Causes of Bulimia
Bulimia is caused by several risk factors, including personality, body image, biochemistry and genetic and environmental factors. Personality risk factors include feelings of helplessness, low self esteem and great fear of getting fat. The erratic eating behavior displayed by people with bulimia is their way of handling various stresses they encounter in life.
Susceptibility to bulimia is shown in an individual who is pursuing activities and professions where thinness is an advantage. Bulimia signs point to people who are into modeling, gymnastics, dancing, long distance running and wrestling. Bulimia signs are also rife for girls living in a family where the parents are rigid and stresses physical attractiveness and keeping their weight under strict control.
Peer pressure, a girl’s family and her upbringing and her immediate social circle can also contribute to the desire to remain thin. Girls who are bigger may constantly be teased by peers and family members, prompting them to have low self esteem and create confusion and disturb their eating patterns. Bulimia signs can develop when they cannot handle the pressure and have no other recourse but to give in and try to control their weight secretly, often using drastic methods like exercising to the point of exhaustion, fasting and taking diet pills.
Bulimia Signs and Symptoms
Just like other people who have eating disorders, people suffering from bulimia will do everything to hide their erratic eating behavior that bulimia signs may be difficult to detect at first and can remain undetected for an extended period. However, you will be able to notice some physical bulimia signs.
Bulimia signs that are noticeable include frequent visits to the bathroom right after eating so they can throw up. They will exercise even if they are already fatigued, is sick or injured and may continue to exercise even during bad weather. Other bulimia signs include using extreme measures to lose weight such as excessive dieting, using diet pills, diuretics and laxatives.
Swollen cheeks and jaw areas, signs of throwing up, cuts and calluses on the knuckles and backs of their hands, depression and erratic behavior, including withdrawing from family and friends are other outward bulimia signs that you can look out for if you suspect someone is suffering from bulimia.
Bulimia is another eating disorder that is linked to emotional and psychological problems. Bulimia signs and symptoms include depression, inability to handle personal problems and stress, low self esteem and obsession with food and weight. This obsession with weight and food leads to compulsive behavior which is like a seesaw.
A person showing bulimia signs will diet incessantly because they fear gaining weight, but they also go on binge eating at certain periods. However, they will feel depressed because they were not able to control themselves in their compulsion to eat, and so to punish themselves they go to the other extreme to prevent them from gaining weight
They either start on their unorthodox dieting method or force themselves to purge or vomit what they have eaten, use laxatives to immediately remove the food from their system or drink diuretics so they can urinate frequently. Indulging in excessive exercising is also part of bulimia signs and symptoms.
Bulimia signs involve a vicious cycle of binge eating, fasting and exercising as well as purging, all to control weight gain. The cycle can occur at least twice a week for three months according to studies done on bulimia sufferers. During these periods you will be able to see many bulimia signs such as those mentioned earlier.
But since the person suffering from bulimia can keep the ideal weight for their age and height, it is really difficult to determine if what you are seeing are bulimia signs or not. And most of the activities included in bulimia signs are done in secret so it is really difficult to assess and determine if they have an eating disorder unless you have prior knowledge on bulimia and will be able to accurately read the bulimia signs manifested by someone suffering from bulimia.
What are the other telltale bulimia signs? Extreme fasting can cause a person with bulimia to have intense craving for food, any type of food. And a person with bulimia has several methods to conceal bulimia signs. They can shop for food at different stores so the checkout clerk will not notice that they are buying an excessive amount of food. If they eat what is available in the house, they will replace it with the exact food item so that no one in the family will notice.
Bulimia signs when a sufferer is eating include wanting to eat in private, when no one else is looking or likely to notice such as going to the kitchen late at night or going outside to eat alone. They can also display lack of control over eating with no weight gain. Bulimia signs and symptoms can be noticeable with the unexplained disappearance of food, or in finding several empty food containers and wrappers or you may discover that they have hidden junk food stashes. You may also observe a person with bulimia alternating between fasting and binge eating.
There are also physical bulimia signs that will be very noticeable. You may be able to sniff the smell of vomit. They may have puffy cheeks due to repeated vomiting while their knuckles and the backs of their hands may show calluses and cuts for getting in contact with their teeth when they stick their fingers at the back of their throats to induce vomiting. Other physical bulimia signs can be fluctuation in weight or actually maintaining an ideal weight despite the amount of food being eaten.
Effects of Bulimia
A person with bulimia puts her life in grave danger. If the bulimia is not treated, great risks are involved. Dangerous bulimia signs include dehydration, one of the most dangerous of bulimia signs. The frequent vomiting, the use of diuretics and laxatives create electrolyte imbalance, lowering the level of potassium, which can cause lethargy, impaired thinking and irregular heartbeat. And this can lead to kidney failure and death in some cases.
While the above may be extreme effects of bulimia, there are other bulimia signs to look out for. These are medical complications arising from bulimia, including:
- Swollen cheeks and salivary glands
- Broken eye blood vessels
- Chronic hoarseness and sore throat
- Weight gain
- Abdominal pain and bloating
- Swollen hands and feet
- Mouth sores and tooth decay
- Acid reflux and ulcers
- Ruptured esophagus or stomach
Treatment for Bulimia
There may be several bulimia signs that can alert a person that she is suffering from bulimia and needs medical attention, but most will be denying that they have an eating disorder. While the bulimia signs may already be there and your fear of losing control is ever present, help is still available when you decide to admit that you have bulimia. There is a tough road ahead, but when you have learned to recognize the bulimia signs and want to change, the road to recovery will be easier to manage. What are the things that you can do to prevent yourself from getting deeper into the problem.
First is to admit that you have bulimia and that you want to feel better, but stopping the bulimia signs from happening – the obsession to control your weight and what you eat and admit that you have a distorted relationship with food.
Understand that you are not the only one suffering from bulimia. Since you have been handling your eating disorder in secret for a long time, you may find it very difficult to talk about it, in confiding to someone about your problem as you may feel ashamed. Seek out someone who will understand your problem and will be willing to listen to you.
Stay away from the things that trigger bulimia signs and symptoms, such as food shows and magazines, people who talk about dieting and maintaining a good figure all the time and weight loss and dieting websites.
You cannot manage bulimia alone and by just avoiding bulimia signs. You need professional help because you may already have developed medical complications. You need better meal plan to stop you from dieting so you can get back to being healthy once again. You also need help to resolve your emotional issues and break away from the binge eating and purging cycle. You also need to learn to set new goals in your life, so cognitive behavioral therapy is advisable.
Remember that bulimia is treatable and that learning to recognize the bulimia signs is one of the steps for you to gain control of your life and be healthier. With the support of your family and friends and getting professional help you will be able to overcome bulimia and be free of its hold on you and your life.
