Formally, anorexia nervosa is a diagnostic criterion. I will share this with you and then give you some of the definitions as well. Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric syndrome and it is characterized by loss of body weight to at least 15% under the ideal body weight, loss of three consecutive menstrual cycles, intense fear of becoming fat and a distorted way of perceiving one's body. It's subdivided into subtype purging and subtype non-purging. Some people who have anorexia also will occasionally or sometimes binge eat and then induce vomiting or use other compensatory behaviors such as laxatives. The subtype non-purging is helped to describe those people who do not use these compensatory behaviors but engage in restrictive behaviors only.
