Bulimia
BULIMIA
"It starts off with me thinking about the food that I deny myself when I am dieting. This soon changes into a strong desire to eat. First of all it is a relief and a comfort to eat, and I feel quite high. But then I can't stop and I binge. I eat frantically until I am absolutely full. Afterwards I feel so guilty and angry with myself." (qtd. In Maloney and Kranz 6)
The term bulimia nervosa means literally "the hunger of an ox." Unfortunately, this hunger cannot be satisfied by food alone ("Health"). Bulimics begin their disorder with a tendency to binge. They frequently feel intense anxiety, and they can calm it only temporarily by eating. After binge eating, a bulimic will often try to regain control by following a very strict diet. Once bulimics discover the idea of purging, they then think that they have found the solution. They describe their binge-purge cycle as a constant battle for control. Binging is when bulimics have lost control, and purging is their way of regaining it. Most begin by purging occasionally and slowly increase to binging and purging several times a day (Maloney and Kranz 76).
There is evidence that eating disorders may be inherited. There are two types of evidence that support this view. The first is that eating disorders run in families. Second is that in a case of identical rather than fraternal twins, if one pair has an eating disorder, it is very likely that the other will have one as well (Cooper 30). From an opposing view it could be argued that both of these factors could be a result of family environment rather than physical heredity. It could be common experiences that family members share within their shared environment that causes eating disorders to run in families (Hurley 97).
Often a girl who turns bulimic reports that she did not get sufficient care when she was a child. She may have been given the message that her parents were too busy to help her with her problems,...
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