As a coping mechanism

Eating disordered people often feel lost.

So when the ED comes, you have an identity, you have a purpose, you feel real.

Even if that makes you “the anorexic chick”, or “the bulimic freak”.

Even if that means losing pounds, losing mind, losing life, or seeing bones.

Even if you exist just to disappear.

EDNOS Diagnostic Criteria from DSM IV.

Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified

This diagnosis includes disorders of eating that do not meet the criteria for the above
two eating disorder diagnoses. Examples include 

1. For female patients, all of the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except that the patient has regular menses.
2. All of the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except that, despite significant
   weight loss, the patient's current weight is in the normal range.
3. All of the criteria for Bulimia Nervosa are met except that the binge eating and
   inappropriate compensatory mechanisms occur less than twice a week or for less than 3 months.
4. The patient has normal body weight and regularly uses inappropriate compensatory
   behavior after eating small amounts of food (e.g., self-induced vomiting after
   consuming two cookies).
5. The patient engages in repeatedly chewing and spitting out, but not swallowing,
   large amounts of food.
6. Binge-eating disorder: recurrent episodes of binge eating in the absence if regular
   inappropriate compensatory behavior characteristic of Bulimia Nervosa.

(Source: Eating Disorder Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV)
 

The purge.

The worst is when you’re purging. Because it’s messy, and it reminds you of your life, your thoughts, yourself.
Apart from food, you’re puking fear, anger, sadness.
The thing is, freedom clings to the ice cream, self-steem gets attached to the chocolate and hope sticks to that cookie dough.
The chaos, and happiness; they’re all gone.
And it’s not just that revolting mass of vomit you’re flushing, it’s your future, your dreams, and your sanity, going down the drain.

Bulimia Diagnostic Criteria from DSM IV.

Bulimia Nervosa

• Recurrent episodes of binge eating characterized by both

1. Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period oftime and under similar circumstances. 
2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode, (such as a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).

• Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior to prevent weight gain, such as selfinduced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications, fasting, or excessive exercise.

• The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behavior both occur, on average, at least twice a week for 3 months.

• Self evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight.

• The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of Anorexia Nervosa.

Types

• Purging Type: During the current episode of Bulimia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

• Nonpurging Type: During the current episode of Bulimia Nervosa, the person has used other inappropriate compensatory behavior but has not regularly engaged in selfinduced vomiting or misused laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

(Source: Eating Disorder Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV)

Eating Disorders.

Eating disorders are about restriction. You restrict your intake, you restrict your weight, you restrict your feelings.
Eating disorders are about puke. There’s sick on your insides, there’s sick on your mouth, there’s sick on the toilet, there’s sick on your mind.
You will be boney, but never thin.
You will get edibles, but never nutrients.
And the scary thing is, you might recover, but never heal.