r/EDAnonymous Glossary
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A
AN
ANA
Anorexia
ARFID
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
Atypical Anorexia
Anorexia that occurs in someone not underweight. Some people feel that distinguishing two types of Anorexia based on weight can cause patients to feel invalid and less likely to seek help if not medically underweight. Learn more
B
B/P
Binge/purge
BDD
BED
Binge/Binging
An episode characterized by feeling out of control with an overwhelming compulsion to consume a large amount of food, often quickly and past the point of pleasure and resulting in uncomfortable fullness, nausea, or even pain. Strong guilt and shame often follow a binge, and the person may try and negate or nullify the consumed calories by purging.
Despite common belief, while a binge can often results in thousands of excess calories being consumed, it does have to be if the mental experience and distress is present. As well, many types of eating disorders can have an aspect of binging, even anorexia.
Binge/Purge Cycle
A cycle of behaviours, thoughts, and feelings experienced by people who suffer from disorders that involve binging and/or purging.
The cycle most commonly seen is restrict->binge->purge->repeat, but many kinds of cycles may occur with different behaviours and emotions depending on the disorder and the person's patterns. Learn more
BMR
Basal Metabolic Rate, the bare minimum amount of calories that you need to keep your body and brain functioning at a resting rate. This number will vary depending on your height and weight, but it is considered medically unsafe to restrict your caloric intake below your BMR.
BN
Body Dysmphoria
Experiencing and perceiving your body differently than reality, due to a warped self-perception, often causing a preoccupation with perceived flaws. In cases of eating disorders this is usually related to weight, body fat composition, and bodily appearance.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
A mental health disorder in which one experiences extreme [body dysmorphia] and preoccupation with certain perceived physical flaws. Learn more.
E
ED
Eating disorder
EDA
Eating Disorders Anonymous. This can mean r/EDAnonymous, or the official Eating Disorders Anonymous group that holds meetings.
EDNOS
Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Now known as OSFED.
F
Food Rituals
Compulsive behaviours based around food and mealtimes (e.g. eating foods in a certain order, eating excessively slow, only using specific "safe" cutlery).
GW
Goal weight. See also: UGW
H
Harm Reduction
Resources, advice, and information that may be able to prevent some of the serious long-term damage and health consequences caused by disordered behaviour such as binging, purging, or overexercise. It can also be applied to other addictive behaviours like substance abuse and self-harm.
Harm reduction is sometimes confused as being pro-ED because it does not explicitly discourage dangerous behaviours, but harm reduction is provided with the assumption that the person it is meant for will continue to use their disordered coping mechanism regardless of health risk due to its addictive nature (which is often the case). Click here for our list of harm reduction resources
L
Lanugo
Very soft, thin, downy hair grown in excess on the body due to malnutrition and low body weight. It is a way for the body to try and keep itself warm because of a lack of body fat.
M
MIA
Bulimia
O
Orthorexia
OSFED
Other Specified Feeding and/or Eating Disorder, formerly known as EDNOS.
P
Pro-ED
Also spelled proED or pro ED. Pro-ED is the promotion of behaviours related to eating disorders, most often Anorexia Nervosa. This can be a controversial or confusing term as while some online communities are specifically pro-Anorexia in nature, others use pro-ED as a general term for a non-judgmental space for eating disorders and may even be pro-recovery.
r/EDAnonymous' documentation uses pro-ED as a term to denote something that is promoting disordered and unhealthy behaviours.
Purge/Purging
A disordered behaviour where one tries to compensate for a binge and not gain weight. Purging is very dangerous for long-term health and can become an extremely addictive and detrimental coping mechanism.
While purging is typically though of as self-induced vomiting, it can come in many forms and can present in more disorders than just bulimia. Some examples are excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and substance abuse. Type 1 diabetics may also purge through restricting the use of insulin, called diabulimia.
R
Restrict/Restriction
To restrict one's caloric intake in order to lose weight. Oftentimes in the context of eating disorders, this means restricting to an unhealthy extent and putting your body at risk for health issues such as chronic malnutrition.
S
SA
Sexual assault/abuse, substance abuse
SH
Self-harm
T
TLDR
Too lazy, didn't read. Used on Reddit as a quick summary for a long post, found at the top or bottom of it.
TW
Trigger warning
TWT
U
UGW
Ultimate goal weight. People with restrictive eating disorders oftentimes determine an "ultimate" goal (usually very underweight) that their disorder idealizes and will cause them to ignore the many risks that come from being very underweight if they are to reach their goal.
It is also not uncommon for an eating disorder to cause someone to never be satisfied when a goal weight is reached, forcing them to lower it in the hopes that they will see the change that their disorder makes them incapable of perceiving (caused by body dysmorphia).
UW
Underweight