Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia can feel like living in a cycle you keep trying to get out of. You restrict, you try to be “good,” you promise yourself you'll do better this time — and then you find yourself bingeing and trying to undo it afterward through purging, fasting, laxatives, exercise, or eating less the next day.

You may appear completely pulled together to those around you, while food, eating, and compensating are quietly taking up an enormous amount of mental space. You may also feel shame, confusion, frustration, and at times even terrified.

What Is Bulimia Nervosa?

Bulimia involves recurrent episodes of binge eating — eating a large amount of food while feeling unable to stop or control it — followed by behaviors meant to make up for the eating or prevent weight gain: self-induced vomiting, fasting or restricting, misusing laxatives or diuretics, or driven, excessive exercise.

You don't have to look a certain way to have bulimia. We see it in people at any body size.

What Bulimia Can Look Like

• Feeling out of control around food

• Eating large amounts rapidly or in secret

• Restricting earlier in the day, or after a binge

• Swinging between rigid control and feeling unable to stop

• Frequent thoughts about food, weight, calories, or your body

• Guilt, shame, or panic after eating

• Purging or other behaviors to “make up for” eating

• Exercising to compensate for eating more than you planned or wanted to

• Your day organized around eating — avoiding food or planning to binge, and worrying about how you'll undo it afterward

• Feeling certain you should be able to stop — and frustrated that you can't

How We Work With This

You may think bingeing is triggered by eating the “wrong” foods, being bored, or getting upset. But what keeps the binge-purge cycle going is often much more complex.

Restriction is very often part of the picture. When your body isn't getting enough food — or when foods are restricted or mentally off-limits — the drive to eat can become intense. Part of our work is helping you understand how much of the bingeing is being driven by deprivation, what may be emotional, and what beliefs about food and weight are keeping the cycle going.

We work on restoring consistent nourishment, reducing restriction, unpacking rigid food rules, and helping you move away from compensatory behaviors, while helping you learn how to successfully manage your weight.

We also help you sort out what's actually true and useful about nutrition from beliefs that may be serving the eating disorder and keeping you stuck in the binge-purge cycle.

When More Support Is Needed

You may benefit, as many people with bulimia do, from a treatment-team approach, typically including a therapist, dietitian, and physician. However, you don't need to have a team in place to work with us.

Eating disorders have been a central focus of our work in Gainesville for more than three decades, and we have long-standing relationships with other providers in the community. If additional care is needed, we can help you connect with skilled providers.

Occasionally, more support is needed for recovery. In that case, we can help you understand your options and connect with a higher level of care.

It's Still Serious

You might minimize what is happening because it doesn't happen every day, because your weight looks “normal,” or because someone else seems to have it worse. None of that makes what is happening any less serious.

These patterns rarely simply fade on their own. If you're caught in a cycle of bingeing, restricting, purging, or compensating, you don't have to wait for it to get worse before reaching out.