Bulimia Nervosa, or shorted to Bulimia, is a mental disorder characterized by an obsession with weight loss that results in the person binge eating, followed by guilt or shame that results in inappropriate compensatory behaviors, such as self-induced vomiting and the use of laxatives.
According to the DSM-5, there are 5 criteria that must be met in order to be diagnosed with the disorder. The first criterion includes recurrent episodes of binge eating. The episode is characterized by eating, within a discrete period of time (2 hours), an amount of food that is excessively larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar time frame under similar circumstances, as well as feeling a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode. The second criterion includes recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain. These inappropriate compensatory behaviors include self-induced vomiting, excessive exercise, the use of diuretics, etc. The third criterion states that both binge eating and compensatory behaviors must occur, on average, at least once a week for three months. The fourth criterion is a self-evaluation that is overly influenced by body shape and weight. The final criterion is that the disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa.
Along with the criteria, the severity of the disorder must be specified when a diagnosis is given. The level of severity is based on the frequency of inappropriate compensatory behaviors and the levels range from mild to extreme. A mild severity is defined as 1-3 episodes of inappropriate compensatory behaviors per week. A moderate severity is defined as 4-7 episodes per week. A severe level of severity is defined as 8-13 episodes per week. Lastly, an extreme level of severity is defined as 14 or more episodes per week.
This disorder, along with many eating disorders, has many associated medical problems. Purging, or self-induced vomiting, is the most serious and can lead significant health decay. Some of these medical problems include the erosion of dental enamel, kidney failure, electrolyte imbalance, cardiac arrhythmia, seizures, permanent colon damage, and many more. These medical problems are all very serious and can lead to death.
The disorder typically begins in late adolescence or early adulthood. The mortality rates are about 3.9% and even higher for those who exercise excessively as their form of compensatory behavior. Most cases of death due to bulimia are caused by cardiac arrests, which are the result of the electrolyte imbalance from excessive purging.
The most common form of treatment for bulimia is called cognitive behavioral therapy. As bulimia is characterized by disturbances in mood, cognition, and eating behaviors, one goal of this form of therapy is to restructure cognitions to make the person think of food differently. Another goal is to break the cycle of negative reinforcement. The negative reinforcement occurs in bulimia when one eats an excessive amount of food and induces vomiting, which results in the person feeling less guilt and shame. To break this cycle, therapists expose the client to normal amounts of food to help reduce the urge to purge because the amount is not excessive. Cognitive behavior therapy has shown to be the most effective treatment of bulimia.
Bulimia is a very common disorder among college age women and if not treated, could be deadly. It is very important to be able to see the signs of the disorder so one can seek help and prevent the disorder from progressing.
This was a very interesting post. I feel like no one really talks about elating disorders, therefore, making them go untreated/unnoticed for a longer period of time than other mental illnesses. In college especially, I feel like we really don’t talk about the way women feel about themselves in, especially because we don’t have people such as our parents that we’ve known our whole lives and trust with information such as this. I personally, have struggled with an eating disorder in the past, and seemed appropriate help because I had a good support system, at college however I have friends yes, but not really anyone I think I could go to in order to help me seek help if this did happen in this time period. I think a lot more people struggle with mental illnesses like this and just fo unnoticed because they may not “look” like how someone with this should look like, or because it is genuinely hard to recognize that you have a problem and seek help.
I am glad you wrote about this. There are so many common misconceptions about eating disorders. I know I never really had the chance to fully understand them, and people love to just throw around terms such as “anorexic” or “bulimic” without really understanding them for themselves. These are medical issues that need to be addressed and not something which you can just be “feeling” one day. I appreciate you spending the time to research and give us the facts on this issue.