Bulimia

Bulimia nervosa: the diet-binge-purge disorder

  • Person binge eats.
  • Feels out of control while eating.
  • Vomits, misuses laxatives, exercises, or fasts to get rid of the calories.
  • Diets when not bingeing. Becomes hungry and binges again.
  • Believes self-worth requires being thin. (It does not.)
  • May shoplift, be promiscuous, and abuse alcohol, drugs, and credit cards.
  • Weight may be normal or near normal unless anorexia is also present.

Like anorexia, bulimia can kill. Even though bulimics put up a brave front, they are often depressed, lonely, ashamed, and empty inside. Friends may describe them as competent and fun to be with, but underneath, where they hide their guilty secrets, they are hurting.

Feeling unworthy, they have great difficulty talking about their feelings, which almost always include anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and deeply buried anger.

Impulse control may be a problem; e.g., shoplifting, sexual adventurousness, alcohol and drug abuse, and other kinds of risk-taking behavior. Person acts with little consideration of consequences.