A Description of Bulimia Nervosa as a Serious Potentially Life Threatening Eating Disorder

Bulimia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating. A binge can be consuming calories ranging from 1,000 to 60,000 calories in a 1-2 hour p. Feelings of panic and guilt will set this individual to soon realize they must purge the calories by vomiting, excessive use of diuretics and laxatives, fasting or excessive exercise.

This disorder occurs in 80% of women in the Unites State, 1% to 2% of adolescents and young women. The typical person with bulimia is well educated, inn her early twenties, and close to their ideal body weight. Men also suffer from bulimia. More men suffer from bulimia than from anorexia and on the rise with increasing numbers. The reason why men develop this eating disorder is not very different from why a female develops one. The age onset for development of an eating disorder is late for men than women.

Sign of someone with a bulimic disorder include binging and purging, secretive eating, weight fluctuations, someone who visits the bathroom after meals, self criticism and tooth decay. A person who has preoccupation with food, excessive and compulsive exercise regimes, avoids eating in public and in front of others, scarring on knuckles of fingers and has broken vessels in their eyes show symptoms of someone with bulimia. Bulimia Nervosa can cause many medical complications and sometimes lead to death. Binging and purging tears the lining of the stomach, cause a chronic sore throat, and causes erosions of the teeth and eruption of the esophagus. This disorder leads to gastrointestinal problems, chronic kidney problems, cause dehydration, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and affects your fluid and electrolyte balances.

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There are many reasons why a person may develop bulimia nervosa. Psychologically there are many reasons that can cause this disorder. Depression, anxiety, someone who is obsessive compulsive or has a post traumatic stress disorder, going through bodily changes or a life transition and sometimes sexuality issues. Sociocultural factors such as a person's peer, lifestyle, family values and the media also play a major role in causing the development of an eating disorder.

Bulimia is treatable and is easier than other eating disorders. Someone with this particular disorder knows that their behavior is abnormal and is willing to get help. The goal to treat bulimia is to help the person regain control, establish regular eating patterns and restore nutritional health. If you know of someone with this disorder, there are different ways or steps you can take to approach or help this person. First thing you can do is to increase your knowledge about the disorder, read books, go to seminars, go online or get information packets. If you want to talk to the person, make sure that you talk about your concerns in a supportive way and in an appropriate time and place with no one else around so the person doesn't feel ganged up on. Listen with a non judgmental ear and try to talk about things other than food or weight and exercise. You also have to be prepared for your friend to be in denial about his or her problem, if so, than make sure you tell someone else about concerns. Do not try to help your friend with this disorder by your self, make sure you get help from others and don't allow this person to manipulate you in any way. They seem to be very good at trying to get you on their side so you can't interfere with what they are doing.

I have a personal experience with this particular disorder because my sister developed bulimia a couple years ago and I watched her go through this for almost a year. She was eating so much food and then would go right up to her room and turn her radio up real loud and after about 10 or 15 minutes she would go into the bathroom and brush her teeth. This would happen about three times a day and after about a month or two of these patterns I started to question her and she would automatically become defensive and we would get in big arguments. I told my father about what she was doing and he automatically became concerned because we were going through groceries every week, like $200 each week.

It is very stressful being in that particular situation because you have to be very cautious of that person because they are very vulnerable. We never confronted my sister directly about what she was doing, my dad kind of went around it in his own way by setting. appointments for all of us to see a psychologist so she would feel more comfortable talking and maybe getting her own help her own way. We talked to a doctor separately for about a month and a half and it really helped my sister come to her senses and she slowly let go of the disorder. I am really happy that it worked because seeing my sister go through something like that was really heart breaking and scary. She is now at a healthy weight and doing very well.

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