Bulimia Nervosa is commonly referred to as an eating disorder. Just like anorexia, it affects individuals with evident or hidden mental issues such as depression or anxiety. As a matter of fact, bulimia shall be viewed as purely psychological issue – there are no physical mechanisms that trigger binged eating followed by purging. Though bulimia is often associated with chronic gastric reflux, the latter is an eating disorder that emerges due to the impaired function of the stomach. Bulimia, on the other hand, is much more complex than the wrong reflector movement of the muscles. It is the behavior induced entirely by the person’s desire to keep a perfect bodily shape.
Unlike eating disorders caused by physiologic dysfunction, bulimia is triggered by cultural stereotypes, life conditions, and acquired traumas. Poor self-esteem and obsessive strive for perfection make people ignore healthy eating for the sake of losing weight. Unhealthy images of super skinny models promoted by the media make girls avoid eating or search for a way to purge everything they have eaten. Bulimia is a common problem for people working in a beauty industry. To remain profitable, they need to keep fit by all means.
Irrational eating habits are the major symptom of bulimia. Binge eating is a natural consequence of restricting oneself in all nutritious food. A patient with bulimia cannot stop eating as if they do not realize how much food they have just consumed. In a while, the person imagines how many calories it all contained and people force themselves to purge. As we can see, a person is fully in control of processes happening to their body. But unfortunately, people with bulimia cannot avoid binge eating and adopt healthy eating instead.