Maybe there’s not a factual answer to this… I just read in People magazine that Dara Torres had suffered from bulimia earlier in her career and that, realizing that her performance was suffering, she quit cold turkey. How is this possible? It’s not like it’s just a bad habit or even an addiction…it’s an actual disease. I doubt that anyone could quit depression or schizophrenia cold turkey. I seem to remember other cases where women just suddenly decided it wasn’t working for them and just quit. Anyone get this?
It’s a disease that the infected has the ability to stop the symptoms of. It’s a disease in the same way alcoholism is a disease. Would you question how an alcoholic can just quit drinking?
Aboslutely, even though I quit smoking that way! To me, an eating disorder is cut from a different cloth. Smoking and drinking are both strong addictions, but the person who’s affected by either does not need either alcohol or tobacco to survive. Obviously, people need food to survive. Wouldn’t it be like expecting an alcoholic to be able to have a drink or two per day and just leave it at that? Maybe some could, but I believe that most couldn’t. So…cold turkey, all by oneself, with no counselling or therapy? I, personally, would question how it could be done. I just would not have the self control…but, obviously, there must be people who would. I’m just completely stunned and in awe of anyone who can overcome any addiction on his or her own. I guess, as an athlete, the strength and self-control are pretty well in place already; however, I had always read/heard that eating disorders were among the most insidious, clinging, difficult disorders from which to recover. Am I mistaken?
So she was more like sub-clinically bulimic, and she had help, from her mother and from a psychiatrist. It’s a vast, vast oversimplification for People magazine to say she “quit bulimia cold turkey”.
Food related disorders are typically very similar to adictions (as opposed to things like schizophrenia or mania that you mention) and they are very hard to recover from, as you mention.
Furthermore, a recent NIH longitudinal study revealed that no particular treatment is any more effective at treating that any other - meaning there is no ‘best practice’ when it comes to treating eating disorders (particularly anorexia).
I’m assuming by ‘cold turkey’ People means without the aid of drugs (such as Prozac which have been helpful for some bulimics).
The thing is, bulimia is an active process (assuming it involves purging, as opposed to just restriction and binging). If you don’t want to make yourself puke, you don’t make yourself puke. Sounds simple but it’s not like puking is something that the bulimic has no control over (like a halucination for a schizophrenic) - they would have to actively stick a toothbrush/spoon/finger/etc down their throat. Don’t do that and you won’t puke. It doesn’t mean that they’re psychologically cured, but it means that the physiological stimulus that’s hampering performance is eliminated.
Aren’t alcohol and drug abuse active processes, as well? Would it make sense to tell an alcoholic or a drug addict, “Just don’t use and you won’t be an addict.”? I get your point, but, obviously, it’s not as simple as that or people would just quit. Also, some bulimics have gotten to the point where the vomiting is actually out of their control. The disease has gotten so severe that their body rejects what is eaten and it’s an involuntary action (this is probably fairly rare, but I believe that it does happen. No cite, just anecdotal accounts I’ve read in various books.)
Yep, just like that. And some addicts do just stop cold turkey. As per the NIH study I mentioned - no particular treatment works for every person - for some cold turkey is just the ticket even though that method probably wouldn’t work for most others.
And if my uncle was a woman he would be my aunt.
The severity of one bulimic’s disease has no bearing on the severity of a different bulimic’s disease. While you are correct, some with eating disorders get so bad they can only be fed via tube or intraveinously, that is rather unusual.
Wow! All excellent replies, so far. This is one of those threads that makes me thankful for this board. People are making excellent points without being condescending or snarky in yet another attempt to fight ignorance. Sincere thanks, everyone.
The whole “mental disorders are a disease exactly like any other” is a popular trope, but one that glosses over a lot of realities. The brain is amazing because we do have some degree of conscious control of it. And eating disorders are unique in that they are diseases of the will- it requires an amazing amount of will power to subvert your body’s basic needs. In some cases it is completely in the realm of possibility to use that will to decide to get better, to override the subverted stimulus-response systems that have become established in the brain and establish new, better patterns. It’s not something everyone can do, and it certainly isn’t easy, but in some cases it can be done.
Not to mention you can ‘lose’ your gag reflex after a while.
I don’t think my experiences growing up were that abnormal, but I knew quite a few girls who were bulimic at some point 'til their 20s. Some did it every once in a while when they felt ‘guilty,’ and a close friend of mine did it consistently for about a year. She is honest-to-god fine now. Eats what she wants, exercises occasionally. I think for her it had more to do with having an enormous appetite than wanting to be skinny (especially since she knew for a fact that she was really just vomiting nutrients and roughage and had already absorbed calories).
