Bulimia is a disorder of behavior, a neurosis characterized by uncontrolled overeating and attempts to "repair the damage", provocation of vomiting, diarrhea, excessive physical exertion, starvation, the use of various medications and supplements. In the development of this disease, the role is played also by personal, social, and physiological factors.
What is bulimia?
People suffering from this ailment are preoccupied (most often, unhappy) with their appearance - weight and body shapes. Their attention is fixed on the "ideals" proposed by modern culture: very thin, asthenic persons with a bright appearance. When you correlate yourself with such a model, the patient experiences severe discomfort. Because of this, she/he decides to make every effort to maximize perfect body. As a result, a person chooses a hard diet for her(him)self or starts simply to starve. The majority of those suffering from bulimia are vividly interested in the themes of a "healthy lifestyle", "cleansing the body", novelties of pharmacology and sports medicine that can actively influence metabolism, and other similar things.
This tension of physical and psychological forces regularly leads to breakdowns, when the patient significantly over-eating. After the breakdown, there comes a cruel repentance and a desire, by all means, to "correct the mistake." Behind the "act of weakness" follows the "act of willpower" - an emergency removal from the body of food. Most often, patients cause vomiting. In addition, laxatives and diuretics, enemas can be used, bringing themselves to exhaustion with physical exertion.
Results of bulimia:
We deliberately place a section describing the consequences of this ailment at the beginning of the article. Many patients are sure that their manipulation with their own organism does not cause them any special harm. Such a delusion is understandable:
1. First, most of those suffering from bulimia are teenage girls and young girls who do not have sufficient knowledge of physiology.
2. Secondly, even if adults are ill, they push out of consciousness the awareness of the danger of bulimia, play down the risk, avoid information that can injure them.
But both sides of the disorder are dangerous: a desperate desire to lose weight, and bouts of overeating.
Sharp weight loss speaks about sharp infringement of a metabolism: all systems of an organism test stress, work pathologically. The first is the water-salt balance, which provides normal functions of all organs. Suffice it to say that a sharp violation of the ratio of liquid and minerals can lead to irreversible violations and even death. Constant manipulations with the digestive system lead to disturbances in the secretion of gastric juice, damage to the mucosa - all the way from the esophagus to the rectum.
The lack of nutrients will knock down the hormonal system. This is especially noticeable in the female body, where the presence of fat deposits is directly related to the production of estrogen. Sharp weight fluctuations often cause infertility. And this is a very brief description of the inevitable physiological consequences of bulimia.
Symptoms of bulimia:
In the general description of the disease, we have already touched on its manifestations in part. It should be noted that not everyone who is prone to overeating or even binge eating is ill with bulimia. As well as not everyone, exhausting himself with diets, sitting on "pills for weight loss", etc. It is important to understand whether there is a systematic, repeatable episodes.
In addition to the phase of "control" and the phase of "failure". Important signs of bulimia can be:
• fear of finding the problem around, shame;
• secretion, to the point where the patient refuses to eat at all;
• persistent obsessions about food, about hunger;
• "planned" gluttony, when, for example, in honor of a holiday a person arranges a "feast" for himself - a planned breakdown;
• decrease in brightness of taste sensations;
• dependence on medications and procedures, which, according to the patient, help control weight.
The surrounding, if attentive, can see the problem. If your loved one is concerned about losing weight, tries not to eat at public or constantly disappears somewhere immediately after a meal - there is reason to be on the alert.
And for the patient, and for those who want to help, the main thing is to know that bulimia is curable. But this way must be done together with a specialist. It is almost impossible to cope independently with this disease. After all, this is not enough for the "willpower", which the patient is already hoping for too much. It will be required and competent psychotherapy, and taking medications, and correcting the pathological consequences of the disease.
The difference between bulimia and anorexia:
These disorders are often confused, although they have cardinal differences:
1. Anorexic rarely "breaks down" and such episodes occur more often at the onset of the disease. Later a person is ready to exclude food from his life altogether.
2. Anorexic is consistently losing weight, whereas with bulimia weight can remain normal or fluctuate significantly.
3. In case of anorexia, the leading motive is to feel "full" and strive to lose weight. A patient with bulimia can be fixed on the ideas of "cleansing", "withdrawal of toxins", "a new approach to nutrition" and so on.
We will begin the description of therapy with those drugs that can be prescribed for bulimia. The patient, as a rule, needs replenishment of the serotonin deficiency, for which antidepressants are used - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. For example Zoloft. Obviously, such drugs can only be taken under the supervision of a doctor.
In addition, antiemetic, anticonvulsant drugs can be used that help in the fight against addictions.
An integral part of the treatment should be working with a psychotherapist. There are different approaches to accompanying such patients:
1. For example, a counselor can invite a patient to keep a nutrition diary, then to jointly discuss the causes and consequences of malnutrition. So, gradually, healthy settings are formed.
2. Another method, as it were, eliminates the main problem. All attention during the consultations focuses on traumatic stress factors, self-perception disorders.
3. The third option is family counseling, in which close people help the patient cope with the disease (naturally, under the guidance of a specialist).
