What Is the Connection Between Bulimia and Depression?

Bulimia Nervosa is not an ordinary bulimia, but a disorder of eating behavior caused by psychological disorders.

Bulimia

The so-called bulimia (Bulimia Nervosa) is not ordinary bulimia. As an abnormal change in eating behavior, bulimia should have the following characteristics: Patients' feeding desires or behaviors are often episodic, and once they have a desire to eat, it is difficult to restrain and resist, and the amount of food each time is large; the patient is worried I gain weight by myself, so I often induce vomiting after eating, and also take laxatives or increase the amount of exercise to eliminate obesity caused by overeating; the above-mentioned overeating phenomenon occurs at least twice a week, and has occurred for at least 3 consecutive months. And often worry too much about your body shape and weight. Only if these characteristics are met can bulimia be diagnosed.

Bulimia Introduction

Bulimia Nervosa is not an ordinary bulimia, but a disorder of eating behavior caused by psychological disorders.

Bulimia diagnosis and identification

(1) Diagnosis points:

1) Episodic irresistible feeding desires or behaviors, you can eat a lot of food at one time. Attacks occur at least 2 times a week for at least 3 months.

2) Fear of getting fat.

3) Methods such as vomiting, catharsis, and increased exercise are often used to eliminate obesity caused by overeating.

4) It is not overeating caused by nervous system organ disease, nor is it secondary to overeating such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.

(2) Differential diagnosis:

1) Anorexia nervosa. If you have a clear diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, or those who have recurring symptoms of frequent anorexia and intermittent binge eating, you should be diagnosed as anorexia nervosa.

2) Klein-levin syndrome. Also known as periodic drowsiness and bulimia syndrome, manifested as episodic deep sleep (regardless of day and night) and bulimia for several days. The patient woke up and ate and ate and slept. Significant weight gain after one illness. No vomiting, catharsis, and other weight control behaviors, and no dissatisfaction with body shape or weight, so it is easy to distinguish from bulimia nervosa.

3) Major depression. Patients may suffer from overeating, but do not have inappropriate compensation behaviors to reduce weight, such as vomiting, catharsis, etc., so it is different from anorexia nervosa.

4) Schizophrenia. Patients with this disorder may develop binge eating behaviors, and the patient treats this as silent, without any weight control behavior, and has other symptoms of schizophrenia.

5) Organic diseases such as epilepsy. Binge eating behaviors can occur. Medical history, physical examination, and various functional tests involving EEG are based on organic lesions. Bulimia nervosa is not considered, and these patients lack inappropriate behaviors to control weight.

Bulimia susceptible population

Occurred in adolescents or early adulthood, mostly females, male patients are only about 1/10 of females.

The occurrence of bulimia mostly has certain predisposing factors, such as poor interpersonal relationships, long-term emotional irritability and depression, or dissatisfaction with their fat body shape, so that they adopt extraordinary dieting measures and do not control them when they are hungry The land turned into overeating. Sometimes the irritability is temporarily relieved after overeating. So when they get irritable, they will plunge into the food pile in order to dispel bad emotions. Bulimia patients are initially shy about their binge eating behaviors, so they often carry others on their backs when they overeat, and try their best to restrain in public, but in the later period, this control ability is completely lost. Emetic is the most common way to control weight gain. Immediately after gluttony, use the hand or other items to stimulate the throat, vomit up the food in the stomach, and some excrete in time. Due to the long-term use of these inappropriate means of digestion. Many patients may have electrolyte metabolism disorders, gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular complications.

Another type of bulimia that is being studied is called binge-eating disorder (BED). It is characterized by the patient's repeated large intake of food, but without vomiting after eating.

Bulimic Consequences

Bulimia is not just a bad lifestyle, but a mental illness that is beyond the control of the individual and must be treated with help from a professional. Bulimia causes a series of consequences, one of which is a significant increase in saliva secretion, which makes the face appear plump, which is what patients do not want to see. The frustrated emotions often make them use vomiting to reduce it. body weight. Repeated vomiting also destroys the enamel on the inside of the incisors. More importantly, continuous vomiting may disrupt the chemical balance of body fluids, including the balance of sodium and potassium or the acid balance of body fluids. This condition is called electrolyte imbalance and can cause severe medical syndrome if left untreated. In addition, some patients may repeatedly push their hands into their throats to stimulate the vomiting reflex, which causes cocoons to grow on the back of their fingers or hands. Thankfully, any imbalance can be quickly reversed as long as normal eating habits are restored.

To a large extent, bulimia is actually a sociocultural disease. In a materially rich culture, leanness is the beauty, and in a barren culture, fullness is the beauty. The ideal body type is always difficult to achieve. In western countries, bulimia began to spread in the 1960s and 1970s, but in China it has only begun to spread in recent years, but it has developed rapidly, especially in developed large cities. Most young girls are The pursuit of lean body shape and weight loss is a popular topic among female students.

Bulimia symptoms

(1) There is a history of overeating, the amount of food is far more than normal, and patients often eat until they are uncomfortable.

(2) Improper compensation measures are taken immediately after binge eating to prevent weight gain. The average number of occurrences is at least twice a week and lasts for more than 3 months.

(3) In the early stage, patients feel shy about their binge eating behavior, often in secret.

(4) Binge eating behavior can be caused by the following factors: emotional irritability, poor interpersonal relationship, feeling hungry after dieting, or dissatisfaction with body weight and body shape. Overeating can relieve irritability, and shortly afterwards the patient becomes dissatisfied and depressed.

(5) At the beginning of the onset, the patient's ability to control eating behaviors weakened, and the self-control ability in the later stages of the disease was completely destroyed.

(6) The most common method of weight control is to induce vomiting. You can use your hands or other equipment to stimulate the throat. You can also take vomiting to induce vomiting. After a period of time, you don't need to provoke. Vomit.

(7) About one third of patients use laxatives to reduce weight. Very few patients even use enema.

(8) Some patients do not adopt the method of directly removing food, but increase physical energy consumption, such as rapid activities, increased physical exercise, etc., the amount of activity greatly exceeds normal, and affects the normal progress of life.

(9) Patients pay too much attention to their physical appearance and often feel dissatisfied.

(10) May be accompanied by depression or anxiety symptoms, most of which are related to weight or body shape.

(11) In severe cases, disorders of water electrolysis may occur, manifested as hypokalemia and hyponatremia. Vomiting results in reduced gastric acidity and metabolic alkalosis, and catharsis can lead to metabolic acidosis.

(12) In the late stage of the disease, there is a fatal danger due to complications such as the esophagus, gastrointestinal tract, and heart.

Bulimia Avoidance Principles

1 Don't accept the effects of heavy numbers

2 Don't aim for artist size

3 Eat happily with others

4 Have close friends who can pour out troubles

5 Don't feel guilty about eating

6 Be confident in yourself

Causes of Bulimia

Psychological factors: Most patients have emotional problems and emotional instability, and avoid forced pain by forcing them to eat. Some studies have pointed out that this habit of chewing food to reduce psychological stress may be related to the mother's abnormal childcare in early childhood.

Anorexia's Circulatory Symptoms: People with anorexia often limit their food intake, but sometimes they ca nt bear the hunger, and they have mental and action impulses and eat a lot of food. And anorexia is likely to turn into binge eating disorder, causing a cycle of "bulimia, anorexia, and bulimia."

Key points for bulimia diagnosis

1) Episodic irresistible feeding desires or behaviors, you can eat a lot of food at one time. Attacks occur at least 2 times a week for at least 3 months.

2) Fear of getting fat.

3) Methods such as vomiting, catharsis, and increased exercise are often used to eliminate obesity caused by overeating.

4) It is not overeating caused by nervous system organ disease, nor is it secondary to overeating such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.

Differential diagnosis of bulimia

4) Schizophrenia. Patients with this disorder may develop binge eating behaviors, and the patient treats this as silent, without any weight control behavior, and has other symptoms of schizophrenia.

Bulimia Treatment

Develop three meals a day and a balanced diet. Avoid snacks or high-fat, high-sugar foods between meals. In addition, eating high-fiber foods can help food pass through the digestive system, and reduce dependence on laxatives.

· Binge eating patients are prone to complications due to frequent vomiting and taking laxatives, such as damage to teeth, lips, esophagitis, swelling of the salivary glands, rectal bleeding, osteoporosis, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and arrhythmia, etc. Often combined with the habit of alcohol or drug abuse, and the duration can range from months to years. Seek medical treatment immediately for this disease, or the consequences will be serious.

· Treatment for bulimia includes medication, nutritional support, and psychotherapy. Diet therapy is mainly based on a balanced diet, reducing the intake of sweets, but you must consume a moderate amount of fat and sufficient fiber to maintain satiety. In addition, psychotherapy encourages patients to accept their weight and body, find out the source of emotional stress, and emphasize the right diet concept.

· Physical support treatment. Regulate patients' food intake, minimize or stop vomiting, and disable cathartic drugs. Disorders of water and electrolyte metabolism should be treated symptomatically. Those with poor nutrition are given nutrition support treatment, and nasal feeding can be used if necessary.

· Individual refractory cases can be treated with insulin.

· Group therapy:

Share experiences with people with similar issues. This therapy is particularly effective in addressing the underlying problems that cause emotional problems.

· Awareness behavior therapy:

This therapy generally teaches patients how to change distorted and rigid thinking patterns by rewarding or simulating reasonable behavior.

·Antidepressants:

This therapy usually uses tricyclics and Bioglycemic to treat bulimia. Bioglycemic is the only selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class specified for the treatment of bulimia. Although the efficacy of long-term treatment (more than sixteen weeks) of Baiyoujie under controlled conditions has not been recorded, some patients have continued to take the drug under double-blind conditions for an additional six months without losing efficacy. Therefore, if your doctor recommends that you take Baiyou for a long time, then he / she may regularly evaluate the long-term efficacy of the drug.

Bulimia is prone to occur in early adulthood, however, many do not seek help until they are in their 30s or 40s. At this point, their eating behavior may have been stereotyped, making it more difficult to change. In light of this, patients with bulimia who have received early treatment, such as those who have been seeking for help for many years, have a better chance of fully recovering. The combination of psychological and drug treatment may be the best treatment for bulimia patients.

Treatment can save lives in people with eating disorders. Family members and friends who recognize this problem should encourage patients to seek medical advice. The sooner the better, by no means emphasizes how important treatment is. The longer a perverted eating behavior persists, the more difficult it is to overcome the treatment and its effects on the body.

In order to get help and treatment for bulimia patients, encouraging care and persistent bulimia counselling may be necessary.

Bulimia warning signs

· Overeating, or uncontrollable diet, but without significant weight gain

Through dieting, fasting, vigorous exercise, vomiting, or abuse of laxatives or diuretics

· Using the toilet frequently after eating

Fascinated by exercise

· Excessive weight

· Depression

· Emotional fluctuations

Swelling of neck and face glands

·Heartburn

·swelling

·constipation

·indigestion

· Sore throat

· Vomiting

· Weakness and exhaustion

Eye congestion

· Irregular menstruation

Most people with eating disorders have certain things in common: poor self-esteem, feelings of helplessness, and fear of getting fat. Many scientists believe that these people may also have similar life characteristics. For example, neurotransmitters involved in depression may also be involved in bulimia. Correspondingly, bulimia sufferers also suffer from depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and other mental illnesses related to neurotransmitter deficiency. In fact, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health found that people with bulimia have as much compulsive behavior as people with OCD.

Not surprisingly, patients with bulimia respond well to medications such as those that help normalize serotonin levels in the brain.