Ednos stands for “Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified”. Sufferers of ednos usually feel lost, and out of place because it is not generally looked upon as a “real” eating disorder. Being that sufferers of ednos tend to be of a normal weight, ednos is usually seen as a form of trying to attract attention to oneself, because they are not yet thin enough to be considered anorexic, and do not purge at the frequency of the average bulimic. Ednos is a mixture of anorexia and bulimia, but is not as severe as the two. However, ednos does have the power to turn into anorexia and bulimia and should be seen as a “real” eating disorder. Stopping ednos in its tracks is the best way to guarantee that the sufferer does not become a full-fledged anorexic or bulimic.
Although ednos is not a specified eating disorder, it is still of the utmost importance. Most anorexics and bulimics started out suffering from ednos, but were not aware of it because the lack of information on this specific eating disorder. The scariest thing about ednos is that it is often seen as a motivation for sufferers of ednos to try harder and enter one of the two classifications of eating disorders (anorexia, and bulimia). As is often said in the anorexic community “I’m not thin enough until I can go to treatment”. This often applies to those suffering from ednos.
Ednos can start as dieting or exercising until it becomes all consuming. Suffers of ednos often jump from eating disorder to eating disorder to rid themselves of excess weight, or at least what they themselves view as excess weight. The symptoms to look out for with sufferers of Ednos are…
• Chewing and spitting food
• Purging after minimal consumptions of food
• Meet all of the bulimic criteria aside from frequency
• Meet all of anorexic criteria except the disappearance of menstruation