Shame is complex. It extends from small things like parents or teachers saying to someone that she/he is a bit overweight and needs to lose weight, or to something more serious like physical or sexual assault. For a young vulnerable person even a wrong look or an inappropriate comment can be shameful and it can trigger control mechanisms in the brain.

The simplest and most available thing that the shamed person has to exert control over is food. Restrictive eating or binging on food and then purge it all up is an action that only the person who is doing it can control. Plus it gives to the sufferer the intimate sense of achievement and conquering their own body. But there is a catch 22, externally the sufferer keeps it a secret because if it was revealed it will be a shameful action if someone was to discover their secret.

So, feelings of shame start working on the sufferer even before the beginning of their illness. Shame makes the person shrink her/his inner self and avoid others in order to stop interpersonal humiliation. Shame produces resentment, irritability, tendency to blame everyone, suspiciousness and bouts of agitations. Shame also blocks the person’s emotions and makes the person unable to be compassionate to others.

Often family and parents themselves promote shame unknowingly. On different stages of development many children feel inadequate in many tasks. Some parents by criticizing, comparing their children with other kids and controlling them can evoke a lot of shame in their sons and daughters.

Other parental behaviors and styles that provoke shame and body images issues are:
- avoiding children and avoiding to feel and respond to their emotions
- being judgmental
- being constantly angry and disapproving
- expecting children to please
- defensive parental attitude
- being depressed and anxious
- acting as a victim in front of children
- being indirect

Turning to food becomes a substitute for non realized emotions in many children. Their mind is searching for a coping mechanism to ease their emotions and food is an easy outlet to find.

For this reason a big part of eating disorder treatment is working on understanding the impact of shame and how to counteract it. The best antidote for shame is compassion, love and understanding. This has to be understood by the sufferer, family and all the people who interact with the sufferer.

The second step is to change the person’s self-talk from negative feelings towards food, to positive feelings about food. These both are important steps in the sufferer’s recovery and have to be done with the help of the whole family and not just with the sufferer.

This may not be an easy thing to do if the family does not understand exactly what to do to help. But luckily there is help available; find out more go to
http://www.mom-please-help.com

It is also depends on association with other medical and psychological problems the person as at the time they start being bulimic. So, I would say it is all down to the individual and for many people the short term effects are 100%reversable when they stop their bulimia. But there are some people who can have irreversible damage.

Now, let’s look at them – short term effects.
 
1. Digestive system suffers because of vomiting. People experience bloating, indigestion, bad taste in the mouth, breath smells, pains and aches in the stomach, reflux, heart burn and nausea.

2. Swallowing can be painful if throat gets damaged while vomiting.

3. Teeth get eroded quickly from the acid during and after vomiting.

4. Heart problems can become obvious especially in people who purge often.
 
5. Constipation is a common concern in bulimics. It can become complicated with haemorrhoids and tears.
 
6. Low body temperature which makes people sensitive to cold weather. Bulimics are cold most of the time.

7. Tendency to faint.
 
8. Mood swings and intolerance to mental pressure.

9. Getting tired quickly and the inability to concentrate. Even simple mental tasks like reading can make some bulimics tired and even exhausted. Studying and learning can become problematic also.

10. Muscular tension can bring a lot of suffering. It appears as back pains, neck pains, tension headaches and aches or pains in other parts of the body.

11. Depression and anxiety can be very severe. The more people think and act bulimic the more depressed they become.

12. Dry skin is the problem too, accompanied by brittle hair and weak nails. Skin problems can be noticeable on sufferer’s hands especially. Knuckles can be damaged when they induce vomiting. One quick way to see if a loved one is bulimic check their knuckles, they will be all hard and wrinkled.

13. The Immune system can suffer making a person vulnerable to many infections. They experience colds and flu often.

14. People become withdrawn and avoid others.
 
15. Stress levels increases significantly.
 
16. Insomnia is common due to increased stress.

17. Distorted thoughts: constantly thinking about food, even dreaming about it.

18. Menstrual problems can range from painful periods to absence of periods.

19. Bone density decreases. Osteoporosis in severe cases of bulimia.

20. Voice changes due to damaged vocal cords.

These are the most common short term bulimia side effects. There are many more and people get affected by bulimia differently. All side effects can turn into dangerous complications. So the best way to prevent them is to stop your bulimia all together.

 You can always start looking for help: read more about it, educate yourself, ask professionals, work on changing your psychology, change behavioural pattern etc. Never give up and never take the side of disease.

To read more about dangerous side effects of bulimia go to http://www.eating-disorders-books.com

There is no one system in the body that does not get affected by long term bulimia.
 
What are the most dangerous side effects? – You may ask.  These are the effects people can die from.  Lets  look at them separately.

1. Heart complications. Many eating disorder sufferers have irregular heartbeat, slow pulse or palpitations. All these abnormalities are extremely dangerous especially if the person continues with binging-purging.  People can suddenly collapse and even die if the heart suddenly stops working going into condition called “heart block”.

2. Electrolyte abnormalities. Electrolytes are the chemicals in the body that help our organs work. When people vomit they lose enormous amount electrolytes this is very bad for the body. The organs that suffer the most are: heart, kidney and brain. An abnormal amount of electrolytes can cause heart block, kidney failure and fainting.  Any of these complications can end up with the sufferer dying.

3. Kidney failure. The kidneys are the organs that balance water and electrolytes in the body.  Vomiting causes both dehydration and electrolyte imbalance problems. The kidneys try to compensate for this but if the vomiting continues the kidneys stop working and go into kidney failure.
 
4. Mental problems. Mental problems in bulimics are especially dangerous because of the high rate of suicide amongst eating disorder sufferers. When people get highly addicted to binging-purging behaviour, they often become unable to cope with everyday life and use suicide as a way to escape from the black circle they find themselves in.
 
5. Drug and alcohol problems are often the next step in for the bulimic.  Bulimics get addicted easier than people who don’t have bulimia. This is the nature of the disorder. Of course, where drugs and alcohol are involved the incidence of accidental death increases enormously.  People die from an accidental overdose of drugs and organs failure.

6. Gullet rapture. Gullet or oesophagus is the tube that connects the mouth and the stomach.   When people vomit they force the food to come up from the stomach, through the gullet and up into the mouth.  If the vomiting becomes severe, gullet rapture can occur.  The sufferer can die from internal bleeding and shock.
 
To sum up, these are the most dangerous side effects of bulimia. There are many more which may not cause the death of the patient but damage the body and make it malfunction. You can prevent all these complications just by looking for help and doing something constructive about your bulimia.

Even learning more about the condition and what you can do to help yourself will push you forward towards recovery. Never stop resisting the disease and never give up fighting for your health and your life.

To read more about dangerous side effects of bulimia go to http://www.Mom-Please-Help.com

But how does it work, if it works at all?
 
When people become bulimic they start to throw up food after eating. Often they binge before vomiting. Most bulimics have a certain time when they binge: dinner time, sometime in the afternoon or at night.

These people believe that by vomiting they get rid of the food they ate. Because of that they think they satisfy their hunger and reduce the amount of calories at the same time.  In fact, it is not exactly true.

First, when bulimics binge, some foods still get absorbed by digestive tract before they throw up. This is especially true for fatty and sugary foods, which are the bulimics favourite foods.  The longer the binge, the more calories get absorbed.
 
Second, after vomiting bulimics have the “empty stomach effect”.  Their appetite increases drastically and this can evoke another binge. Some people can have several binging-purging episodes during the day because of their inability to control the hunger pains after vomiting.

 And again, as a result of this they consume overall much more calories than if they had just had a normal meal.

Vomiting also changes their electrolytes and nutrient balance in the body.  Their Insulin producing system suffers enormously also.  The Insulin system is the system that breaks down sugar in the body.

That’s why during the day bulimics often munch sweets, breads, biscuits, chocolate, cakes and the like. This can push their calorie consumption up through the roof, making them put on weight the exact opposite of what they are trying to achieve.

Of course you may say that some bulimics are slim. But most of these people are slim because they fast during the day and eat only when they are binging-purging.

To say in other words those who alternate between bulimia and anorexia and never eat normally.

So, bulimia on its own will not cause any decrease in weight at all. But complicating bulimia by adding anorexic behaviours will cause severe illness and even death.

If you are thinking of using bulimia as a way to lose weight – than think again: because you are cheating on yourself and putting your life in danger also.

If you have already started on bulimic path of behaviour, you should find help to stop it before the addiction becomes overpowering.  There are lots of help available and you should pick the one which suits you.

To read more about meditation for bulimia go to http://www.meditation-sensation.com

The Cardiff University is putting together a Collaborative Working in Eating Disorders module to be studied as part of the School’s MSc in Advanced Practice by the university’s school of nursing.

 Although this seems a noble cause I do get a little concerned when academia and governments gets involved with the treatment or suggested treatment of a disorder. Academics are renowned for not being able to think outside the square and get bogged down with dogma, so will concentrate on the so called conventional approach to eating disorders.
 
Governments are even worse tending to back the established approach even if it does not work, they can’t afford any political backlash if they make a mistake. Plus it is always good to be seen as doing something in the eyes of the voters. So to save themselves down the track they also back the conventional approach.

From reading the article it seems apparent that the course will have its basis on the conventional approach to the treatment of eating disorders and this is worrying and will only produce much of the same thinking that is prevalent now.
 
As an eating disorder specialist, author of two books on the subject and an ex-sufferer of anorexia and bulimia myself: I know the conventional approach is not that great. I myself did the rounds of therapists etc, to no avail for years and I was training to be a doctor, so you would think it should have worked.
 
 I am not the only person who has gone through multiple treatments only to find they did not work; I get emails everyday from people telling me the same thing.
Here are a few abbreviated emails.

 I am helping a young adult girl whom I have become extremely fond of!… At the age of 14 she became anorexic and eventually bulimic. She has been in clinics a number of times, but every time she just goes home things just continue where she left off…
Charleen SA.

My daughter is 22 years old and she was suffering ED for 2 years… For your information she has been treated in the ED clinic as outpatient, visiting the internist doctor and the psychologist regularly to no avail…
Li Australia.

My daughter has been in and out the eating disorder clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the last 4 years. I’m tired of them, she continues to struggle…
D M USA.

I took her to our health care Clinic and they seemed to have a handle on the disorder and they seemed to be helping with all kinds of counseling, nutritionist, psychiatrist and nursing… but once home she “back-slid” back into binging and purging.
VF, GB.

These emails are very typical from people contacting me still searching for answers when the conventional treatments have failed.

There is a very good reason why this happens and why sufferers fail to get better after showing promise while in the clinic? Conventional treatment methods do not confront the disorder where it lives in the subconscious mind of the sufferer.

They do not understand that an eating disorder is a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

But unlike the person who has to wash their hands 100 times a day, or the sufferer who has to check to see if the gas is turned off 200 times before they can leave their home. These people get nothing but pain from their OCD, whereas the ED sufferer actually gets pleasure from their disordered eating habits.
 
This extra element of pleasure adds a different dimension to the disorder and is most difficult to treat with conventional approaches used in clinics and by therapists. Sitting and talking to a therapist rehashing old hurts for hours is not going to help.

This is a logical approach to a disorder that is not the least bit logical. After all why would someone purposely starve themselves to death and know they are doing it?

In my view there is really only one method that can beat an eating disorder and that is one that attacks the ED where it lives in the subconscious mind of the sufferer. To do this you have to use the power of Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability to change the way our brain functions by how we think, feel and act.
 
With the use of specialized methods to promote positive feelings, emotions, action and pictures we can change the faulty neuronal pathways and negative programming that has occurred in mind of the sufferer. The beauty of using a specialized neuroplasticity approach to curing eating disorders is it can be used at home.

This is the place all ED sufferers fail and relapse back into their old habits, because the triggers that control their habits are all at home, they are not in the clinic or therapists rooms.
  
I believe that any university course however noble it may seem if it does not incorporate the use of neuroplasticity and a method to change the neuronal pathways in the brain will not help. This will only produce a whole new batch of conventional method thinkers to the detriment of the eating disorder sufferer.

To read more about neuroplasticity is the key to eating disorder help go to http://eating-disorders-books.com

The content of our subconscious mind depends a lot on what our parents put in there. Parents are our first teachers and role models. Because of this our parents can do a lot to affect the subconscious mind of their child (especially mothers).

Anorexia takes a lot of space in your child’s mind and wrong beliefs can take over the big part of a sufferer’s subconscious mind.

So, what can a mother do to help?

1. Never give up on inspiring your child to learn new things. This will help take her/his attention away from the anorexics beliefs.  Remember: The less space you leave for the anorexia the better.

2. Show unconditional LOVE to the child.  Love appears to be the most powerful emotion that can stimulate and inspire people. Nothing heals better emotionally, biochemically, physically and mentally than love.

Love is a positive high frequency emotion which can heal and help us overcome many obstacles in our life.

3. Maintain close intimate connections “mother-daughter/ son”.  Often these intimate connections do overpower the disease.

4.Watch what kind of words you use when you talk to the sufferer.  One wrong word from someone, like “why can’t you just eat” can undo months of good work. 

5. Constantly focus on increasing the sufferer’s self-esteem and enjoyment in life.

6. Understand that the first priority for underweight people is gaining weight.  A starving brain cannot process things logically, so do not think that just saying things will make changes.

Anorexics should be encouraged to achieve a certain weight appropriate for their height and age. This should be done in small steps, like getting her to aim for a pound (kilo) then another pound (kilos), if you tell a sufferer they have to put on 20 pounds (10kg) they will completely freak-out.

7.Sugar consumption is important for the brain because the brain works on glucose so try to get them to take sugary foods, even if you have to camouflage them.

A high consumption of proteins and calcium is also necessary for anorexics because of their bone density problems. We have had people use the high protein drinks weightlifters use with great results. But you can’t tell the sufferer what it is or they will not take it. We have had mothers substitute diet powders with protein powders so the sufferer will take it: because all anorexics read the labels on everything.

There is no substitute for mothers love and a mother’s involvement in treating anorexia. One mother who was very successful in helping her daughter to beat anorexia said that anorexia should be healed, not just treated. 

Karen used a process of healing and took her daughter through it step by step using special methods she devised herself.  Healing was the process that saved her daughter from the grips of anorexia and brought her back from deaths door.

Read More About Karen mom please help go to http://www.mom-please-help.com

These “Beliefs+ Emotions+ action” form the long-term memory in the brain.

So, why do these memories get so ingrained in a person’s brain that nothing seems to change them?

This happens because these “Beliefs + Emotions+ action” actually change the structure of a person brain. Experiments have shown that for short-term memories to become long-term ones, a new protein has to be made in brain cell (neuron).

The experiments also show that short-term memory becomes a long-term one when a chemical in the neuron called protein kinase A, moves from the body of the neuron into its nucleus, where our genes are stored.  The protein then turns on a gene to make another protein that alters the structure of the nerve endings, so that it grows new connections between the neurons (brain cells).

Why I am telling you this scientific stuff – is to show you that Beliefs are not just something intangible, Beliefs can actually change the structure of the brain (brain cells and connections between the brain cells).

It seems reasonable to me that the real cure for anorexia is to change the sufferers Beliefs about themself, body image, control and perception of beauty.  These new Beliefs should also be emotionalized: this is important.  These new “beliefs + emotions+ action “will form new long-term memories and new chemicals will form in the brain cells changing the brain structure in a new positive way.

The same process occurs in learning. We learn something, we believe it is factual, we emotionalise it, and we use in over and over (action). 

Why nothing seems to be of help for many anorexics?

This is because nothing so far has evoked strong emotions in them.  Nothing has inspired them to change their mind or stop their anorexic ways. They can find nothing to believe in more than they can believe in the anorexia: it is all powerful.

Anorexia just can’t be taken away from them; anorexia can only be replaced with something they believe in more than their disorder.  Changing the person’s beliefs is the real cure for anorexia.

Changing beliefs for the anorexic can only happen on the subconscious level: the level where our feelings and emotions live. This can only be done with beliefs+ emotions+ action the same way they got their anorexia in the first place.

The best people who can help a sufferer with this are people who are close, like a mother, father, spouse, sibling or a very close friend.

People who are close to the sufferer can affect the subconscious mind of a person much deeper and easier than anyone else (including therapists, doctors and psychiatrists). Anorexics need family support much more than anyone else.

But they also need a process to affect the subconscious mind and without this it is doubtful they will recover. This process must contain Beliefs+ Emotions+ Actions the same as they used before only positive ones not the negative anorexic ones. Luckily there are such processes available to help today they are call neuroplasticity treatments.

Read More About Karen mom please help go to http://www.mom-please-help.com

This could be the reason why some ED treatments failed to make the person better. It is simply because the deep intimate emotions remain unchanged after these kinds of treatments.

To make any eating disorder treatment successful people should concentrate on the emotional healing of the sufferer, foremost.

There are 5 steps to emotional healing:

1. Acknowledgment: One must say” I need emotional healing because my emotions are not in balance at the moment”. They have to believe this is true, not just say the words.

2. Locate the cause of the pain: Emotional pain is located in the subconscious mind so it is basically impossible to find out the true cause of pain by simple thinking or rationalising. One should have access to their subconscious mind to sort out the problems. The best way to do this is through mindfulness training techniques. Mindfulness is a mental and emotional state when the person is fully aware of her/his owns body and brain. It is when communication with the subconscious mind becomes easier.

3. Cleansing the emotional wound: This can only be done on the subconscious level of awareness, so mindfulness techniques are a great help for doing this. Cleansing occurs when the person reassess the old emotional hurts, attaches a new meaning to them and maybe even replaces them with other more constrictive emotions.

4. Receive healing: This means accepting a new positive emotional state which comes with the healing and hanging on to it. When a person becomes more mindful she/he should be grateful even for little positive changes in their emotional state. Feeling grateful for small subtle changes will attract bigger changes and so on. This means receiving and accepting the healing at all levels.

5. Strengthen the weak areas: This means to continue on with a new way of living and maintaining a new level of awareness for the rest of their life. This is the only way to stop an eating disorder from coming back. It is easy for many sufferers to cling to their old programming as the weak areas seem safe and comfortable. It is scary for some to take the next step and face their weaknesses head on, but it has to be done regardless of how hard it may seem.

To accomplish these 5 steps the person should remain non-judgemental and mindful. Mindfulness is a mental state when one becomes an observer of themself and they have the ability to see things without criticism. People’s emotions often make that person sway to one or the other side: too far either way can lead to disorders.

But mindfulness does not take sides, mindfulness does not get obsessed with the good stuff, it does not try to sidestep the bad stuff, it takes a balanced path.

Mindfulness doesn’t cling to the “pleasant” and there is no fleeing from the “unpleasant” either. A person has to learn to face the ED and control their ED demons and mindfulness training will achieve this.
Mindfulness sees all experiences as equal, all thoughts as equal, and all feelings as equal. Nothing is suppressed. Nothing is repressed. Mindfulness does not play favourites.

The beauty of being mindful is it will cause emotional healing in the eating disorder sufferer and it does not matter how long one has had the disorder.

Emotional conflicts will be solved by just being mindful and wounds will be healed. Mindfulness training is also harmless; it has no side effects and is beneficial for the health of the majority of people, even non-ED sufferers.

Dr Irina Webster MD is a Director of Women Health Issues Program. She is an author and a public speaker. To read more about meditation for eating disorders go to http://www.meditation-sensation.com

To make any eating disorder treatment successful people should concentrate on the emotional healing of the sufferer, foremost.

There are 5 steps to emotional healing:

1. Acknowledgment: One must say” I need emotional healing because my emotions are not in balance at the moment”. They have to believe this is true, not just say the words.

2. Locate the cause of the pain: Emotional pain is located in the subconscious mind so it is basically impossible to find out the true cause of pain by simple thinking or rationalising. One should have access to their subconscious mind to sort out the problems. The best way to do this is through mindfulness training techniques. Mindfulness is a mental and emotional state when the person is fully aware of her/his owns body and brain. It is when communication with the subconscious mind becomes easier.

3. Cleansing the emotional wound: This can only be done on the subconscious level of awareness, so mindfulness techniques are a great help for doing this. Cleansing occurs when the person reassess the old emotional hurts, attaches a new meaning to them and maybe even replaces them with other more constrictive emotions.

4. Receive healing: This means accepting a new positive emotional state which comes with the healing and hanging on to it. When a person becomes more mindful she/he should be grateful even for little positive changes in their emotional state. Feeling grateful for small subtle changes will attract bigger changes and so on. This means receiving and accepting the healing at all levels.

5. Strengthen the weak areas: This means to continue on with a new way of living and maintaining a new level of awareness for the rest of their life. This is the only way to stop an eating disorder from coming back. It is easy for many sufferers to cling to their old programming as the weak areas seem safe and comfortable. It is scary for some to take the next step and face their weaknesses head on, but it has to be done regardless of how hard it may seem.

To accomplish these 5 steps the person should remain non-judgemental and mindful. Mindfulness is a mental state when one becomes an observer of themself and they have the ability to see things without criticism. People’s emotions often make that person sway to one or the other side: too far either way can lead to disorders.

But mindfulness does not take sides, mindfulness does not get obsessed with the good stuff, it does not try to sidestep the bad stuff, it takes a balanced path.

Mindfulness doesn’t cling to the “pleasant” and there is no fleeing from the “unpleasant” either. A person has to learn to face the ED and control their ED demons and mindfulness training will achieve this.
Mindfulness sees all experiences as equal, all thoughts as equal, and all feelings as equal. Nothing is suppressed. Nothing is repressed. Mindfulness does not play favourites.

The beauty of being mindful is it will cause emotional healing in the eating disorder sufferer and it does not matter how long one has had the disorder.

Emotional conflicts will be solved by just being mindful and wounds will be healed. Mindfulness training is also harmless; it has no side effects and is beneficial for the health of the majority of people, even non-ED sufferers.

Dr Irina Webster MD is a Director of Women Health Issues Program. She is an author and a public speaker. To read more about meditation for eating disorders go to http://www.meditation-sensation.com

Mindfulness can also help people to change their behaviour in response to the negative eating disorder thoughts they have, into something more useful and constructive.

Eventually this will change the person’s brain map. Everyone has a brain map, you have a certain map as you read this, but it changes as you learn new things. Mindfulness can change the Map for the better not the worst.

The techniques of mindfulness are simple.
1. Learn to see yourself from the out side. It is like taking a step out of your own body and watching what you are doing as a third person.
 
It is much more difficult to engage yourself in something bad like binging-purging or starving yourself if you see yourself not from the perspective of  “I’ but a third person view like “She or he”.

Throughout the day, step back and ask yourself: “What is she /he doing?”, “What is she/ he feeling?”, “What is she/ he thinking?”. This process is called self-observation.

2. Another technique is to be able to see your life as a story. In your self-talk use the third person perspective, give yourself a role and observe yourself. In your story give your character (yourself) certain roles you would like to have in real life and follow it.

Think of it like a friend saying to you why do you want to continue starving yourself, or why do you want to binge and purge: do you really want to do that?
 
3. Take mental notes. When you became distracted and feel that you want to binge again. The strategy of taking notes may be very useful when you feel like going for a binge. For example, you  have certain feelings at this particular moment: anger, loneliness, boredom, annoyance, fear, jealousy or other feelings that knock you off balance and takes you down the wrong path. 

Don’t try to fight these feelings but acknowledge these feelings, put a label on them. Labelling your feelings means saying in your own mind or even out loud statements like “ I am bored”, “I am nervous”, “ I am jealous” etc.

You can read about healing meditation for eating disorders CDs at http://www.meditation-sensation.com