laxatives, etc.
- In binge eating disorder, the person does not perform any type of compensatory behavior to control his body weight, he feels the anguish and discomfort generated by having consumed a large amount of food but finally there it stays, does nothing to try "Remedy it."
Sudden changes in weight
- In bulimia, it is very common for the person to experience sudden weight changes due to constant bingeing and inadequate attempts to control it. The person tends to gain and lose weight in a relatively short period of time.
- In binge-eating disorder, as the person does not perform some type of compensatory behavior to control weight, they do not tend to have this type of sudden changes in their weight.
Physical signs
- In bulimia nervosa, the person shows physical signs such as wear of tooth enamel or his sore throat from stomach acid that comes from vomiting.
- In binge eating disorder, due to the fact that the person does not perform compensatory behaviors, these types of signs do not appear. It is common for people who suffer from this disorder to be people who after present obesity, a condition that does not occur frequently in bulimia.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
