When a girl enters puberty, her body changes. It begins to look like a womans body, rather than a girls. Fat begins to appear. Breasts develop and hips widen as the girl grows. For some young woman, these changes are greeted with excitement. For other young women, these changes may cause sadness and spark self-doubt. A young woman feeling uncomfortable in her body might wish for a girls body without curves. She can project her fear onto food. Now, when she eats, she eats too much food. She binges. This can fill her with guilt and shame and vomit up the food. She purges. This is the story of a young woman has bulimia.

Bulimia is not exclusively caused by the changes of puberty, nor is it exclusive to women. Although 90 percent of bulimia cases occur in women, and most of these women begin to eat and vomit in their mid- to late-teens, bulimia nervosa can stem from diverse causes. Some many people with bulimia are perfectionists. Some feel their weight reflects their self-value. Being too heavy is a sign of failure. Some might be depressed, or unable to cope with the world. Vomiting might represent the persons target to purge his or her being of the qualities they most despise. A human with bulimia could be unhappy inside and feel lost, and comforted by controlling his or her food intake and weight. But there is no single known cause of bulimia.

The disorder is not limited to teens. Roughly 10 percent of college women are bulimic, four percent of the population is estimated to have bulimia. Most people with bulimia start with a normal weight, but as they attempt to lose weight, they lose adequate nutrition. When many people with bulimia binge, they tend to eat comfort foods like potato chips, ice cream, or cookiesfoods with little nutritional assessment of worth . The purging removes any food in the body, nutritionally sound or not. Some many people suffering from bulimia abuse diuretics or laxatives instead of (or in addition to) vomiting.

Repeated vomiting almost always erodes the enamel of a person with bulimias teeth and causes cavities. Stomach ulcers, constipation, bloating, and heartburn are other symptoms of bulimia. People with bulimia commonly go to the bathroom after meals, are preoccupied with weight, and are sensitive to temperature changes. Women with bulimia can have irregular periods from the nutritionally sparse diet.

Bulimia nervosa became an officially diagnosed eating disorder in the 1980s. Ten percent of everybody with bulimia will die from its complications. Though all the people with bulimia can deny their eating disorder, they should see a doctor immediately, with support from those who love them. Bulimia is completely treatable.