Nutrition Therapy for Bulimia
What is Bulimia?
What is Bulimia?
Bulimia Nervosa is a serious mental illness characterized by periods of eating larger than average amounts of food, followed by compensatory behaviors, including purging (vomiting), exercise, and laxatives. Excessive focus on body weight/size/shape and fear of weight gain are often conscious driving forces behind behaviors.
Bulimia can both cause and reflect severe physical and emotional distress, leading sufferers to feel locked in a vicious cycle. Beneath the symptoms often lie complex layers of unexpressed emotions, unexplored pain, and unresolved trauma that require comprehensive care to resolve.
What are signs and symptoms of Bulimia?
Signs of Bulimia:
-Eating large amounts of food within a discrete time period coupled with a sense of lack of control
-Recurring inappropriate compensatory behavior (vomiting, laxatives, exercise, diet pills, fasting)
-Binge eating and compensatory behaviors occur, on average, at least once a week for three months.
-Weight loss or weight gain or no appreciable weight change
-Erosion of teeth enamel
-Sore/inflammed throat
- Feelings of disgust, shame, guilt, anxiety, depression, and helplessness
How can Amy help with Bulimia treatment & recovery as an Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian Nutritionist?
How can Amy help?
Bulimia itself may have specific diagnostic criteria, but behaviors can exist along a spectrum and Amy takes seriously all presentations in her clients. She gets to know their fears, their feelings, and their wishes so she can understand the invisible forces driving the vicious cycle of bulimia and encourages clients’ recovery through recovery meal planning and strategies, as well as through ongoing discussion about the clinical relationship and its impact on the treatment. First and foremost, Amy works to know each client as an individual so she can provide the right kind of help uniquely suited for them.