Stephanie Watson - Conquering Bulimia

Published in 2016 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2016 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drew, Ursula.

Conquering bulimia / Ursula Drew and Stephanie Watson. - First edition.

pages cm. - (Conquering eating disorders)

Audience: Grades 7-12.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4994-6201-2 (library bound)

1. Bulimia-Juvenile literature. 2. Eating disorders-Juvenile literature. I. Watson, Stephanie, 1969- II. Title.

RC552.B84D74 2016 616.85'263-dc23

2015013272

For many of the images in this book, the people photographed are models. The depictions do not imply actual situations or events.

Manufactured in the United States of America

CHAPTER ONE
What Is an Eating Disorder?

CHAPTER TWO
The Effects of Bulimia

CHAPTER THREE
How and Why Does a Person Develop Bulimia?

CHAPTER FOUR
Ending the Cycle of Bulimia

CHAPTER FIVE
Prevention and Fighting Back

Eating disorders like bulimia nervosa often manifest in secret.

A n eating disorder is marked by an unhealthy relationship with food. This might mean that a person diets or exercises excessively, as someone with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa might do. It may mean patterns of extreme eating (also called bingeing) followed by compensating for overeating such as purging, as some people who have bulimia nervosa may do. It may simply be periods of overeating, which plagues people who have binge eating disorder.

Eating disorders are more than just problems with food. Having negative feelings about food can seriously affect not only how you eat but also how you interact with your friends, family, and everyone else around you. Your unhealthy relationship with food can harm both your body and your emotions.

In this resource, we will be focused on the disorder bulimia nervosa. The word bulimia comes from the Greek words buos (ox) and limos (hunger), which together mean hunger of an ox. People who have bulimia eat a lot of food at once (called bingeing) and then try to get rid of that food (called purging) so that they dont gain weight.

Eating disorders are more common than you might think. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, about five to ten million girls and women, and one million boys in the United States are battling eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. And up to 15 percent of young women have unhealthy attitudes about food, reported www.girlpower.gov, a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Although eating disorders are far more likely to affect young girls and women, about 5 to 15 percent of people with an eating disorder are male, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD).

The reasons why a person develops an eating disorder are complex. They involve eating habits, attitudes about weight and food, attitudes about body shape, and psychological factors, especially the need for control.

Although it was first diagnosed in the 1950s and was probably around even before then, bulimia nervosa wasnt really understood until the 1980s. Since then, we have learned of famous people who suffered from it, including Russell Brand, a UK stand-up comedian, television host, and actor, who started binge eating at age eleven, and American actress Lindsay Lohan. Both are also noted for having substance abuse problems, which often go hand in hand with eating disorders.

Today, bulimia is a major social concern. It can have devastating affects on the mind and body. Many eating disorder experts believe that images in the media put a lot of pressure on young men and women to reach an ideal body shape-one that is impossible for most people to achieve. Now parents, doctors, and school counselors are learning about the early warning signs of bulimia and other eating disorders in young people. Researchers are working to help people recover, but they also understand that more needs to be done to help prevent these harmful disorders in the first place.

Bulimia nervosa is a type of eating disorder in which a person binges and purges. Bingeing means eating a large amount of food in a short period of time. Purging means getting rid of all the food by self-induced vomiting; abuse of laxatives, diet pills, and/or diuretics; excessive exercise; or fasting. Bingeing can mean eating a lot of caloriesas many as 5,000 or more at a time. People with bulimia can binge once in a while, or twenty times each day or more. Then they will purge to rid their bodies of the extra calories. They may purge even after eating small amounts of food.

Purging can mean induced vomiting or abusing laxatives or diuretics to get rid of food.

The two types of bulimia are called purging and non-purging. People with the purging type get rid of food in different ways. Some people purge by self-inducing vomiting. Others use drugs, such as diuretics (pills that increase urination), diet pills, laxatives (usually mild drugs that induce bowel movements), or enemas (liquids injected into the anus for cleansing the bowels) to clear the digestive tract. Both bingeing and purging can be experienced as intense, overwhelming urges that become uncontrollable. People with the non-purging type of bulimia exercise compulsively to get rid of the extra food theyve eaten or rely on fasting.

Who Suffers from Bulimia?

It is difficult to say exactly how many people suffer from bulimia because doctors are not required to report it to health agencies. In addition, many who suffer from bulimia do not seek help. ANAD reports that 47 percent of girls in fifth to twelfth grade want to lose weight because of the pictures they see in magazines, 42 percent of first to third grade girls report wanting to be thinner, and 81 percent of ten year olds fear becoming fat. Boys who are involved in activities that have them gain and lose weight quickly, such as wrestling and gymnastics, are most at risk. While most people who suffer from bulimia are in their late teens and early twenties, the disorder is affecting people at younger ages than ever before. Therapists also report an increase in the numbers of middle-aged women with the disease.

What Are the Symptoms?

It can be difficult to tell if a person has an eating disorder. Bulimia is especially tough to diagnose because the problem is often hidden. Many people struggle with their relationship to food. We are taught from an early age to feel anxious and guilty around food, when we are told to finish whats on our plate, or to worry about our weight and fear fat. People who are in the early stages of bulimia (or another eating disorder) may be overly concerned with their weight, but that isnt out of the ordinary in our culture.