Anorexia nervosa is one of the most prevalent eating disorders among adolescent girls and young women. This eating disorder is characterized by dangerously low body weight, great fear of gaining weight, and a distorted perception of how one looks. Those with anorexia nervosa will often weigh themselves periodically, exercise excessively, have very restrictive diets, and sometimes express the want for an unrealistic and unhealthy body image.

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder where people have episodes of eating large amounts of food and having a lack of control during these episodes. These episodes are followed by behaviors such as forced vomiting or consuming laxatives in order to compensate for all the food eaten. Those with bulimia nervose will often fast throughout the day in order to compensate or exercise excessively.

Binge eating disorder causes a person to regularly eat large amounts of food with a lack of control in the amount of food they eat. Unlike bulimia nervosa, people with binge eating disorder do not seek to compensate for the amount of food they have eaten. BEcause they do not seek to compensate for this behavior, people with binge eating disorder will often feel embarrassed eating around others and prefer to eat alone.