Bulimia is a well-known eating disorder because it quite often goes hand-in-hand with Anorexia. It affects many young women (rarely men so I will be referring to women and girls in this article) all over the world. People sometimes have the belief that it is not as serious as Anorexia. People believe that Bulimia is "safer" because you do eat and your body gets some calories and energy. But the side effects of bulimia are frightening and it can kill you.

    In simple terms Bulimia is when someone eats food but then throws it back up. In the more technical sense some people use their finger to throw it up, or a pen, or some other object that they stick down in their throat. And it's more than just eating food normally and then throwing it up. It seems that it only starts out that way sometimes and it leads to more abnormal eating habits. Some bulimics eat normally for the most part and throw it up, while others starve themselves for several days and then binge on as much food as they can get and then they purge it. Some bulimics also use excess exercise to burn calories and keep their weight down. While still other bulimics use diuretics (diet pills) and laxatives to get the food out of their system as quickly as possible and they usually abuse these two drugs.

    Bulimia is serious because it is not just something physical that a person can just stop doing overnight. The more a girl throws up and continues with the bulimic cycle the more damage she does to her body. She not only does physical damage but mental damage as well.

    Young women do not understand why it is dangerous or what Bulimia can do to their bodies.

    The acid in a person's stomach is very strong and that is why it is so good at breaking down the food we eat. And when a person throws up when they are ill they know how badly it tastes, sometimes it makes their throats sore and it feels gross to throw up. This is because some stomach acid is included in whatever contents come out when someone gets sick. The acid in one's stomach is like many other acids, it doesn't just break down food.

    When a girl throws up her food the stomach acids also cause some damage to the throat, the tongue and even the teeth. Its not damaging if you throw up every once in awhile like when you get the flu or something but when one throws up over and over the body will not be able to repair the damage as well and overtime the damage will become worse and worse.

    Stomach acids will wear the enamel on one's teeth away; the enamel is what protects the tooth itself and the nerves inside! The taste buds will be damaged on the tongue and they don't grow back. The throat can be eaten away. If one gets a hole in their esophagus they can have serious bleeding and even bleed to death if the throat is ripped and damaged by stomach acids.

    Of course those are not the only issues with Bulimia. The body still cannot get enough nutrients and eventually a bulimic will lose weight but they will also be wearing out their body and the body will be taking any nutrients it can get for the internal organs. This can cause the hair to become very dry and brittle, the nails will also become weaker. The skin may look drier as well and a bulimic may have bad breath and rotting teeth. It all sounds pretty yucky for a person who wants to look better by being thinner but they pay the price in other areas.

    Eventually the throwing up and binging will take its toll on the inside of the body, especially the heart. The internal organs are weakened by little or no nutrients and a bulimic can have a heart attack. Other organs can fail as well. In some cases a woman may never be able to have a child in her life because even the menstrual cycle can be thrown out of whack by too much weight loss.

    Overtime the bulimic will be trying to keep their new diet a "secret". Keeping bulimia a secret seems easy at first and many try different things like running water while they purge so they cannot be heard or they will chew food but spit it out in a cup. It causes a person to become very secretive and it gets harder and harder to keep it a secret. It's stressful and painful and scary and isolating.

    A person with Bulimia sometimes will refuse to eat around other people and they will eat so much food at one time in secret that they can become sick without even having to make themselves throw up. They get a high from binging and from purging, it's addicting. They feel like they "cheated" the system when in reality they are only cheating themselves and their bodies.

    Bulimia cannot be cured or controlled overnight. It is a long drawn out process. There may be the need to get dental work done or even surgery on the damage done to the throat and mouth. Counseling and even sometimes hospitalization are the only ways a bulimic can get the help they truly need. They also need support and guidance and they need to know that they may be getting thinner but they are losing the battle overall. They need reassurance that people love them and will support them, stay strong with them while they heal and while they continue to heal for the rest of their lives and while they battle the binge.

source: www.teenadviceonline.org