Bulimia Nervosa

Eating disorders effecting American women have been on the rise in recent year. The alarming trend of increasing cases of these psychological disorders has sparked intellectual inquiry into their shared features. The rising amount of societal pressures that many women around the country feel have caused a lot of women to turn to food as a coping mechanism. Whether it is control exhorted over food or eating as a means to feel numb, women look to food to make themselves feel a certain way. Food, in modern culture, represents much more than just as a means of nourishing ones body. How individuals use food as a copping mechanism has in part lead to the exploitation of food. Three major eating disorders; Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating

Cathy Rigby suffered from a twelve-year bout with bulimia nervosa. She went into cardiac arrest on two occasions as a result of it. She feels very strongly about the lack of education about eating disorders in

Disorder: Bulimia Nervosa Because: The symptoms of bulimia nervosa create health problems like tooth damage and further interferes daily functioning, for instance, avoiding others to binge. People with BN also experience high level of anxiety of being overweight.

Eating Disorders affect over ninety percent of our population today. Yearly, they affect around nine million adults alone. Since it has such a widespread grasp it makes eating disorders the most silent killer of all psychological diseases. The psychological distortion behind it though is considered to be one of the most shrouded in mystery compared to other diseases rooted in mental instability.

Anorexia is a disorder dealing tremendously with peoples emotions. It is often defined by the persons persistent need to lose weight by refraining from food. Bulimia is a disorder prolonged by a person’s emotions. It often includes the person having a distorted image of their body and an obsessive urge to be thin, where sessions of excess overeating are followed up with self-loath and some form of purging. Purging includes taking laxatives, self-induced vomiting, and fasting. Binge eating is an eating disorder characterized by a person who intakes vast amounts of food in a short time span. During an episode of binge eating, the victim feels as if they cannot control

In Trick of the Light by Lois Metzger, Mike Welles feels his life is spiraling out of control. His father left them for some other woman, and his mother can barely get out of bed. He feels like he is all alone. That is, until he hears this voice in his head, telling him if he would just work out, he can make him better and stronger than before. Then he meets Amber-

Some common eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is an emotional disorder that is characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight; and ways of achieving this is the refusal to eat. Bulimia is when one performs extreme overeating that is followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting; it is an eating disorder in which a large amount of food is consumed in a short period of time, and then the person attributes feelings of guilt or shame, leading to the induction of vomit. Both of these disorders are caused by anxiety disorders, whether it be “OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), social phobia, specific phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder in childhood, before they developed an

It is now defined as “Recurring episodes of eating significantly more food in a short period of time than most people would eat under similar circumstances, with episodes marked by feelings of lack of control.… The person may have feelings of guilt, embarrassment, or disgust and may binge eat alone to hide the behavior”. It is important to note that there is a difference between over-eating and binge-eating, while over-eating is a recognizable problem for many people, “binge-eating is much less common, far more severe, and associated with significant physiological and psychological problems” (DSM 5). Binge Eating Disorder is similar to Bulimia Nervosa in that we see episodes of eating large amounts of food, the difference being that there is no purging after the binging episode. It is seen highly among obese patients, but, perhaps due to a reluctance to relate obesity with an eating disorder, it was not recognized as distinct from Bulimia Nervosa until the early 1990s (Gordon, 2000).

Bulimia is a disorder centered around an individual’s obsession with food and weight. This obsession involves eating large quantities of food, feeling guilty about the food consumption, and taking drastic measures to prevent caloric/fat absorption. Measures vary with each individual and include one or all of the following: forced vomiting, abuse of laxatives or diuretics, or excessive exercise. This disease affects one to three percent of adolescent and young women in the United States, and bulimic behaviors are displayed by ten to twenty percent of adolescent and young women in the United States (http://dcs.engr.widener.edu/galla/gal la.htm).

There is no single cause for bulimia nervosa. However, there are many risk factors that contribute to this problem, including low self-esteem and concerns about weight. Other risk factors include genetic factors like being a female (80% of bulimia patients are female), age (often begins in the mid-teens or early adulthood), psychological and emotional issues (decreased self-esteem, impulsive behavior, depression, negative body image), social pressure during teen years and performance pressure in sports (particularly common among athletes such as gymnastics, ballet dancers and runners) (Edelstein, Haskew, Kramer, 2009). Parents need to identify possible factors that place the adolescent at risk for bulimia nervosa and be aware of any changes that may indicate the presence of an eating disorder.

Kate Moss is famous for a lot of things. She’s a well-known fashion model, dated Johnny Depp, and has written many books. However in the eating disorder world she is best known for her words “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” That comment was made back in 2009 at the age of 35 (Selby, 2014). Those words had made an impact in the lives of so many teens since then. As a media icon, starring in over 300 magazines covers over her 25 year career, so many young teens looked up to her (Selby, 2014). Back then there were supposedly 1.1 million people in the UK with an eating disorder, by 2010 1.6 million people were diagnosed with an eating disorder. The majority of the people suffering from these diseases are people between the ages of 12-20

Bulimia nervosa is a chronic psychiatric disorder that haunts the lives of many young women. The disorder is characterized by frequent episodes of binge eating followed by some sort of purging. The purging usually involves self-induced vomiting and can cause great damage to the body. Persons diagnosed with bulimia nervosa have a loss of control over these behaviors. Affecting the lives of 3-5% of young women, bulimia is a problem that is spinning out of control and nothing seems to be able to stop it. Binge eating disorder is another psychiatric disease that causes problems for many people. In this disorder, persons binge frequently but do not

symptoms but some of the primary ones are: intake of large amounts of food followed by a sense of loss of control over eating behavior. Bulimics make their selves throw up, fast, and become obsessive to exercise at all times. People with bulimia have an extreme concern with their weight, and body shape. Research has shown that people with bulimia have a chemical imbalance in the brain that affects their behavior. Another cause of bulimia may have to do with genetics. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and other events such as being rape can cause someone to lead to bulimia. Bulimics have problem with their bodies and they fear gaining weight so they respond by making their self-throw up.

There are two categories of Bulimia Nervosa and both are serious and life threatening: Purging bulimia is where the patient regularly self-induces vomiting. The patient also misuses laxatives, diuretics or takes enemas after eating large amounts of food. The second type of bulimia is non-purging bulimia where the patient uses fasting, strict dieting or excessive and prolonged exercise in order to not gain weight. Both types of bulimia are an attempt to avoid gaining weight by purging what was consumed (Hay). Bulimic patients are preoccupied with their weight and body shape and judge themselves severely and harshly for self-perceived flaws. Because it's related to self-image, and not just about food, bulimia can be hard for the patient to overcome (Mayo Clinic Staff). Risk factors are being

“Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by massive food binges followed by self-induced vomiting or use of diuretics and laxatives to avoid weight gain.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia)