What is and causes bulimia ?
What is bulimia?
Bulimia Nervosa is a type of
eating disorder. Eating disorders is the term used to describe a group of illnesses where someone has a distorted view of body image and extreme disturbances in eating behaviour. Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder are all different types of
eating disorders. People experiencing bulimia go on regular
eating "binges", which involves consuming large amounts of food in relatively discrete periods of time whilst accompanied by feelings of being out of control of one's food intake. The
binge eating is usually followed by feelings of guilt and anxiety about becoming fat and this results in a need to get rid of the food. Common ways of getting rid of food may include:
- Over exercising to burn the calories
- "Throwing up"
- Taking laxatives, diuretics or diet pills
- Not eating for several days after the binge.
Bingeing may be used as a way of coping with anger,
depression,
stress and sadness. Some of the common signs of bulimia may be:
- Eating unusually large amounts of food
- Being secretive about what is eaten and when
- read more
