Bulimia - What will happen?

In this section

Can I get better?
What if I don't get treatment?

If you have had bulimia for a long time, it can start to affect your body and lead to health problems.

It's important to know how big a problem this disease can be. Here are some of the ways it can harm your body.

Vomiting can make your body lose too much water. This can lead to kidney stones. Vomiting can also upset the balance of chemicals in your bloodstream, which can damage your muscles and heart.
Being sick all the time can cause damage to your stomach and the tube that carries food from your mouth to your stomach (your oesophagus).
Women who have bulimia for many years can have trouble getting pregnant. Sometimes this is because their periods have stopped.
If your bulimia is very severe, it can make your heartbeat irregular, which could even make your heart stop beating. This is because it upsets the balance of chemicals in your body.

These things are likely to happen if you've had bulimia for a long time (several years) or if you vomit a lot (say, two or three times a day, every day).[3] [1]

Even if you haven't had bulimia for very long, it can cause problems. The stomach acid in your vomit can strip the enamel from your teeth, and you can get constipated from using laxatives so often.

Can I get better?

The good news is that bulimia can be treated, even if you've had it a long time. To get treatment, you'll need to talk to your doctor about the problem. That first step can be hard to take, but it is important to get help as soon as you can.[5]

Start by making an appointment with your GP.[1] [4] If your GP can't treat you, he or she will refer you to a specialist. Below is a list of some important things to keep in mind.

With treatment, many people get completely better.[2]
Even if your bulimia doesn't disappear, getting treatment will give you a chance to get control of your symptoms.[2] If you are bingeing and vomiting less, you'll feel better and less guilty.
Treatment can make you feel happier with your body instead of craving to be thinner.
No one will expect you to change overnight. Around half of all people treated for bulimia get completely better, but this can take a few years.

Most of what we know about what happens to people with bulimia is based on two small studies of women who were treated for bulimia.[6] [7] About 10 years after the women found out they had bulimia, researchers talked to them about how they were doing. Here are some of the things the researchers discovered.

Half of the women were completely better. They had no symptoms of bulimia at all.
About 3 to 4 in 10 women still had symptoms but these had improved.
And about 1 to 2 in 10 still had all the symptoms of bulimia.[6] [7]

What if I don't get treatment?

We don't know if you'll get better without treatment. It's possible you would get better anyway, but it might take many years. In one study, most people got better in five years and only one-quarter of them had any treatment.[8] What we do know is that if you get treatment early (within one or two years of getting symptoms) your chances of getting better increase.[6]

References

Walsh JM, Wheat ME, Freund K. Detection, evaluation, and treatment of eating disorders the role of the primary care physician. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2000; 15: 577-590.
Brambilla F Aetiopathogenesis and pathophysiology of bulimia nervosa: biological bases and implications for treatment. CNS Drugs. 2001; 15: 119-136.
Becker AE, Grinspoon SK, Klibanski A, et al. Eating disorders. New England Journal of Medicine. 1999; 340: 1092-1098.
Hay PJ, Gilchrist PN, Ben-Tovim DI, et al. Eating disorders revisited: II: Bulimia nervosa and related syndromes. Medical Journal of Australia. 1998; 169: 488-491.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Eating Disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related eating disorders. Understanding NICE guidance: a guide for people with eating disorders, their advocates and carers, and the public. Available at http://www.nice.org.uk (accessed on 26 January 2007).
Harris EC, Barraclough B. Excess mortality of mental disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1998; 173: 11-53.
Nielsen S, Moller-Madsen S, Isager T, et al. Standardized mortality in eating disorders--a quantitative summary of previously published and new evidence. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 1998 Mar-Apr; 44(3-4):413-34.
Wells LA, Sadowski CA. Bulimia nervosa: an update and treatment recommendations. Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 2001; 13: 591-597.

Glossary

laxative: Laxatives are medicines that empty your bowels by making you go to the toilet more often than usual.
constipated: When you're constipated, you have difficulty passing stools (faeces). Your bowel movements may be dry and hard. You may have fewer bowel movements than usual, and it may be a strain when you try to go.

This information does not replace medical advice. If you are concerned you might have a medical problem please ask your Boots pharmacy team in your local Boots store, or see your doctor.