Common Causes of Bulimia - 6 Possible Causes of Bulimia

There are many people today who suffer from bulimia and yet even though many studies have been carried out we are still unable to clearly define what the causes of bulimia are. In fact it may be a combination of a number of different things which result in a person suffering from this particular eating disorder. Below we look at what are considered to be the major contributing causes for bulimia.

Cause 1 - Because we live in a world where the emphasis is constantly being placed on being thin and beautiful it leads a lot of people being dissatisfied with the way that they look. This is especially true for young women who are being constantly bombarded with images that say what they should ideally look like, but which are completely unrealistic.

Cause 2 - Certainly those people who suffer from low self esteem are the kinds of people that may well find themselves becoming bulimic. There are number of things which can have caused them to suffer from low self esteem including they were abused as child, they suffer from depression or they are a perfectionist.

Cause 3 - People who diet a lot are certainly more prone to developing any kind of eating disorder not just bulimia compared to those people who don't. It is those who use the more drastic sorts of diets which results in them binge eating afterwards. If they use these diets too often they will find themselves getting caught up in the bulimia binge and purge cycle.

Cause 4 - For those whose profession requires them to look a certain way can certainly be more prone to suffering from eating disorders. Certainly we hear so often about models, gymnasts, dancers and actors who have eating problems because they need to keep up a certain image if they want to continue working in their profession.

Cause 5 - People may suffer from the eating disorder bulimia because of changes that have taken place in their lives recently. It could be down to them moving away from home or because a relationship in which they have been in for some finally comes to an end. Normally these people will end up suffering from bulimia as they see it as a way of helping them to cope with the stress that they are feeling.

Cause 6 - For some people they may suffer from bulimia because it runs in their family. Studies carried out that in some people it is their genetic makeup which may be the overriding factor for the causes of bulimia in them. For others research has shown that those who have low levels of serotonin in the body can be the cause for why they are bulimic.

The Beast Within

There was an old 70's book and movie called The Beast Within. It is about a boy who is born with some kind of inborn, animal type of fury. As a teenager, something sets him off and he goes on a murdering rampage. The premise is that this "beast within" takes over and makes him do violent things. I guess the overall theme of the story is that we all have these underlying, uncontrollable urges. Or maybe it is that humans are savage by nature or something.

The non-fiction book, The Beast Within (by Jack Trimpey and Lois Trimpey) refers to the self-defeating voice within people with eating disorders. This internal beast is always playing on fear and shame of the anorexic, bulimic or over-eater. This nagging voice is the one that makes illogical statements about how a person has to eat constantly to feel better or that they are no good or if they lose weight they will have another bad relationship. Or.... The list goes on.

I believe that most of us have some kind of "beast within." That negative voice that tries to shoot down everything that you wanted to accomplish. "You can't ask that girl out, she'll laugh at you." "Run 5 miles? Who You?" The whole neighborhood will laugh at chubby woman power walking." "You ask for a raise, they might just fire you."

Sometimes you ask yourself: "What do I want in life?" Live and work in Asia? A cool career? Help underprivileged children? A hard, fit body? Whatever the goal, the beast likes to quash it fast. The beast wants you to stay in the same place or wallow in self disgust. The big response is often YOU CAN'T!

Usually one cannot even get started without a ton of excuses pouring down. Not young enough. Too young. Too fat. Too stupid. Not enough time. Your mother would not like it. Your high school coach would not trust you with it. Etc. etc. Whatever the excuse, very few of them have any merit at all. They are almost always right out to lunch.

There are a few ways to handle this beast within.

1. Get over procrastination by engaging in the activity. That's right, just do the activity for 5 minutes. Almost everyone can walk, run, swim, lift weights, practice yoga or work on their pet project for 5 flipping minutes. Maybe 15 minutes for some people. There are many mornings when I do not feel like running or training. Or writing another book or article. Heck, some days, I don't even "feel" like getting out of bed. I find that if I just do something for 5-10 minutes, my enthusiasm drops into place and I am closer to being in the groove.

2. Recognize that everyone has off days or set backs. If a sports team, actor or carpenter decided that they were only going to perform when they were really inspired, then nothing would get done. Recognize that EVERYONE has off days. There are days when some athletes play like amateurs, actors show up on set feeling depressed or the carpenter just had a fight with his wife. They still do their job. Maybe not perfect work that day, but they still perform.

3. Find some kind of therapy or mental strategy for drawing out this beast within and recognize it for what it is. When I mention therapy, I do not mean lying on a couch, pouring your guts out to a clinical psychologist. That route works for some people. I mean to do your own personal exploration by trying methods like, Rational Recovery®, Psycho-Cybernetics Affirmations or even Michael Losier's Law of Attraction.

a. The RR method was designed for eating disorders. Instead of being concerned over what you are eating, the therapy finds out what is "eating them," and then rationalizing with the irrational. For instance, a compulsive over-eater might think that if they try a diet or exercise program, they might fail and look like a loser. The RR method would counter this irrational statement with something like: "Diet and exercise is good for my health. I want to be healthier."

b. Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz, M.D. also rationalizes with the person regarding their self-image or "Servo-Mechanism." Someone might think that their fingers are too stubby and that they are always "screwing up" because of it. Consequently, they will "prove" this fact by fumbling about with anything manual. By digging a little deeper, this person might find that they ruined some things as a child and were told by a parent how clumsy that they were. So, logically, a couple of broken items do not make a totally incompetent human. This person would be instructed to recall all of the successful things that he did with his hands and then visualize doing more complicated things like jigsaw puzzles and models. Eventually, the person does overcome this bad self image or negative Servo-Mechanism.

c. Affirmations are not just repeating something over and over again to brainwash yourself into a belief. People misinterpret affirmations as just robotic repetition. It does not work that way. You have to write down what you want to be true (eg. I, Doug am fit and strong) THEN write down the first response that pops into your head. (Eg. No, you're not, you are flabby and weak). Then, you repeat this process until the responses switch or become more accurate. (eg. Well, I did climb the Grouse Mountain Grind and I can get fitter if I try). You then can make your affirmation more accurate (eg. My exercise is making me fitter and stronger. I am enjoying my new health.) Your response will probably try to disagree (eg. Yeah, for now, but you'll quit), but will eventually start agreeing (eg. Yes it did feel good yesterday). Check out my article on ezine.com under Programming a Slimmer Body: Using Affirmations.

d. The Law of Attraction. Michael Losier's method is a series of positive statements and avoidance of negative statements. He immediately removes words like don't, can't and won't and replaces them with do, can and will. For instance, "Don't be late" is replaced with "be punctual." Michael also mentions a series of exercises to develop more clarity in goals. Instead of "I have perfect health" he encourages "I am progressing to better health." (I totally agree with Michael's progressive attitude.) Since many people have difficulty in figuring out what they want, Michael, suggests to first write down what you DO NOT want. Across from what you do not want (eg. Rude customers), write down what you want (eg. Happy customers). Then cross out what you did not want.

Other methods are in my book: Stomach Flattening. Don't just read about these tools. Take the 15 minutes to actually try them. These methods are pure gold when you get one of them to work for you. If you feel self conscious, just go to the local coffee shop or library and sit down with some paper and write away. Good luck.

Eating Disorder Treatment Options Explained

Eating disorder treatment options must address the underlying causes of eating disorders. This is crucial to obtain full recovery!

There are eating disorder treatment options which can be used to offset the physical and emotional damage caused by eating disorders. Although common among troubled teens, eating disorders affect women and men of all ages including small children.

Early warning signs are present even in people who try to mask their eating disorder condition. Receiving treatment early in the process will make full recovery far easier.

Eating Disorders - Understanding the Causes and Conditions

Before treatment can begin, you must have an understanding of the causes and common conditions of eating disorders. This is where a professional facility can be of enormous help. While many people can be conscious of their dietary habits, those with an eating disorder are overly obsessed with following rigid diets.

Secretly gorging food, throwing up after meals, and counting calories obsessively are also warning signs. However, eating disorders go beyond a person having unhealthy dietary habits.

These conditions also include a distorted self-critical attitude about one's weight, food and body image. Damaging behaviours are the result of these negative thoughts and feelings and a program created by good eating disorder clinics is essential for recovery.

Food is often used to deal with uncomfortable or painful emotions. People with eating disorders will restrict food in order to feel like they are in control. Treatment options are not even considered. Instead, overeating is used as a temporary relief to soothe their sadness, anger or loneliness.

Obsession with food and weight soon dominates a person's life. As a result, people with an eating disorder cannot see themselves objectively.

Types of Eating Disorders

The three most common eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Anorexia

Anorexia is caused by people starving themselves because they fear becoming fat. They never believe that they are thin enough, even when they are underweight. Not only do people with Anorexia restrict calorie intake, but they also exercise, diet pills and purge.

Bulimia

Bulimia is the destructive cycle of binging and purging. People with this disorder also exercise, fast or take laxatives.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder causes people to overeat compulsively and feel guilty and ashamed of their behavior. However, they are unable to control this compulsive habit even when they are uncomfortably full.

Eating Disorder Treatment Options

The options associated with these eating disorder conditions varies depending on individual symptoms, issues, strengths and the severity of the disorder. Eating disorder treatment options must address the underlying physical and psychological causes to be effective. Combining psychotherapy, nutritional counseling, and support groups are often the best way to treat eating disorders. Residential treatment or hospitalization may be necessary in extreme cases.

Become Free From Emotional Eating

In order to become free from emotional eating you need to take a few simple steps. In this article I'll describe some of those steps and I hope they will help you to develop a better relationship with food.

1. Before you even begin examining the kind of relationship you have with food today, you need to be aware that becoming free from emotional eating is a process and not an instant transformation. Therefore, you will need to make a commitment to yourself that you will stay the course of the process. Otherwise, you will just resume your current bad habits.

2. Believe in yourself - Without being confident in your ability to control emotional eating and putting an end to it, you will never triumph over it. You need to understand that like any bad habit, there will be instances in which you'll wish to return to the familiar and false comfort of food. However, if you believe that you can stop emotional eating then you will be able to withstand that temptation and improve your life.

3. Recognize your emotional triggers - Some people overeat due to stress. Others due to boredom. Each of us has different emotions which trigger a craving for food as a comfort source. In order to control emotional eating you need to recognize your own triggers. Then, I suggest you write them down. Make sure you're totally aware of them. Now you're ready for step 4.

4. Stop or alleviate the triggers - Now that you know emotional triggers, you need to work on stopping or alleviating them. For instance, if you're a stress eater, then you need to find what causes you to stress out and try to alleviate those causes. If you eat out of boredom, you need to find things to keep you busy. For each trigger, find some way to make it less problematic.

Of course, there's a lot more you can do to stop overeating, but these 4 steps should be a great starting point.

What is Food Addiction

What is food addiction?

How is it that an intelligent, capable person can lose the plot when it comes to exerting control over their eating?

Why do 95% of dieters put weight back on, and more, within the first year of losing it?

How is it, that as a nation, we've never had so many exercise, fitness and health opportunities, but we're getting fatter?

Something's going a-miss.

Food can be as powerful a substance as any other drug. You may have seen programmes like half-ton hospital where patients are bed-bound for years and their sleep interspersed with deliveries of fast food. These are at the extreme end, on the brink of death through overloading their systems to freakish proportions.

So what is the pull with food and what about the rest of us who aren't quite that extreme?

Well there are many systems at work both physically and psychologically when we eat and we often get the signals confused. Like a need for company translating as a need to eat.

For example lets look at carbohydrate cravings. When we could just murder for fresh bread and butter, a gooey chocolate cream cake or a hot bowl of steaming salt 'n' vinegar chips. Some of us can control these urges but for others nothing else will do, control goes AWOL; its no longer a want it's a have to. Sensations are magnified especially when we're on a diet and have been restricting and obsessing about the food even more than usual.

The drive, the urge, the cravings, the salivating, the heart beating, the steely focus, the excitement and the anticipation of the fix of sinking our teeth into the juicy triple cheeseburger, our taste buds are tripping out.

Then we get it in our sweaty hands, the wait is over, our whole day has been leading up to this moment. Our jaw aches and our mouth slobbers, oh my god, the release, the escape, the euphoria, it's practically orgasmic!

It's funny, we only taste the first few bites properly but for some reason we can't stop until everything is finished, gorged down with swigs of coke, then fries, then hot apple pie. Then a couple of bars of chocolate on the way home. Can't breathe, painfully satisfied, feel bad, greedy, dirty as emerge from the bingeing frenzy back to earth with an overweight bang. We've let ourself down. Again. We have no will-power, just a fat pig and we hate ourself even more. There's only one thing for it, we have to diet tomorrow.

But hang on, is it really all our fault?

No it's not all our fault, food addiction like any other addiction needs a multiple level intervention approach to treatment. Recommended medical and blood tests to ensure everything is working as it should.

Brain chemistry, lack of serotonin, the natural mood stabiliser is a massive factor in why we crave carbs. Our hormones are also a factor, if they are out of balance, guess what .... We crave carbs.

There are often also powerful emotional factors at play, as we eat to change the way we feel. And of course when we binge, it blocks stuff out really effectively, especially when the internal chatterbox becomes too unmanageable, too raw, too real.

Of course, our fat can serve us too. We can create a useful barrier between us and the rest of the world. It means that we can keep the opposite sex at bay as deep down, we might not think we deserve intimacy, or have had bad experiences with it.

So many people are caught in food addiction but are too ashamed to seek help.

However, there is good news, people do recover from food addiction, sometimes they take medication alongside working on the psychological factors with a practitioner experienced in working with eating distress, this may be mood stabilising or obesity drug treatment if appropriate and recommended by a good GP .... One that doesn't trot out the calories in vs. calories out line, the one that makes us feel even more inadequate.

When people are ready, willing and able to face up to their addiction, they feast on exploring their needs, beliefs, scripts, and examine their lives in order to put food back where it belongs; as a source of nourishment, not a tool for self-abuse.

Binge Eating

With the rise of obesity in today's society everyone is looking for quick weight loss. This is a bad idea, and often will lead to developing binge eating disorder. Eating disorders are psychiatric abnormalities in one's eating habits. Tabloids display the secret eating disorders of celebrities and music artists. Yet the news never discuss how serious these eating disorders really are, and how common they are.

Most quick weigh loss techniques require extreme unrealistic diets. Obviously these diets never keep the weight off. Even when a diet works, often the pounds lost are gained back slowly simply because no one can stay on a diet forever. The problem with quick weight loss attempts is that they often require you to stay away from junk foods and fast foods. This usually leads to binge eating.

Binge eating is consuming very large amounts of food in a short period of time. Binge eating isn't related to hunger most of the time. Often it's eating beyond the point of satisfying one's physical hunger. Binge eaters often eat large amounts of food even when they aren't really hungry. Binge eating usually leads to feelings of guilt or sadness because of the future weight gain it will lead to.

Following the popular advice of diets that recommend avoiding junk foods and fast foods is a bad idea. When one avoids such foods, one starts craving them more and more. These carvings get out of control and usually lead to binge eating. For example if someone has been avoiding pizza, and then decide to have a slice, they'll often end up eating a few more slices and lose control.

It's important to note that binge eating is different from bulimia. Bulimia usually involves overeating which is followed by self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, over-exercising, or fasting. Binge eating is one of the leading causes of obesity today. Obesity is very dangerous for one's health, yet often it's very challenging to treat.

Often obese individuals eat for comfort, and end up developing food addictions. These addictions are usually a form of emotional eating. Emotional eating is basically when one eats not to satisfy physical hunger but rather to deal with tough or negative emotions. Stress eating is a common example where one will consume larger quantities of food on a stressful day.

Binge eating is usually kept a secret. A food addict will usually overeat in private to avoid others finding out about their disorderly eating habits. This is why binge eating is very tough to treat because sufferers keep it a secret. Many will overeat until becoming obese and then will eventually become desperate and seek help.

Therapy is probably the most common treatment for binge eating. There are also recovery clinics for binge eaters to check into. Also there are many books on the topic where the authors share their own recovery efforts, what worked and what didn't. There are also support groups such as overeaters anonymous.

Next time you are considering quick weight loss, think again. Trying to lose weight quickly is unrealistic and dangerous. Also being obsessed with your body weight can lead to developing eating disorders. It's best to lose weight naturally through exercise, and slowly implementing healthier eating habits.