Anorexia and Bulimia: A Woman's True Account and Symptom Analysis

Anorexia and Bulimia

Cathy was a complete mystery to me. She had an attractive face and a fairly good figure, and she attended almost all of my health classes. In class, she listened very attentively, taking notes on important concepts. She always arrived early and left late, and she often asked insightful questions, all related to food, even though she seemed to know far more than anyone else in the class. Finally, one evening after class, I remember it was around dusk, I asked her curiously, "Why are you so interested in 'food'?" And that's how our conversation began. She hesitated at first, but once I got to the point, this beautiful girl began to recount a tragic experience:

"For the past seven years, I've lived under the shadow of bulimia. It happened suddenly when I was in college. For a period of time, I was very depressed and often felt frustrated. One day at noon, I suddenly had a craving for ice cream, so I bought a 2.3-liter ice cream and ate it all in one go! Afterwards, I felt greasy and a little nauseous, and I felt ashamed of what I had done. 'It's because I haven't eaten properly in so long,' I told myself later to calm my conscience. However, the same thing happened the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. I really couldn't control myself. Every afternoon at 4 pm, I would crave sweets to fill my stomach, even if I wasn't hungry at all. It was purely an uncontrollable urge to stuff something into my mouth. Thinking back, I probably consumed more than 21,000 joules of calories every day."

Two weeks later, I had gained about 9 kilograms. Of course, I didn't want to gain any more weight, but I couldn't control my cravings at all. So, I started trying laxatives to resolve this conflict, and at first, they were quite effective. I would often sneak out at night like a thief, buy a basket of candy, eat it all quickly, and then take some laxatives. However, after a few weeks, even the laxatives stopped working, and even after taking 50 laxatives a day, my weight still increased.

Later, I tried a new method: eating and then vomiting. It was really difficult at first, but after a few tries, I could actually vomit as long as I kept thinking about it. Sometimes I could vomit up to 15 times a day! So my weight plummeted, and my family and friends were very worried about me because my weight once dropped to 43 kilograms. I started learning to control how often I vomited; you might call it 'selective laxative'!

This went on for six years without anyone noticing anything amiss, because I never let anyone know. I would lock myself in my apartment and gorge myself like a pig. Of course, sometimes my eating habits would be perfectly normal, but this normal state would never last more than two months. After a while, the nightmare of binge eating would return, and it was truly terrifying! My mind would be filled with images of food. I dared not attend any dinner parties or gatherings, for fear that eating in public would expose my gluttonous image-after finishing my own meal, I might even greedily steal other people's food. During that time, I was only interested in food; I had absolutely no interest in men.

I vaguely remember eating 4.5 liters of ice cream, six chocolate chip cookies, and one or two packs of biscuits every day for several weeks in a row. I hated myself for this and felt extremely ashamed. Sometimes I even thought about just ending it all. Often after eating, I would sit on the kitchen floor and cry loudly, with a pile of empty ice cream boxes and biscuit or candy wrappers scattered on the floor, and then imagine the simplest way to commit suicide.

One day, when this scenario played out again, my best friend happened to come to visit. She saw everything, saw me sitting on the floor sobbing uncontrollably, and learned the truth. She drove me crazy because she actually told my family and some close friends the whole thing. But in reality, she wanted to gather everyone's support to persuade me to seek professional treatment, and eventually I went to a hospital specializing in eating disorders. Along with me, there were 12 other women suffering from bulimia and anorexia, and we all received temporary care at the hospital. It was a very strange group. One of the nurses' jobs was to make sure we ate three meals a day. Often, a funny situation would occur: while the anorexia patients were forced to eat, we bulimia patients would be wolfing down our food. In any case, everyone's diet was strictly monitored to ensure we ate three meals a day, but some people would vomit in the shower, while others would burn off the calories through exhausting exercise.

The hospital also prescribed some antidepressants for me, which were quite effective. After two or three weeks, I felt much better and no longer needed to be hospitalized; regular outpatient visits were sufficient. I finally regained that feeling of complete relaxation and began to enjoy life again, shedding the long-standing fear of indulging in food and drink. It felt like being a newborn-everything felt so fresh! The last time I had overeaten was nine months ago, making this the longest interval yet, so I'm very certain I've fully recovered.

The reason I've been attending your classes is to learn about proper diet and exercise habits. I've suffered severe trauma, both physically and mentally, over the past few years, so I need to do some 'reconstruction' work!

What are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa?

(Bulimia)?

Symptoms of anorexia nervosa:

A has a strong fear of obesity, and the fear persists even though she has lost a significant amount of weight.

Even though B is already very thin, she still feels that she is too fat.

C does not want her weight to remain at the standard for her age and height, and believes she should be even thinner.

D could not find any known physiological disease that could explain the weight loss.

• Symptoms of binge eating disorder:

A suddenly has a strong urge to eat a large meal, and usually consumes a lot of food over a period of 2 hours.

B should focus on at least the following 3 things:

1. When appetite is high, I especially like to eat high-calorie, easy-to-chew foods.

2. Eating something secretly by oneself.

3. They will stop eating when they have abdominal pain, are sleeping, are in the presence of strangers, or when they induce vomiting.

4. Try to lose weight through strict dieting, self-induced vomiting, or mental exertion.

5. Due to excessive or irregular eating habits, weight gain or loss may exceed 4.5 kg.

Although C knows that his eating habits are abnormal, he cannot stop eating according to his own will.

D felt depressed after binge eating, even though deep down she was against the act of overeating.

E. Does not have anorexia nervosa or other known physiological disorders.