Regardless of how long you have had bulimia, recovery is possible. To recover, you must:

• begin and continue treatment,
• make the necessary lifestyle changes, and
• resolve the underlying psychological and emotional issues that led to your bulimia.

Psychotherapy as treatment for bulimia

Because poor body image and low self-esteem underlie bulimia, psychotherapy is an important aspect of treatment for bulimia. Many people with bulimia feel isolated and shamed by their bingeing and purging, and therapists can help.

Individual psychotherapy addresses the emotional underpinnings of bulimia. Therapy helps you to identify concerns, solve problems, overcome fears, and test new skills. Each kind of therapist approaches discussions about bulimia differently, according to specialty.

• Cognitive behavior therapy focuses on the thoughts that envelop food and eating. One of the main goals is for you to become more self-aware of your relationship to food. Your therapist may ask you to keep a food diary or a journal of your thought processes about food.
• Behavior therapy uses rewards and repercussions to chnge the behaviors of bingeing and purging. The behavior therapist teaches you to recognize triggers for bingeing and purging and to interrupt the “rituals” of bulimic episodes by substituting relaxation and other coping strategies.
• Other types of psychotherapy focus on social and emotional conditions in your life that can lead to low self-esteem, which may in turn contribute to your bulimia. Therapists may include massage or relaxation exercises in your mental health treatment.

Family therapy looks at the family dynamics that may contribute to your bulimia and often includes some therapy sessions without you. Family therapy may be the solution when the person with bulimia denies the eating disorder.

Marital therapy, or couples therapy, helps to strengthen the relationship between life partners and helps to resolve communication problems. The partner can then provide better support for recovery from bulimia.

Group therapy led by a psychotherapist allows you to talk in a supervised setting with other people who have bulimia. Group therapy helps to reduce the isolation you may feel about your eating disorder, and group members can support each other in their quest for wellness.

By Michael Russell

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