Bulimia. You’ve heard the word before. Here is a quick overview of bulimia symptoms, causes and recovery:
- Symptoms: binging and then behavior to not gain weight (doesn’t need to be vomiting but excessive exercise counts too)
- Causes: no definitive cause but risk factors include biology, past behavior of dieting, and emotional issues
- Recovery: various options for recovery
Bulimia Causes
There is no one definitive cause of Bulimia. Many times the person is hating their body, which is the exact opposite of what the health at every size movement preaches.
However, based on my past experience of helping people, I can safely say that every person I have worked with with bulimia has had a history of dieting.
This is why I place sooo much educational awareness on dieting. Awareness of dieting is also a hallmark of intuitive eating.
Dieting harms people.
If you have bulimia, odds are high you have dieted before.
Other causes include genes (if you have a close family member or cousin or who also binge eats) and emotional issues.
For an excellent resource article on causes of Bulimia, you can read this Mayo clinic article here.
Bulimia Symptoms
The tricky part about bulimia is that you may not lose a ton of weight like anorexia.
When someone is anorexic, you can sometimes tell. Anorexic people are notorious for having incredibly thin bodies.
Yet bulimia no weight loss (or weight gain) may occur.
This makes bulimia very secretive and easier to hide.
However, there are some common symptoms:
- Binge: you eat a lot of food in a short period of time and feel out of control
- Compensation: You exercise for hours at a time, you take pills to flush your system or stop eating. You may make yourself vomit as well
- Body image distortion: You view your body as the source of your problems. If only your body looked a certain way or if your weight was lower, then your life would be better. These thoughts preoccupy your mind nearly all the time
Bulimia Recovery
An important skill to learn is mindfulness, regardless of your treatment option.
