Bulimia

Bulimia is a form of eating disorder. Many of us these days worry about our weight, are dissatisfied with our appearance, and find it difficult to control our eating at times.

For someone who is suffering from bulimia, these problems have become more extreme, and may come to dominate the person’s life.

People with bulimia have binges in which they eat a great deal of food over a short period of time. After this, the person feels full of guilt and self-hatred, and then spends time trying to restrict how much food they take in, either by dieting, vomiting or using laxatives.

Binging and restricting form a cycle together, that may be repeated several times a day or may occur less frequently. e.g. once a week.

Usually people with bulimia have very poor self-esteem, and may tend to behave impulsively, including in areas of their life other than eating e.g. self-harming or shop-lifting.
People with bulimia can be helped with CBT, psychodynamic therapy and mentalisation based therapy.