Purging Disorder

"An Iowa researcher is hoping to bring more attention to a new eating disorder she's coined as "purging disorder." Purging disorder is similar to bulimia nervosa in that both conditions involve eating, then trying to compensate for the calories consumed. But women with purging disorder don't have the large, binge eating episodes that bulimics experience.Instead, these normal-weight individuals eat small to normal amounts of food, then purge, often by vomiting, said Pamela Keel, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Iowa."

{see the full article at the des moines register}


It's long been recognized within the community of eating-disordered individuals (myself, admittedly, being one of them) that the classification system for eating disorders was pretty bunk.



There's anorexia, but a person must meet strict physical criteria--including a body weight 15% below ideal and a loss of menstrual periods for three months (amennorhea). Often, people that struggle with anorexia do not meet one or both of these criteria, though their eating disorder is as legitimate as someone who does.

Bulimics must also meet certain behavior criteria. Often, an anorectic that purges is immediately labelled bulimic (rather than the purging-subtype of anorexia; usually due to a professional's inexperience with eating disorders). Or, what about a bulimic person that doesn't binge or doesn't binge often enough to meet the standards?

There is currently a third eating disorder recognized by the DSM-IV-TR, which is an eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Essentially, anyone who isn't a prototype for anorexia or bulimia gets labelled with EDNOS.

Binge-eating disorder is temporarily in the DSM-IV-TR, however, it hasn't been fully studied and thus fully included.


What I like about this article is that it is 1) from a local newspaper in a community that doesn't consider itself to have eating disordered individuals, 2) it provides a list of resources, 3) it discusses the possibility of including more people (which would provide more insurance coverage, and more knowledge and possibilties for mental health professionals) in the in an eating disordered category.


What I don't like about this article is its title: "When Normal Women Purge". It gives the illusion that the rest of us--the ones who are anorexic, bulimic, binge-eaters, or 'not otherwise specified'; the ones who are under- or over-weight--are simply not normal and are fucked up. A road apple to whomever created the title of the article.

I'm a little quirky, yes. But eating disordered women (and men!) do live normal lives: they work, they play with their kids, they have families and parents, they date, they're straight and gay, they're republicans and democrats, they're Latino/as, they're African-Americans, they're Christian and Muslim and Jewish and Pagan, they're...pretty much like everyone else, minus the fact that they have an unhealthy relationship to food.



What is a "Normal Woman" anyway? Thoughts?