Recovery From Bulimia
How will I feel as I recover from bulimia?
Throughout therapy, you will have a greater sense of true self-control, true autonomy, a sense of competence, a feeling that one is managing one's life in a more healthy way. Then, hopefully, with greater strength, restoration of vitality, and actual better appearance, friends and individuals will say, "you know, you look great, you really look well," Not that you look skinny or thin, or, "look how thin you look," and so on, but you really look vibrant. There would be an improvement in schoolwork, in your academic work, in your professional work, and I would say a general feeling of competent rewarding self-management, that has positive consequences for you now, rather than a secretive, 'doing-it-my-way' type-thing that you have before.
Why can't a bulimic 'just stop'?
I think for two or three reasons primarily. One, an essential reason due to the nature of the problem. I feel an eating disorder is a regulatory problem, it is a self regulatory problem with a medical and physiological and biological cause, so I think that presents a challenge within itself. So a young woman with bulimia has an extra challenge for self-regulation, or self-management, that is - they can't ride the bicycle without hands, they have to have their hands, so there is that aspect. Secondly, once behaviour becomes established, the behaviour becomes habitual, it becomes a habitual mode of dealing with something, so we get the habit cycle. The third is that the behaviour is owned by the self and it becomes my way of doing things, this is my way of handling, and that often can be, of course, a resistance to treatment and a resistance to change. There may a fourth in that the behaviour is somewhat secretive and it is therefore away from outside influence. So I think that these are the things that contribute to the lack of change. Embarrassment also, in terms of the behaviour being unusual and atypical, and so on.
When is bulimia cured?
When there's been understanding, when there's been a very careful evaluation, when there's been abstinence or gradual reduction of the frequency of the behavior and eventually an abstinence from the behaviors. Finally, the substitution of better coping, more healthy and more reasonable. When it is proven to the patient that they can feel well, that they can manage themselves in an alternate way, in a better way for themselves.
