What Keeps Bulimia Going?
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
Many people go through periods where they eat more or less than usual. If these episodes are extreme, distressing, or happen often, they may be a sign of bulimia nervosa. Bulimia can cause a wide spectrum of experiences which include:
- Binge eating: episodes when your eating feels out of control, excessive, and difficult to stop.
- Using compensatory behaviors to avoid gaining weight, such as vomiting, restricting what you eat, doing heavy exercise, or taking laxatives or diet pills.
- Worrying about your weight or how you look.
- Spending a lot of time and energy in activities related to your weight or eating: such as calorie counting, checking your weight often, using mirrors excessively or avoiding them altogether.
- Being concerned about your shape, weight, or eating to the extent that it stops you from doing things or gets in the way of your life.
Research studies have shown that
Therapist Guidance
“One interesting way of thinking about bulimia is to look at why, for some people, it does not get better by itself. This handout shows some of the most common reasons why some people keep experiencing symptoms of bulimia. I wonder if we could look at it together and think about whether it describes some of what is happening for you?”
References And Further Reading
- Slade, E., Keeney, E., Mavranezouli, I., Dias, S., Fou, L., Stockton, S., Saxon, L., Waller, G., Turner, H., Serpell, L., Fairburn, C. G., & Kendall, T. (2018). Treatments for bulimia nervosa: A network meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 48, 2629-2636.
- van Eeden, A. E., van Hoeken, D., & Hoek, H. W. (2021). Incidence, prevalence and mortality of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 34, 515-524.