To treat Bulimia Side Effect is not difficult, depend on each personality. Bulimia, also known as Bulimia Nervosa is one of eat disorder in which a person who suffer this have high appetite behavior would eating a lot of food and followed by prevent weigh gain from that behavior. the antonym of this disorder is Anorexia Nervosa.
In Wakeling (1999), Janet Polivy and C. Peter Hermn said that the incident of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa has increased markedly during the pass 50 years, although there is some reason to believe that at least some of increase due to greater awareness and reporting of these disorder. it take two types of bulimia, they are:
- Purging Bulimia
This type of bulimia have behavior to vomit all food that have been eaten. Sufferers will do this way by self-induces vomiting, misuse of enemas, laxative, and diet pills.
- Unpurging Bulimia
This type of bulimia use the other method to avoid calories and prevent weigh gain as food fasting, strict diet, and excessive exercise.
What Causes Bulimia?
Before we goes to how to treat Bulimia side effect, we have to understand what things that caused this eat disorder. In fact, there is no single cause of bulimia. However, some theories argued that it could caused by several factors like familiar, genetic, psychological/emotional, depression, traumatic, weigh gain, uncontrolled diet, unbalancing exercise, abnormality of neurotransmitter, society pressure, and obsessed by people who highly idolized. Even, It may be a combination of genetic, psychological, familiar or cultural factors.
Bulimia nervosa is thought to be increasing among female as more societal attention. It is more common in women about 90% . However, it does not mean that men are unlikely to suffered this disorder. Reasons for both female and male suffering bulimia could include the following:
- Distorted notions of self-perceived body image
- Feeling society pressure to look a certain way
- Binge eating for emotional comfort (purging behavior); and
- Need to feel control
What are Relate to Bulimia?
If bulimia not handled as soon, it might cause the other desease that will causes complications. Relate condition with bulimia such as:
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Binge eating
- Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)
- Pica (consuming things that are not food)
- Rumination disorder
- Failure to thrive feeding disorder
- Functional Dysphagia
- Physical illness
- Constipation
- Swelling of the throat
- Solicitudes
- Hemorrhoids
- Depression
- Tooth decay
- Heart problems
What Are the Side Effect of Bulimia?
bulimia and related codition (complications) cause some effect that potentially life-threatening. It might gives some dangerous side effect include
- Insomnia
- Fractured relationship with people around
- Extreme social isolation
- Loss of spiritual connection
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Job loss
- Self injury behavior
- Suicide
- Death
Proper Way to Treat Bulimia Side Effect
After some factors and side effect of bulimia explained, you have to do some ways to treat bulimia side effect as soon as it possible before its too late. If there are people around us who suffer bulimia, we have to support and cheer them up. Meanwhile, if you are not sure that you need treatment, seeing family doctor is a good way to start. Talking about treatment should be applied, some ways that recommended are mention bellow:
- Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)
A behavior intervention plan (BIP) considers the data gathered through an individual’s functional behavior assessment (FBA) and employs that data to create a plan of action toward changing and improving that individual’s behavior. This step is useful for a person who had extreme enhancement of behavior that cause bulimia. In this case, most of bulimia suffers has bad behavior of dietary habit.
By planning behavior intervention, you have manage your behavior of dietary habit to be better. The most important thing before you make a plan to interventing your behavior, it will better if you make consultation with your family doctor, knowing about meal schedule and which nutrients must be eat and should not be eaten.
- Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation ha s been emerged as an effective treatment which can significantly improve the level of understanding of people about mental disorders, like bulimia nervosa. You have to discuss it with your family in order to helping people to track early signs of relapses of illness and last but not the least to increase the likelihood of mentally ill peoples re-entry into their home communities, with particular regard for their social and occupational functioning.
- CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy)
CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, is one of the most used tools in the psychologist’s toolbox. It’s based on a fairly simple idea which, when put into practice, can have wildly positive outcomes. CBT aims to change our thought patterns, the beliefs we may or may not know we hold, our attitudes, and ultimately our behavior in order to help us face our difficulties and more effectively strive towards our goals.
Example of bulimia case, you were afraid of weigh gain. Every time you eat meal, you think that it might gain your weigh, because you are convinced that all food will cause “weigh gain”. Now, if you wanted to understand why you are so afraid of being fat, you might eventually find out that you you have great appetite behavior and you have to overcome it.
- IPT (Interpersonal Therapy)
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited, inter-personally focused, psycho-dynamically informed psychotherapy that has the goals of symptom relief and improving interpersonal functioning. IPT is concerned with the ‘interpersonal context’ the relational factors that predispose, precipitate and perpetuate the patient’s distress. Within IPT interpersonal relationships are the focus of therapeutic attention as the means to bring about change, with the aim of helping patients to improve their interpersonal relationships or change their expectations about them.
- Family therapy
Family therapy, also referred to as couple and family therapy, marriage and family therapy, family systems therapy, and family counseling, is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of interaction between family members. It emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health.
- Consultate Your Bulimia to Dietitian
Dietitian is nutritionist and the regulation of diet. A dietitian alters their patient’s nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs. Dietitians are regulated healthcare professionals licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat nutritional problems. When you talk about your bulimia disorder to dietitians, they will give you some regulated dietary habit and nutrition that should be completed.
- Dual Diagnosis Management
Dual diagnosis (also called co-occurring disorders, COD, or dual pathology) is the condition of suffering from a mental illness and a comorbid substance abuse problem. There is considerable debate surrounding the appropriateness of using a single category for a heterogeneous group of individuals with complex needs and a varied range of problems. The concept can be used broadly, for example depression and alcoholism, or it can be restricted to specify severe mental illness like bulimia
- Medication Deemed
In this step, you have to consultate to your doctor, dietitian, or psychiatrist to understant deeply about medical step which accordant to your disorder, so as not to be wrong step that worsen your bulimia
- Openminded to Your Around People
If you thought that you not confident to your social life, that was so big wrong. Open your mind with people around you and keep away from stress and internal pressure by your bulimia, because that cause side effect of your disorder and make it worsen.
- Do Proportional Exercise
Bulimia might cause unbalancing exercise. Do proportional exercise based on your age, weight, physically condition, and history of disease.
- Emotional Control
Bulimia that affect you psychologically might increase your emotional. You have to find a way how to control it and find something that could refresh your mind, and do some benefit things in your personal and society life.
- Strengthen Spiritual Connection
It is very important to understand that our psychological blocks can actually impede our capacity to open to spiritual understanding and experience. Trauma and bulimia disorder, which many have experienced to some degree, can result in a failure to trust the divine and life it self and in great difficulty in surrendering to the unknown. We learned from a very young age that the world was not a safe place, and that whatever “God” existed was not a god who would protect us from child abuse.
- Confidence
We all know that being confident gives you an edge of life. Confidence can be described as a belief in one’s ability to succeed. Striking a healthy balance can be challenging. Too much of it and you can come off as cocky and stumble into unforeseen obstacles, but having too little can prevent you from taking risks and seizing opportunities—in school, at work, in your social life, and beyond.
Finally, those are complete explanation about Ways how to treat bulimia side effects that you must know before to solve the problem that may occurred as side effects of Bulimia Nervosa Disease.