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Bulimia nervosa, commonly known as bulimia, is an eating disorder and psychological condition in which the subject engages in recurrent binge eating followed by feelings of guilt, depression, and self-condemnation and intentional purging to compensate for the excessive eating, usually to prevent weight gain. Purging can take the form of vomiting, fasting, inappropriate use of laxatives, enemas, diuretics or other medication, or excessive physical exercise. The cycle damages bodily organs. Bulimia is common especially among young women of normal or nearly normal weight.
The word bulimia comes from the Latin (būlīmia) from the Greek βουλῑμια (boulīmia), ravenous hunger, compounded from βους (bous), ox + λῑμος (līmos), hunger.


The criteria for diagnosing a patient with bulimia are:

.Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
-Eating, in a fixed period of time (e.g., within any two-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period of time and under similar circumstances.
-A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
.Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics or other medications; fasting; or excessive exercise.
.The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both occur, on average, at least once a week for three months.
.Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight.
.The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa.


Bulimics go through cycles of over-eating and purging, that may be severe and devastating to the body. They sometimes involve rapid and out-of-control feeding that stops when the bulimic is interrupted by another person or when his/her stomach hurts from over-extension. This cycle may be repeated several times a week or, in serious cases, several times a day.
Some bulimics eat secretly, others eat socially but are bulimic in private. They also differ in "how much" they purge. Some can vomit without gagging themselves after eating. Often when the urge hits, they go to great lengths to purge, as if an uncontrollable urge is making them do so. Medical evidence shows that the chemicals released when purging may make a person feel "high".[citation needed] This can also lead to extreme dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.
Some bulimics do not regard their cycles as a problem, while others despise and fear the vicious and uncontrollable cycle. Bulimics may appear underweight, normal weight or overweight.

Two subtypes of bulimia are distinguished by the way the bulimic relieves themselves of the binge.
Purging Type is the more common type of bulimia, and involves any of self-induced vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, tapeworms, enemas, or ipecac, to rapidly extricate the contents from their body.
Non-Purging Type occurs in only approximately 6%-8% of bulimia cases, as it is a less effective means of ridding the body of such a large number of calories. It involves doing excessive exercise or fasting after a binge, to counteract the large amount of calories previously ingested. This often occurs in purging-type bulimics but is a secondary form of weight control.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulimia_nervosa