Bulimia - Introduction

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder and mental health condition.

People who have bulimia try to control their weight by binge eating and then purging the food from their body by being sick or using laxatives.

As with other eating disorders, bulimia has a number of different causes, including depression, low self-esteem and stress.

Bingeing and purging

Eating disorders are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour. It can be difficult to understand how an eating disorder develops.

Everyone has their own eating habits. For example, people with a food intolerance need to avoid eating certain foods to stay healthy. However, the habits of people with eating disorders are motivated by an overwhelming fear of getting fat.

People with bulimia tend to alternate between eating excessive amounts of food (bingeing), and then making themselves sick or using laxatives (purging) to maintain a chosen weight. This is usually done in secret.

People with bulimia purge themselves because they feel guilty about the binge eating, but the bingeing is a compulsive act that they feel they cannot control.

Who is affected by bulimia?

Bulimia can affect men and women, but women are 10 times more likely to develop bulimia than men. However, bulimia is becoming more common in boys and men.

Recent studies suggest that as many as 8% of women have bulimia at some stage in their life. The condition can occur at any age, but mainly affects women aged between 16 and 40 (on average, it starts around the age of 18 or 19). Bulimia can affect children, but this is extremely rare.