Bulimia Nervosa (more commonly referred to as Bulimia) is an eating disorder that falls into the mental illness category. It is characterized by bingeing episodes and purging foods or calories due to a wish to lose weight. Around 2% of the US adolescent girls have bulimia. It may not seem like much but it is a condition that has to be understood.
When referring to bulimia, psychotherapy treatment is much better for bulimia than behavior therapy or medication. It is believed that cognitive behavior therapy can be superior to some psychotherapy forms though.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
CBT sees3 techniques used to treat bulimia:
- the didactic component – setting up the therapy’s positive expectations and promoting patient cooperation.
- the cognitive component – identifying assumptions and thoughts that influence current behavior, especially when referring to disorder eating.
- the behavioral component – employing techniques that modify behaviors in order to become effective at dealing with bulimia related problems.
This can be effective, especially when dealing with patients that are adolescents. This also normally involves three phases:
- Stage 1 – Families discuss with therapists in order to aid adolescents to maintain a proper food intake while limiting the negative actions that are taken by the patient.
- Stage 2 – After controlling negative eating behavior, the adolescent will be encouraged to take full responsibility for refraining from the purging behaviors.
- Stage 3 – General life issues will be addressed and an examination of the bulimia’s effects on normal development and activities are addressed.
This is a treatment option that has the main focus of teaching bulimic individuals to diet properly, in a really healthy way. It usually works as it decreases the bulimic’s purging behavior tendencies.
Medication Treatment For Bulimia
There are various drugs that are nowadays used to treat bulimia. It is important to only consider taking what is recommended by a physician since over the counter medication also exists and most of such medication was not approved by the FDA. Prozac in various forms was approved, with fluoxetine being the most common example. This is an SSRI (serotogergic antidepressant) and others can be prescribed in specific situations. The reason why SSRIs are preferred is the fact that there are fewer side effects that appear when compared with more traditional tricyclic antidepressants.
On the whole, when referring to medication treatment for bulimia, the most important fact is talking to the doctor. At the same time, the support of friends and families is vital for the person that suffers from the condition since we are talking about a mental disorder.