At 28, Susan, who has frequently been hospitalized, still weighs 65 pounds and suffers permanent kidney damage from the illness. It used to be nothing else mattered. If I ate a meal and gained weight I would feel like sitting down and dying. If I eat half a muffin and an apple, I feel very guilty. Both involve an intense fear of being fat.
Anorexics pursue thinness through restrictive dieting and excessive exercise.
You're feeling all the time like all that matters is that number on the scale and how much you can get away without eating. I was so hungry I couldn't sleep. Bulimics are caught in a cycle of dieting and binge eating. Binges are followed by some form of getting rid of eaten food. Many bulimics vomit, but laxatives, fasting and exercise are also purging methods, says Pilon.