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Bulimia, is a ruthless, potentially fatal, mental condition that usually affects teenage girls and sometimes young women in their twenties, but is not exclusive to women and has no readily defined age barriers.

Bulimia can strike without notice and some physical signs that can be noticed are ruptured blood vessels in the eyes, swollen hands and feet, chronic sore throat, frailty, wooziness and the physical appearance of the body after the disease has ravaged the victims malnourished body. But more evident, obvious, and easy to notice are signs of erratic behaviors in the victims.

Some of the mental characteristics to watch out for if you suspect a loved one may be suffering from bulimia are over-interest in crash diets, intense exercise, obsession with weighing themselves, out of control feasting, constantly staring into the mirror and over emphasis on appearance.

Bulimics develop an irrational, unnatural desire to loose weight. Generally they are unable to control the desire to splurge and they're assaulted with feelings of extreme guild and self loathing afterwords.

So to compensate for over-eating, bulimics will starve themselves, exercise until exhausted and physically drained and as the condition progresses they will resort to inducing vomiting and taking diuretics or using enemas in an effort to loose weight.

Bulimia is mentally devastating for the victims who suffer from it and in almost all cases intervention by family and friends is the only way a bulimia sufferer will be able to overcome this tragic disease.

But it must be noted that their are two types of bulimia, the purging type of bulimia, where the sufferer physically purges the food from their body by throwing up or using laxatives, enemas, or diuretics.

And the non-purging type of bulimia, which is much less common and less dangerous where bulimics make up for their lack of restraint by fasting, exercising to excess, or going on crash diets.

But even more harmful to bulimia sufferers is the physical damage caused by the abusive practices used to loose the weight. When the body is deprived of proper nutrition it reacts by generating over-whelming cravings to promote self-preservation.

Usually these yearnings are uncontrollable and a vicious cycle of gorging usually ensues, followed by yet another round of fasting, purging, or consumption of laxatives.

This constant swing from one extreme to the other weakens the body and the immune system and leaves the person vulnerable to other illnesses.

Most bulimics

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