the following is something from www.something-fishy.org.  it's not meant to offend, it's just a diagnostic tool.

" Having an Eating Disorder is much more than just being on a diet. An Eating Disorder is an illness that permiates all aspects of each sufferer's life, is caused by a variety of emotional factors and influences, and has profound effects on the people suffering and their loved ones.

Dieting is about losing a little bit of weight in a healthy way.

Eating Disorders are about trying to make your whole life better through food and eating (or lack of).

Dieting is about doing something healthy for yourself.

Eating Disorders are about seeking approval and acceptance from everyone through negative attention.

Dieting is about losing a bit of weight and doing it healthfully.

Eating Disorders are about how life won't be good until a bit (or a lot) of weight is lost, and there's no concern for what kind of damage you do to yourself to get there.

Dieting is about losing some weight in a healthy way so how you feel on the outside will match how good you already feel on the inside.

Eating Disorders are about being convinced that your whole self-esteem is hinged on what you weigh and how you look.

Dieting is about attempting to control your weight a bit better.

Eating Disorders are about attempting to control your life and emotions through food/lack of food -- and are a huge neon sign saying "look how out of control I really feel"

Dieting is about losing some weight.

Eating Disorders are about everything going on in life -- stress, coping, pain, anger, acceptance, validation, confusion, fear -- cleverly (or not so cleverly) hidden behind phrases like "I'm just on a diet". "

the types

Anorexia Nervosa
Those who are suffering with this illness have a low self-esteem and often a tremendous need to control their surroundings and emotions. This Eating Disorder is a unique reaction to a variety of external and internal conflicts, such as stress, anxiety, unhappiness and feeling like life is out of control. Anorexia is a negative way to cope with these emotions.

The person suffering with Anorexia may be abnormally sensitive about being perceived as fat, or have a massive fear of becoming fat -- though not all people living with Anorexia have this fear. They may be afraid of losing control over the amount of food they eat, accompanied by the desire to control their emotions and reactions to their emotions. With a low self-esteem and need for acceptance they will turn to obsessive dieting and starvation as a way to control not only their weight, but their feelings and actions regarding the emotions attached. Some also feel that they do not deserve pleasure out of life, and will deprive themselves of situations offering pleasure (including eating).

Some of the behavioral signs can be: obsessive exercise, calorie and fat gram counting, starvation and restriction of food, self-induced vomiting, the use of diet pills, laxatives or diuretics to attempt controlling weight, and a persistent concern with body image.

It is important to point out that there can be a number of ways a person suffering from Anorexia can portray their disorder. The inherent trait of a person suffering Anorexia is to attempt to maintain strict control over food intake. In a number of cases a man or woman suffering will seem to eat normal meals with only periods of restriction. Anorexics are sometimes known to eat junk food, particularly candy, to drink a lot of coffee or tea, and/or to smoke. They may deny hunger, make excuses to avoid eating, will often hide food they claim to have eaten, use diet pills to control appetite, or attempt to purge the food away with self-induced vomiting, or by taking laxatives.

Diagnostic Criteria for Anorexia Nervosa
The following is considered the "text book" definition of Anorexia Nervosa to assist doctors in making a clinical diagnosis... it is in no way representative of what a sufferer feels or experiences in living with the illness. It is important to note that you can still suffer from Anorexia even if one of the below signs is not present. In other words, if you think you have Anorexia, it's dangerous to read the diagnostic criteria and think "I don't have one of the symptoms, so I must not be Anorexic".

1. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected; or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).
2. Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.
3. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.
4. In postmenarcheal females (women who have not yet gone through menopause), amenorrhea (the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles).
   • Restricting Type: during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior (i.e., self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas)
   • Binge-Eating Type or Purging Type: during the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating OR purging behavior (i.e., self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas)  

Bulimia Nervosa
Men and women who live with Bulimia seek out binge and purge episodes -- they will eat a large quantity of food in a relatively short period of time and then use behaviors such as taking laxatives or self-induced vomiting -- because they feel overwhelmed in coping with their emotions, or in order to punish themselves for something they feel they should unrealistically blame themselves for. This can be in direct relation to how they feel about themselves, or how they feel over a particular event or series of events in their lives. Those suffering with Bulimia may seek episodes of binging and purging to avoid and let out feelings of anger, depression, stress or anxiety.

Men and women suffering Bulimia are usually aware they have an eating disorder. Fascinated by food they sometimes buy magazines and cook-books to read recipes, and enjoy discussing dieting issues.

Some of the behavioral signs can be: Recurring episodes of rapid food consumption followed by tremendous guilt and purging (laxatives or self-induced vomiting), a feeling of lacking control over his or her eating behaviors, regularly engaging in stringent diet plans and exercise, the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, and/or diet pills and a persistent concern with body image can all be warning signs someone is suffering with Bulimia.

It is important to realize that what makes a person Bulimic -- as opposed to Anorexic -- is not the purging, but the cycle of binging and purging. Purging may be using laxatives or self-induced vomiting, but there are Bulimics who use other inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as compulsive exercise (ie., excessive jogging or aerobics), to attempt to burn off the calories of a binge, or fasting the day following a binge.

Diagnostic Criteria for Bulimia Nervosa
The following is considered the "text book" definition of Bulimia Nervosa to assist doctors in making a clinical diagnosis... it is in no way representative of what a sufferer feels or experiences in living with the illness. It is important to note that you can still suffer from Bulimia even if one of the below signs is not present. In other words, if you think you have Bulimia, it's dangerous to read the diagnostic criteria and think "I don't have one of the symptoms, so I must not be Bulimic".

1. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
   
   • 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 of time and under similar circumstances
   • a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)
2. Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications; fasting; or excessive exercise.
3. The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both occur, on average, at least twice a week for 3 months.
4. Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight.
5. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of Anorexia Nervosa.
   • 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 behaviors, such as fasting or excessive exercise, but has not regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas  

EDNOS
Having an "Eating Disorder not Otherwise
Specified" can mean a number of things... It can mean the individual suffers from Anorexia but still gets their period; It can mean they may still be an "average healthy weight" but be suffering Anorexia; It can mean the sufferer equally participates in some Anorexic as well as Bulimic behaviors (sometimes referred to as being Bulimirexic).

Just as it is important to remember that doctors can make mistakes, it is also important to keep in mind that it has only been until very recently (in the last 10 years) that awareness on the subject Eating Disorders has really begun to surface. People are frequently confused (including doctors) about the real differences between Anorexia and Bulimia (Anorexia essentially being self-starvation, and Bulimia being defined as going through binge and purge cycles - simply put), and often times know nothing at all about Binge-Eating Disorder.

For example, a doctor relies completely on his diagnostic manuals and reads the criteria to diagnose an individual as having Anorexia. He finds that his patient has regularly practiced self-starvation techniques, thinks of herself unrealistically as overweight, and seems to be hard on herself... BUT she still has her monthly period (the diagnostic criteria states that there must be loss of monthly menstrual cycles). He may technically diagnose the patient as having "An Eating Disorder not Otherwise Specified".

Another example would be that of a person suffering through binge and purge cycles once a week, who feels that they are overweight and who feels depressed. (The diagnostic criteria states that the sufferer must binge and purge, on average, at least twice a week.)

Practically speaking, in the first example the person suffers from Anorexia and the second suffers from Bulimia. Clinically speaking, according to the "text book" they would suffer from "An Eating Disorder not Otherwise Specified". In either case, both people are suffering with an Eating Disorder, both are in danger of potentially deadly physical complications, and both need to make a choice for recovery.

The most important thing to remember is that Eating Disorders, Anorexia, Bulimia, Compulsive Overeating, Binge-Eating Disorder, any combination of them, (or any that fall into the clinical category of EDNOS), are ALL psychological illnesses, none less or more serious than the next. They all have their physical dangers and complications, they all present themselves through an array of disordered eating patterns in one way or another, and they all stem from emotional turmoil such as a low self-esteem, a need to forget feelings and/or stress, a need to block pain, anger and/or people out, and most of all, a need to cope. The bottom line is that we are ALL suffering. If you find you suffer from any Eating Disorder then it's time to reach in to yourself.


Diagnostic Criteria for EDNOS
The following is considered the "text book" definition of an Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, to assist doctors in making a clinical diagnosis... it is in no way representative of what a sufferer feels or experiences in living with an Eating Disorder. It is important to note that this is a Clinical definition, and is in no way meant to say that any sufferer does not struggle, and that the condition is not serious. It is not meant to say you do not have Anorexia or Bulimia (or a combination of both sometimes known as Bulimirexia). This is a clinical category of disordered eating meant for those who suffer but do not meet all the diagnostic criteria for another specific disorder.

Examples Include:

1. All of the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except the individual has regular menses.
2. All of the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except that, despite substantial weight loss, the individual's current weight is in the normal range.
3. All of the criteria for Bulimia Nervosa are met except binges occur at a frequency of less than twice a week or for a duration of less than 3 months.
4. An individual of normal body weight who regularly engages in inappropriate compensatory behavior after eating small amounts of food (eg, self-induced vomiting after the consumption of two cookies).
5. An individual who repeatedly chews and spits out, but does not swallow, large amounts of food.
6. Binge eating disorder; recurrent episodes of binge eating in the absence of the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors characteristic of bulimia nervosa.