Bulimia Nervosa

This section includes the following information about bulimia nervosa;

What is Bulimia Nervosa?

Bulimia nervosa is a complicated psychological eating disorder where the individual attempts to loose or gain control their weight. Often termed bulimia for short, it is characterized by episodes of extreme binging/excessive eating followed by methods to compensate for this gross caloric intake.

The most common method is self induced vomiting (purging). Other methods include; laxative, diuretic and enema abuse, over exercise or fasting for long periods of time after a binge. Like anorexic sufferers, people with bulimia have a preoccupation with their weight and self image. Bulimia often arises after several failed attempts at extreme dieting.

The disorder is a manifestation and worsens over time. The individual enters a binge purge cycle quite quickly which is very addictive. The appetite overridden over time and larger quantities of food are required to satisfy the individual. The binging itself is usually to fill an emotional gap/void in their life that they are struggling with.

Bulimics are harder to notice because their weight loss in comparison to anorexics is not so dramatic or noticeable. In fact some bulimics are of normal weight and a few are indeed over weight. Shameful feelings (about loss of control when eating) come with the territory of the eating disorder which is why binging is done in secret. This causes unhappiness and loneliness.

These emotions are fed back into the eating disorder, inducing binging and thus more shame being a product of that. The word bulimia originates from the Greek words; bous, meaning Ox and limos meaning hunger, these formed boulimia meaning hunger of an Ox

There are three sub types of Bulimia nervosa; Simple Bulimia, Anorexia bulimia and multi impulsive bulimia.

Simple bulimia

Simple bulimia is the least severe of the three types however it is still very serious and considered life threatening. The individual usually binge/purges or uses other methods to control weight between 2 and 8 times daily!

Anorexia bulimia

This is often confused as a term given for anorexics that occasionally binge and purge, the term for this is actually anorexia binge/purge type. Anorexia bulimia is normally developed after an individual has recovered or recovering from a short term period of anorexia nervosa. As their life returns to normal they are unable to control their eating habits and begin purging after meals. Vomiting causes appetite confusion in the body, thus binging occurs followed by purging. The individual may revert back to restrictive methods at any time.

Multi impulsive bulimia

This is the most dangerous variant of bulimia; it usually begins along with simple bulimia. However in addition sufferers experience a variety of self destructive behaviours such as self harm/mutilation, theft, drug abuse or promiscuity. These additional behaviours are impulsive and help is not usually sought until these secondary elements cause problems. This form of bulimia requires inpatient treatment to stop them causing harm to themselves as a result of this destructive behaviour.

Although bulimia is separated into these three groups, symptoms often overlap.

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