Eating Disorders : Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating as well as by self-induced vomiting and/or laxative abuse (Mitchell, 1986). Episodes of overeating typically alternate with attempts to diet, although the eating habits of bulimics and their methods of weight control vary (Fairburn et al., 1986). The majority of bulimics have a body weight within the normal range for their height, build, and age, and yet possess intense and prominent concerns about their shape and weight (Fairburn et al., 1986). Individuals with bulimia nervosa are aware that they have an eating problem, and therefore are often eager to receive help. The most common approach to

Somewhere across the globe there are children waking up with empty stomachs, scavenging for any scrap of food they can find. For some people in America though, ironically enough, there are those who purposefully do not eat, or push back up what they have eaten. Women and men in the American society are influenced by a beauty ideal so powerful that has taken peoples lives through starvation, despite being surrounded by food. This phenomenon is known as bulimia. Bulimia, as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary, is “a serious eating disorder … characterized by compulsive overeating usually followed

While Bulimia is known by many names, the term “bulimia” did not enter the English language until the 1970s, “perhaps representing lingering uncertainty about its essence” (Gordon, 2000). Bulimia, as we know it, is a modern disease, however, there is some evidence of binging and purging in ancient times; for example, in ancient Egypt, “physicians would recommend periodical purgation as a health practice” (Gordon, 2000). There has also been documentation of wealthy families in the middle ages vomiting during meals in order to continue eating large amounts of food. At this point, you may be wondering why these examples are not considered Bulimia Nervosa. According to Dr. Richard Allan Gordon, author of Eating Disorders: Anatomy of a Social

For decades, both men and women have struggled under the pressure of looking a certain way, what is considered "attractive". The pressure of society 's view of perfection is all around us, whenever we watch a movie or pick up a magazine. This idea of perfection has driven thousands of adolescents to turn to eating disorders, including bulimia nervosa. During the time I was bulimic, I remember watching movies and fashion shows, then looking at myself in the mirror and thinking “I’m never going to be skinny enough”. I now realize how wrong I was for punishing myself like that and how much damage I was doing to my body. That’s why I think it’s important for everyone to read about bulimia, because this disorder may go unobserved for years and

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which the individual has a distorted body self-image and an intense fear of weight gain. The individual intentionally restricts daily food intake, which causes alarming weight loss and results in self-imposed starvation. Internal medicine physicians, Brown and Mehler (2015) from Denver Health Medical Center warned, “Starvation induces protein and fat catabolism that leads to loss of cellular volume and function, resulting in adverse effects on, and atrophy of, the heart, brain, liver, intestines, kidneys, and muscles” (p. 11). Medical complications resulting from starvation affect nearly every major organ system in the adolescent body, some more severely than others. While there are 11 major organ systems

In the United States of America 20 million women, and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life. There are three types of eating disorders, Anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating. Eating disorders can be life-threatening conditions that can affect a person’s physical health, and emotional. Something that serious has people wondering what exactly is causing these people to risk their health on it?

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

Bulimia Nervosa: commonly called bulimia - is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating and purging.

Imagine that Addie, a teenager, has become very self-conscious of her body and felt like she needed to be thin. She would do all she can to get thin. She would look in the mirror and see herself as being fat and ugly. So she chooses not to eat or she binge eat and then purge. Now Addie has what is called an eating disorder. An eating disorder is can be described as abnormal eating to alter the body image due to psychological reasons. According to Janet Belsky, it can also be classified as a pathological obsession with getting and staying thin. (Belsky 252) They are associated with a wide range of adverse psychological, physical, and social consequences. People become obsessed with checking their weight so they are constantly looking

In order to explore the eating disorder that is facing much adolescences during their lives, specifically anorexia nervosa, a search was conducted and various scholarly articles were assessed and integrated into the final paper of this class. The assignment today will review the articles selected.

Anorexia nervosa is a disorder defined by the DSM 5 as a disorder characterized by the client displaying:1. Restricted food intake (energy) proportional to sex, age and developmental trajectory that leads to weight loss. 2. Processing fear of becoming overweight in spite of being underweight. 3. Dysfunctional way of experiencing one’s body weight or shape. Perceived unfavorable view of one’s body or shape (self image), and or lack of seriousness concern or denial of the seriousness of low body weight, (APA, 2013).

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by: eating ecxessive amounts of food in a short time (binge eating) and then purging by vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics. Bulimic behavior is done secretly, because it is often accompanied by feelings of disgust, shame and guilt. Like people with anorexia, they often fear gaining weight, desperately want to lose weight, and are unhappy with their body image. However a bulimic individual may have normal weight with large swings in weight. The binging and purging cycle usually repeats several times a week. Similar to anorexia, people with bulimia often have coexisting psychological illnesses, such as depression, anxiety and/or substance abuse problems.

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” claimed model Kate Moss, in her 2009 interview with Women’s Wear Daily Magazine. Being one of the most famous models in the industry in the early 2000’s, Kate Moss had a younger fan base, ranging from high school girls to college women. For this very reason, many people thought it was wrong of Kate to say such a thing and claimed she was promoting eating disorders. This phrase, although years old, still has influence on young women in today’s society where whether someone eats too much or too little, they are judged. This being said it is no surprise that the leading mental illnesses in America are Anorexia and Bulimia. Both Anorexia and Bulimia are similar in the fact that they are highly popular in today’s world where it seems that physical appearance is always a topic of discussion; however, the two illnesses are different in the effects they have to a person’s body.

The rise of clinically diagnosed cases of anorexia nervosa nervosa and bulimia nervosa nervosa are increasing over the decades. According to Barlow,Durand and Stewart(2012), eating disorders are found to be more prevalent among women, specifically between the ages of 12 and 25 years of age. Prior to modern research, researchers saw eating disorders as a Western phenomenon due to the fact that non western countries did not have such a wide variety of food available to them. This perspective is now changing. Individuals in other countries (non-western) have been diagnosed with eating disorders as well, however it is not as frequent as the United States or Canada for example(Barlow et al., 2012).

Another eating disorder that is common among adolescents is bulimia nervosa. According to Stöppler (2008), bulimia nervosa is characterized by episodes of secretive excessive eating, also known as bingeing, followed by methods of weight control such as self-induced vomiting (purging), abuse of laxatives and diuretics, or excessive exercise. Bulimia is also a psychological disorder, and the cycle of overeating and purging can quickly become and obsession similar to an addiction to drugs or other substances (Stöppler, 2008). Binge eating is usually not triggered by intense hunger from the individual, but more or so as a response to depression, stress, or other feelings related to body weight, shape, or food (Stöppler, 2008). Stöppler states that oftentimes the individual will feel a loss of control during the binge eating and the purging becomes a way to regain that loss of control (2008). According to Stöppler, a person diagnosed as bulimic must have all of that disorder's specific symptoms (2008). For a person to be classified as bulimic he or she must have all of the following symptoms: recurrent episodes of binge eating in which a minimum average of two binge-eating episodes a week for at least three months, a feeling of lack of control over eating during the binges, persistent concern of being overweight, and a regular use of one or more of the following to prevent weight gain (self induced vomiting, use of