Describe the difference between anorexia and bulimia, what are some characteristics and physical signs for each.

The main difference between diagnoses is that anorexia is a syndrome of self-starvation involving significant weight loss of 15 percent or more of ideal body weight, whereas patients with bulimia are, by definition, at normal weight or above.

Explanation:

Individuals with bulimia often do eat throughout their daily lives, however, it may be much less than the average person eat daily, or they may go long periods of time without eating anything (say 2-3 days), then binge eat. They also find themselves with the compulsive need to purposefully induce their gag reflex, causing them to throw up. Whereas people with anorexia simply do not eat or eat very little, and sometimes have the need to exercise excessively. Bulimic people may often appear very tired, with dark circles under the eyes, or their teeth may be very yellow or look unkempt (due to the throwing up). Anorexic people appear very skinny, some may seem almost "skeleton" like, they're typically short, and wear over-sized clothing to cover themselves.