Bulimia can affect your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health in so many different ways. I’ve read a lot of bulimia stories and they all speak of the devastating effects this eating disorder has on your health and wellbeing. I also know firsthand the impact of bulimia having lived with it for 20 years.
Bulimia is corrosive. While its physical effects eat away at your body, its emotional impact eats away your mind and your very spirit.
Thanks to the women who have generously shared their bulimia stories and the research that’s been done over the past few decades, we now know better the extent of the physical and psychological side effects of bulimia.
Physical bulimia symptoms
- We know that bulimia affects proper function of vital organs such as the kidneys and the heart, the digestive system and even the brain.
- We know that the bones suffer as a result of nutritional deficiencies.
- We know that the stomach acids rot the teeth, cause damage to the food pipe and can cause ulcers, as well.
- We also know that bulimia can cause gynecological problems such as infertility, irregular periods or loss of periods all together.
- We know that bulimia can age you before your time causing your skin to lose its elasticity and youthful glow, your hair can fall out and muscles grow weak.
While the physical symptoms are becoming easier to identify, we’re still learning about the causes of bulimia and what the eating disorder can do to your mental health and wellbeing.
Psychological bulimia symptoms
We know that bulimia can lead to self-hatred because bulimics, while they may not admit it, know they’re damaging their bodies. You know that binging and purging is terrible for you, but when you lack the control to stop it you end up hating yourself for doing it.
Then there is the guilt of keeping the disorder a secret and lying constantly to hide your destructive behaviors. Low self-esteem can be both a cause and effect of bulimia. The no-win cycle of guilt, self-loathing and shame only perpetuates the addiction further.
This is why so many bulimia stories speak of deliberate isolation, self harm (such as cutting), suicidal thoughts, depression and even secondary addictions. With bulimia you lose your ability to recognize sensations such as hunger and fullness and start to eat to feed emotional hungers rather than physical ones. You develop strange cravings and feel out of control to resist them.
These are just some of the ways bulimia can corrode your life, physically damaging your body and psychologically disrupting your mind. While there can be damage to both the physical and psychological well being, successful bulimia treatments are designed to address both aspects of the individual.