Bulimia is Latin, meaning "ox hunger." Bulimia first began in the middle ages when people gorged on food and then vomited so that they could go back to the party and eat more. However, bulimia is not about purging for the sake of eating more. It's about emotional pain more than anything. 2-4% of the population suffers from this, including 20% of high school girls. These statistics don't include the large amount of people who don't go for treatment, either.
Who it affects
The typical person vulnerable to developing bulimia hides what they feel inside often and tries to please others instead. More often than with cases of anorexia, those vulnerable to bulimia care deeply about how others perceive them. A past history of on and off dieting is common, as well as problems controlling their impulses. Often people vulnerable to bulimia tend to experience more irrational and erratic emotions than those with anorexia, which leads to the problem of controlling the impulses of dieting, and the cycle of binging and purging.
Why it happens
Purging also creates a false sense of control. Thinking that they can basically eat what they want and just bring it all up later helps the person feel better and in control of what they allow their bodies to have and digest. As with anorexia, the person with bulimia will measure everything by one thing - their bodies. Their body and their weight will commonly measure whether the day will be good or bad, and whether they are allowed to eat. Very often, a bulimic will completely avoid food during the day, but usually by night the person ends up binging, or otherwise eating anyways, followed by purging. A cycle of trying to starve and/or diet during the day, and then eating and purging at night is common. The person with bulimia then feels even more of a failure as they believe that they can't even get "dieting" right. Purging may be using laxatives or self-induced vomiting, but there are Bulimics who use other inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as compulsive exercise (ie., excessive jogging or aerobics), to attempt to burn off the calories of a binge, or fasting the day following a binge. It is not uncommon for a man or woman suffering with Bulimia to take diet pills in an attempt to keep from binging, or to use diuretics to try to lose weight. A sufferer will often hide or "store" food for later binges, will often eat secretly and can have large fluctuations in their weight.
Just as those battling anorexia, someone with bulimia cannot see themselves as they are in reality when they look in the mirror. They only see someone who is too fat, full of flaws, and a failure.
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