Bulimia: symptoms, treatment and consequences

This article will look at the symptoms and treatment of bulimia. What is this pathology?

Many people do not fully understand the essence of this term. It is often associated with exorbitant gluttony and the constant struggle of an overweight person. However, this is not overeating, not a diet or lifestyle.

Bulimia, in fact, is a serious illness that is caused by the neuropsychic dysfunction of the human body. In the absence of timely correction of such a disorder, a person is able to get a complex of diseases of a chronic nature, which are often incompatible with his life.

Many are interested in what bulimia is. Symptoms and photos of girls who have encountered this problem are all presented in the article. We can say that this is a kind of addiction. For example, if a drug addict, an alcoholic, or an Internet addict denies having addiction, does not feel remorse about this, then a person suffering from bulimia is burdened by his own illness.

Bulimics are preoccupied with being overweight, eating too much. That is why they use peculiar methods of self-healing - they induce vomiting artificially, take laxatives and can constantly torment themselves with too much physical exertion.

The next feature of this digestive system disorder lies in the fact that bulimics carefully hide their addiction and try to keep their weight within normal limits at all costs. That is why relatives of the patient may not even be aware of the presence of symptoms of bulimia.

Specificity of the disease

Bulimia (in medical terminology this diagnosis sounds like bulimia nervosa) is a pathological behavior of a person in relation to food, due to mental dysfunction. It manifests itself in the form of uncontrollable attacks of overeating, due to an excessive feeling of hunger. Sometimes a sick person can eat more than 2-3 kilograms of food in a couple of hours. However, in the end, saturation does not occur, and often the patient does not even remember the taste of the food that he just swallowed.

When the next attack passes, the patient feels regret and guilt. Realizing the incorrectness of his act, he seeks to rectify this situation. There are several options: it causes artificial vomiting, immediately takes a large dose of a laxative, makes an enema. Sometimes patients make a healthier decision and lose weight in the gym. At the same time, the state of health deteriorates significantly, the body is depleted, and secondary diseases develop against the background of bulimia symptoms.

At a subconscious level, patients have two fix ideas. The first is based on the fact that a person thinks about food every second, constantly looks through the eyes of a store, then thinks about what goodies he would get at the first opportunity. A specific feature of such people is secrecy from those around them during meals.

After a short enjoyment of food, the patient has another obsessive thought: it is necessary to lose weight as soon as possible. This aspect is especially pronounced in women, because they often seem to have excess kilograms even without disease, and they seek to get rid of them. Against the background of progressive bulimia, these signs increase several times.

Under the pressure of such circumstances, patients with bulimia fall into a vicious circle. Chronic stress and constant hunger strikes strongly on a person both morally and physically. When depletion reaches its climax, the patient breaks down and eliminates his stress with food in huge quantities. Symptoms of bulimia are rather unpleasant.

During short-term consumption, food provokes a state of euphoria, and then everything returns to its previous state. There is a familiar feeling of guilt and anxiety about being overweight. This becomes a source of another wave of stress, and the patient again begins to struggle with an excess of calories.

Unfortunately, a disease such as bulimia (along with other mental disorders) is not taken seriously by a person. He thinks that he does not need the help of a doctor, and even more so of a psychiatrist. The patient thinks that with weight stabilization he will be able to suppress another attack. The disease itself is perceived as a bad habit, he is ashamed of it and hides it from other people.

What kind of disease and symptoms of bulimia are discussed below.

Types of bulimia and their effects on the body

Bulimia can develop in all patients in different ways, with the level of severity inherent in a particular case, the frequency of exacerbations, psychological and behavioral symptoms. That is why an accurate classification of bulimia has not yet been developed. However, experts conventionally divided this disease into two types.

• True (primary) bulimia. The disease is characterized by an eternal desire to eat something, so the attacks are chronic. Symptoms of bulimia in adolescents are most often observed. Patients often suffer from obesity, and due to psychological self-destruction they are more exposed to drug or alcohol dependence, thoughts of suicide, depression. Statistics show that bulimia attacks are most prevalent in highly developed countries, for example, in Switzerland and the USA. In countries with lower affluence, bulimia is rare.
• A disease resulting from anorexia, which is also a mental disorder and is characterized by a person’s refusal to eat. The patient tries with all his might not to gain excess weight, and therefore immediately after eating he gets rid of it through the gag reflex. Often anorexia occurs in actors, dancers, models, when every gram counts. However, constant fasting can cause severe hunger, and this provokes the patient to absorb food in large quantities. At this point, there is a close relationship between bulimia and anorexia, although they are various diseases.

If you omit the details, then the disease may not seem so dangerous pathology, as experts say. It seems that there is nothing dangerous in the symptoms of bulimia nervosa, namely in periodic overeating with a tasty and deliberate bringing the weight back to normal.

However, not everything is so good. If the disease lasts for a long time, its consequences can become unpredictable: it can either become chronic, or end in death.

So, how does bulimia affect human health? This issue should be considered in more detail:

• The abuse of many laxatives, in addition to perfect exhaustion of the body and vitamin deficiency, causes an imbalance in muscle tone and heart rhythm failure. As a result, the heart loses the ability to fully pump blood, and this can be fatal.
• The gag reflex, which is the patient’s main problem, disrupts the functioning of the respiratory system over time.
• Uncontrolled overeating can cause a perforated ulcer of the intestinal mucosa and stomach. Often this results in a severe condition of the patient and bleeding.
• A negative psycho-emotional background causes disturbances in the activity of the nervous system. That is why there are thoughts of suicide, apathy and depression. These are also symptoms of bulimia nervosa.

Since this is a mental disorder, the origins of pathology must be sought at the subconscious level. Psychologists have determined that stress or childhood trauma experienced in adulthood become a common cause of bulimia symptoms, which contributes to defects in the digestive center.

The first reason: childhood psychological trauma

Both a peer and a parent can play a cruel joke on a child who develops bulimia in the future. The cause of the disease can be:

• continuous feeling of hunger in the baby;
• lack of parental attention and love in preschool age;
• enhanced promotion of baby high-calorie and sweet foods;
• uncomfortable atmosphere in the teenage team.

A child deprived of parental friendship and warmth finds pleasure in other things. In such situations, food becomes the source of all that is missing. This way is the easiest: food is available, it is not forbidden by parents, to get it there is no need to prove something to someone, strive to earn someone's trust, etc. This violates the basics of a healthy diet, when you need to eat only after a person feels hunger. The digestive center as a result is not functioning properly. Why else can bulimia symptoms occur in girls and boys?

The second reason: low self-esteem due to dissatisfaction with their appearance

This factor is very dangerous in childhood, as friends, parents, and teachers, playfully insulting a child and calling him a fat man, can turn him into a notorious person who is predisposed to the development of bulimia. The following reasons may cause such an outcome:

• parents constantly tell the child about excess weight, inspire that only slender people are beautiful;
• straightforward statements by parents, friends or a trainer about excess weight or defects in appearance;
• the girl’s awareness in adolescence of the difference between her own physique and model.

When approaching the teenage period, girls begin to compare their body with the bodies of models. The impact of the press, television, and girlfriends ultimately creates the view that a beautiful figure is a source of a serene life. That is why teens are experimenting on their own body, resorting to starvation, diets, and later on bulimia. The likelihood of bulimia symptoms in children rises with excessive self-doubt and suspiciousness.

Third Cause of Bulimia: The Effect of Stress

The first pathological attacks mainly occur after a person has experienced stress. To forget about what happened, to avoid fear or suffering, to eliminate pain, or to fill loneliness, the patient uses a large amount of food. After another attack, the body fills with glucose, and the person is temporarily happy.

An attack of bulimia usually occurs after a negative event, for example, after breaking up with a person, a fatal illness of a loved one, or divorce from a spouse. Food in this case seems to the patient a kind of lifesaver. However, the opposite situation also occurs in which overeating is characteristic of a state of too strong happiness and is a kind of reward.

Symptoms and treatment of bulimia nervosa we are considering today.

The fourth cause of bulimia: lack of nutrients

People who adhere to too strict diets often fall into the ranks of bulimics. With a critical restriction, a strong feeling of hunger appears in the food, and the patient cannot think of anything other than, for example, a piece of meat or delicious muffin. At a certain point, a person breaks down from a diet and absorbs everything that is in sight.

At the psychological level, there is a signal that you need to eat as much as possible until the “hunger period” has come again.

This type of bulimia is characteristic of patients with anorexia. A number of psychologists consider bulimia an easier manifestation of anorexia, when a person cannot refuse to eat completely.

Symptoms of bulimia in women are manifested quite often.

The fifth cause of bulimia: protecting a person from pleasures

There are people who live with the idea that they do not have the right to pleasure, and they will have to pay for happiness. The reasons for this self-hypnosis can be the result of values ​​instilled in religion or strict upbringing. In this case, a sick person absorbs food as a punishment for his “unworthy” behavior: rash acquisitions, unplanned rest or sexual contact.

Sixth cause of bulimia: heredity

There is also a genetic factor for bulimia. If relatives have bouts of overeating, there is a high probability of the same story in subsequent generations. Such heredity is due to the specifics of the functioning of the hypothalamus, which causes an imbalance of some hormones.

Now it’s clear what kind of disease it is - bulimia. Symptoms will be considered in more detail.

The main manifestations of the disease

Such a diagnosis as “bulimia” is made only after a complete study of a person. For this, they do not just analyze his behavior, but also do an MRI of the hypothalamus, ultrasound of organs, determine the balance of water and salt in the body. After this, several criteria are specified, and the diagnosis is based on them:

• eating food in unlimited quantities, which is not subject to human control;
• the use of a laxative, or a gag reflex;
• low weight on the border of the norm;
• obsession with your body shapes and weight.

The remaining symptoms of bulimia are individual. These may include:

• frequent patient conversations about obesity and a healthy diet, even if there is no talk of being overweight, bulimics concentrate only on this problem;
• constant thoughts only about healthy foods. The patient, trying to mask his own addictions, tries to advertise an allegedly healthy lifestyle;
• instability weight, since the arrow on the bulimik scales can often fluctuate in each direction by 5-8 kilograms, and this is noticeable to people around;
• deterioration of health (poor memory, lethargy, unreasonable drowsiness, depression, decreased memory functioning; lack of nutrients, as well as the patient’s experiences, significantly undermine his health);
• gums and teeth become poor; sores appear regularly in the corners of the mouth. Similar symptoms are caused by gastric juice, which is excreted along with vomiting;
• diseases of the throat and hoarse voice, as frequent vomiting worsens the condition of the vocal cords;
• redness of the eyes caused by changes in blood pressure during vomiting, which leads to intestinal rupture;
• cramps due to poor functioning of the kidneys and heart; a similar state is provoked by leaching of salts of mineral origin;
• intestinal disorders: constipation, bloating, diarrhea - are the result of the influence of a laxative or overeating;
• poor condition of the epidermal cover: pallor, dryness, premature wrinkles due to vitamin deficiency;
• a defect in the ability of women to have children or a decrease in male erection, which occurs due to disorders of the endocrine system, caused, in turn, by pathological metabolic processes.

Symptoms and treatment of bulimia are of interest to many.

Effective Bulimia Treatments

Bulimia is treated by a therapist. It is he who is competent in referring a patient to a hospital or conducting treatment at home.

The direct indications for inpatient therapy are:

• thoughts of suicide;
• depression with a very strong expression;
• dehydration;
• the depletion of the human body on the verge of normal;
• unsuccessful treatment of bulimia at home;
• pregnancy.

The best option is recognized as an integrated approach to treatment, which includes medical and psychological assistance.

Self-management of bulimia symptoms

Patients who have taken their disease and want to eliminate bulimia are able to try to independently return to the normal course. However, it is better to do this under the strict guidance of a specialist.

• You need to keep a food diary. Compile in it seven days in advance a varied menu that is within the daily calorie content that is right for you. Strictly carry out all the points.
• Constantly visit a doctor who will monitor the patient's condition.
• Include a large number of fruits and vegetables in the diet. With a doctor, you need to discuss the problem of prescribing supplements of minerals and vitamins.
• Deeply analyze the disease. Self-education is a great motivation.
• If it is impossible to understand the reasons for your own overeating, you should go to an appointment with a psychologist.
• You need to learn to love yourself, without driving your body into the framework of specific standards, because each person is not a template, but a certain personality.

Psychologist treating bulimia

An important component in the treatment of bulimia is psychotherapy. The doctor helps the patient identify the cause of the poor condition, because doing it yourself is almost impossible, especially with the origins of the problem going back to deep childhood.

After establishing contact with the patient and determining the causes of bulimic symptoms, a long procedure is performed to decompensate the emotional and mental state of a person.

The doctor teaches the patient to deal with situations of stress, or joyful moments without attracting food. Therapy allows him to regain himself, increase self-esteem and get rid of obsessive thoughts about food forever. Symptoms of bulimia as a result are not so pronounced.

Drug therapy for bulimia

To stabilize the nervous system, antidepressants are used, which make it possible to restore the passage of nerve impulses and relieve depressive symptoms. The most effective among them for bulimia is Imizin, Prozac, and Fluoxetine.

The disadvantage of these drugs is their ability to slow down the reactions of the human body, and therefore, during therapy, the patient should refrain from driving vehicles and working with various mechanisms. In addition, antidepressants cannot be combined with alcohol.

In addition, anti-emetics are used in the treatment of bulimia, for example, Zofran and Tserukal. These tablets allow you to set the blockage of the vomiting center in bulimia, which provokes inertia vomiting after eating.

Whatever attempts are made in modern medicine, there is no effective drug for bulimia. It must be remembered that the success of treatment is determined only by the desire of the patient and his efforts.

What are the consequences of bulimia symptoms?

Effects

If a person refuses medical care, he is exposed to the consequences of pathology, which occurs quite often. The main one among them is obesity caused by eternal overeating. Other consequences:

• tooth decay;
• gastrointestinal tract disorders;
• defects in the activity of the liver, heart and kidneys;
• neurasthenia;
• addiction to drugs and drugs;
• deterioration in relationships with others;
• decreased patient interest in life;
• decrease in blood pressure;
• bleeding inside the body;
• menstrual abnormalities;
• metabolic and endocrine disorders;
• adrenal insufficiency and diabetes;
• the ability to commit suicide due to mental abnormalities;
• fatal outcome.

If you want to reduce weight, you need to contact a nutritionist who makes up an adequate diet.

We examined what bulimia is. Symptoms, treatment and photos of girls suffering from this ailment - all this was presented in the article.