Bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is a serious eating disorder. It is normally called just bulimia. People with bulimia have cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors to stop them gaining weight. These behaviors may include self-induced vomiting, the misuse of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or excessive exercise. Bulimia typically starts during adolescence or early adulthood and can have significant physical, emotional, and social consequences if left untreated.

Symptoms

The symptoms of bulimia nervosa can be divided into physical, behavioral, and psychological categories:

Physical symptoms: People with bulimia can have spolken cheeks or jawline due to repeated womiting. They also have sore throat and dental issues, such as enamel erosion and increased tooth sensitivity, caused by stomach acid. Dehydration and electrolyte imbalances, can lead to heart irregularities. People with bulimia also have gastrointestinal problems, including stomach pain and bloating. Fatigue and weakness can appears due to low food intake.

Behavioral symptoms: They appears as episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food in a short time, often feeling out of control. Engaging in compensatory behaviors like womiting, using laxatives or over-exercising. In public they avoiding meals or eating in secret to hide disordered eating habits and also they have obsessive focus on body weight and shape.

Psychological symptoms: People often have persistent feelings of guilt, shame or self-disgust related to eating habits. With bulimia are often associated anxiety or depression, often linked to distorted self-image. People experience difficulty concentrating or mood swing due to emotional distress and physical strain.

This disorder not only impacts an individual’s physical health but also affects their mental well-being and quality of life, often requiring a multidisciplinary approach to treatment.

Consequences

Bulimia nervosa is a serious mental disease causing many side issues having a huge impact on all areas of our life. There are several possible consequences both on physical and mental health, but also our social life.

Physical health: Bulimia is usually characterized as a deeply destructive pattern of eating and purging. This behavior results in more or less serious condtitions. The bodily system that usually struggles the most is the digestive one. The first obvious symptoms are sore throat, stomach pain or teeth damage. This is caused by the excessive levels of acid. Acids also irritate your esophageus, your stomach, cause acid reflux, damage intestine and sometimes cause for example IBS (= irritable bowel syndrome). Another symptom can be a constipation. Bulimic people often use laxatives or some specific diet pills in order to get rid of the excessive calories in your body. These poeple might struggle with slower bowel order to get rid of the excessive calories in your body. Since the body experienced a long-term lack of energy, someone can struggle with low blood pressure or fainting before the body is fully recovered. What is unfortunately very common as well is a hormonal disbalance. Girls and women usually experience irregular period or even no period at all. In more severe cases, it can lead to infertility. Other possible consequences of bulimia may include hair loss, thin nails or skin problems.

Mental health: People with bulimia usually experience several mental problems, such as depression, anxiety or obsessive compulsive behaviors. Moodiness is also very common. That can occur due to lack of vitamins. Suicidal beahvior may form as a result of the stress and extremely unhealthy body image. That is why people with bulimia should be under constant control of psychiatric or psychologist. It is very important to have someone to talk to because it is incredibly hard for those recovering from an eating disorder to go back to normal life.

Social life: Eating disorders have a strong influence not only on our physical or mental health, but also on our social wellbeing and overall quality of life. Individuals struggling with bulimia nervosa often get the feeling of guilt, shame or embarassment. This usually leads to social isolation and other difficulties with maintaining relationships or even forming the new ones. It is also connected with possible communication issues in the future since bulimia patients tend to be constantly alone. Understanding how bulimia affects social life is crucial, especially when we might have someone with bulimia right next to us. This general awareness could help everyone to handle this situtation in a better way.

Statistics

Most people who have bulimia are between the ages of 10 to 25. It is more common in females than it is in males. People who have had past trauma are more likely to be bulimic. People with obsessive compulsive disorder or perfectionism are also likely to have bulimia.

Related pages

• Anorexia nervosa