Bulimia is an eating disorder caused by anxiety and excessive concern about body weight and physical appearance. Bulimia is a disease with various causes (psychological and somatic) that leads to disturbances in food intake with periods of compulsive eating and other abusive diets associated with vomiting and taking various medications (laxatives and diuretics).
Bulimia
People suffering from bulimia have low self-esteem and feel guilty if they overeat, tending to induce vomiting, binge eating, and fasting. Because of this, they experience sudden fluctuations in body weight.
Symptoms of Bulimia
- It begins with diets to improve physical appearance.
- The desire to eat sweet and fatty foods is very strong.
- Feelings of anger, fatigue, anxiety, loneliness, or boredom trigger compulsive eating episodes.
- After an episode, there is a strong feeling of guilt or attempts to eliminate what was ingested (induced vomiting, laxatives, etc.).
- Anxiety or compulsion to eat.
- Vomiting.
- Abuse of laxatives and diuretics.
- Following various diets.
- Dehydration.
- Menstrual disturbances.
- Sudden weight gain and loss.
- Increase in dental cavities.
The habit becomes entrenched.
Anorexia
Anorexia is loss of appetite to achieve rapid weight loss by restricting food intake, especially those with high calories, whether or not associated with the use of laxatives or diuretics. It must be distinguished from the specific mental disorder known as anorexia nervosa and also from relatively low food intake.
Anorexia nervosa is a severe change in eating behavior characterized by a refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal level, a strong fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image.
There are several subtypes of anorexia nervosa: Restrictive, which describes clinical pictures where weight loss is achieved through dieting or intensive exercise, in which anorexic patients do not binge or purge, while another type uses compulsive purging for identification. The person who regularly uses bingeing or purging does not binge but also purges after eating small amounts of food.
Symptoms of Anorexia
The diagnosis of anorexia is based not only on the absence of a defined organic origin but also on the presence of certain characteristics. In this regard, it is useful to recall the criteria considered by the American Psychiatric Association for diagnosing anorexia nervosa:
- Refusal to maintain body weight above the minimum normal level for age and height.
- Adoption of diets that give the ill person a sense of power and control.
- The sole goal is “to be thin.”
- The character is hostile and irritable.
- Depression develops.
- Intense physical activity.
- Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming obese even with weight below normal.
- Distortion of the perception of weight, size, or shape of one’s own body.
- In women, absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles within the expected timeframe (primary or secondary amenorrhea).
- Constipation.
- Concern about food calories.
- Abdominal pain.
- Sensitivity to cold.
- Vomiting.
- Concern about meal preparation.
- Progressive food restriction and obsession with the scale.
- Concern about body image and ideas.
- Abundance of tricks and lies.
- Hyperactivity and obsessive concern about studies, without enjoyment.
Risk Factors
- Complications due to induced vomiting include:
- Glandular swelling (neck area).
- Cavities, root erosion, loss of teeth.
- Esophageal tears.
- Chronic esophagitis.
- Chronic throat inflammation, difficulty swallowing.
- Stomach spasms.
- Digestive problems.
- Anemia.
- Electrolyte imbalance.
- Gastrointestinal problems and hypokalemia (low potassium levels in the blood).
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