
What is OSFED, EDNOS, BED, ED-DMT1 and other types of eating disorders?
Eating disorders are complex; different people with the same disorder may have different symptoms. When a person has symptoms of disordered eating, but doesn’t fit the criteria for a diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia nervosa, they may be diagnosed with an Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). For example, people may:
- Age at interview:
- 18
- Sex:
- Male
- Age at diagnosis:
- 15
- Background:
- Ewan is 18 and doing his A-levels. He lives at home with his parents. White British.
- Age at interview:
- 16
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Suzanne is 16 and a student.
- Age at interview:
- 16
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Suzanne is 16 and a student.
If you said eating disorder to someone, in my experience people think about people starving from anorexia or a bulimic, bit like sticking their fingers down their throat and vomiting. They don’t really think about the in-between. To look at me it’s not obvious that I have an eating disorder. And even if you knew me it’s not obvious, because and I don’t starve myself and I don’t binge. I don’t vomit deliberately. I don’t exercise excessively. I don’t engage in any of the stereotypical behaviours associated with eating disorders, the behaviours that people think that if you have an eating disorder you engage in. And it’s because I think people don’t know that much about eating disorders. If you, if you don’t do this, if you’re not a certain weight or if you don’t make yourself vomit or you don’t starve yourself then, “Oh no, you can’t possibly have an eating disorder.”
A binge eating disorder (BED) is where people experience a loss of control and overeat (binge) on a regular basis. Those that binge more than once a week for three months or more, could have binge eating disorder. People who binge eat get through very large quantities of food over a short period of time, even when they are not hungry. Binges can be planned like a ritual and can involve the person buying "special" binge foods but can also happen in a ‘dazed’ state where people are not able to recall what they ate. People often binge in private because they feel embarrassed, guilty or disgusted with their behaviour after they have finished eating. Episodes of binge eating sometimes alternate with periods where the person cuts down on the amount of food they eat. Unlike those with bulimia, people who binge eat do not purge (make themselves sick) after eating.
‘While the condition is slightly more common in women than men, the numbers of men and women affected are more equal than in other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa. The condition tends to first develop in young adults, although many people do not seek help until they are in their 30s or 40s. It’s estimated that there is around a 1 in 30 to 1 in 50 chance of a person developing binge eating disorder at some point during their life’ (NHS choices 2015). For more on binge eating see our website on 'Young people's experiences of health and weight - obsessing about food'.
ED-DMT1, also sometimes known as diabulimia is an eating disorder that affects people with Type 1 Diabetes (DMT1). It happens when people with Type 1 Diabetes give themselves less insulin than they need, in order to lose weight. ED-DMT1 is not currently recognised as a formal diagnosis but is nevertheless a growing and serious problem. It is difficult to know how many young people this affects but Diabetes UK (2007) estimates it affect one in every three women with Type 1 Diabetes but it also affects men too.
- Age at interview:
- 27
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 17
- Background:
- Shares a house with a friend. Her advice to other young people who are not doing their insulin injections is to find the courage and to seek help as soon as possible.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 19
- Background:
- University student; has a boyfriend; living in shared student accommodation with three other friends.
- Age at interview:
- 27
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 17
- Background:
- Shares a house with a friend. Her advice to other young people who are not doing their insulin injections is to find the courage and to seek help as soon as possible.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 19
- Background:
- University student; has a boyfriend; living in shared student accommodation with three other friends.
- Age at interview:
- 27
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 17
- Background:
- Shares a house with a friend. Her advice to other young people who are not doing their insulin injections is to find the courage and to seek help as soon as possible.
And how long you stayed with her?
I stayed with her for... about three years, about three and a half years.
But when I lost my sight, obviously a lot of the same emotions that I'd had when I was younger were, had come back again, on top, along with a lot more emotions, because I've, you know, I've lost my sight, I've gone blind. So I decided and I took it upon myself, people think you've gone blind because of how you treated your body. Surely you'd never do that again? Surely you could never go back to living like that again? And I couldn't. But I'm not to know that and I'm not to know whether it might suddenly creep up on me one day. Because an eating disorder is an illness and it overpowers everything. And it overpowers the fact that you are a diabetic. It overpowers the fact that you are blind because of it. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it, you know. So I took it upon myself to go back to him and talk about how I was feeling about going blind, about having gone blind. Because I didn't want, I didn't even want to take the risk of me falling back into that trap again, you know. I thought, 'Right, I've, it's, I've lost my sight because of this. I'm feeling crap. I've gone blind at the age of 23. But there's no way I want to be blind and going through what I did before. So I'm going to go back and see this person that I saw before and talk to him about this and nip it in the bud before it's even got started'. So that, you know, that's what I did.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Female
- Age at diagnosis:
- 19
- Background:
- University student; has a boyfriend; living in shared student accommodation with three other friends.
Last reviewed July 2015.
Last updated July 2015.