The name given to the chronic eating disorder that occurs when the act of uncontrolled excessive eating and throwing up becomes an uncontrollable habit is Bulimia Nervosa. This disease is often seen in people who cannot overcome their depression and who do not accept that they are depressed.
Bulimia is briefly defined as a person consuming excessive amounts of food in very short intervals and then resorting to inappropriate methods to lose weight. People who cannot control their eating urges use various methods to get rid of the excess food they consume. The most commonly used of these is the vomiting method.
They are people who are stuck under one or more problems, have lost their self-confidence, see themselves as unsuccessful in their struggle for life, give up at some point, withdraw into themselves and isolate themselves from social life, almost their only pleasure in life is "eating whatever they find", unconsciously eat and immediately feel great regret and vomit or make excessive efforts to get rid of what they have eaten.
These people empty their stomachs by putting their fingers in their mouths and vomiting approximately every two hours after stuffing their stomachs. You may also hear it among the public as the mannequin disease.
Since these people are ashamed of the procedure they do, they usually do it secretly without letting anyone know. As a result;
- Continuous vomiting causes irritation of the throat and the formation of wounds
- Teeth and gums are damaged
- Hair loss, memory loss
- Headache, toothache, swelling in the throat, stomach ache, heart attack and death
- The pressure of food particles into the middle ear leads to other health problems.
Excessive exercises that strain the body, dieting to death, using laxatives or diuretics are among the other methods these people try to lose weight.
There are 3 types of this disease, which affects approximately one in every 10 young girls in some countries;
The type called "simple bulimia" is usually seen in 18-year-old girls after breaking up with their boyfriends. These people, who had completely normal eating habits before, start to dislike their bodies and want to lose weight as a result of such an event. When these people who diet excessively occasionally skip the diet, great despair begins and they start vomiting periods to get rid of the weight gained. This type of bulimia usually corrects itself over time.
Another type is “anorexic bulimia”. It occurs after a long period of thinness. Long-term thinness is followed by a short period of eating and then vomiting attacks occur.
The most severe type is “multiimpulsive bulimia”. People who are prone to this type usually have a variable emotional structure. These are usually people who have difficulty controlling their emotions and behaviors.
When a person who understands that these situations have become a habit at the level of a disease realizes that another serious health problem has been added to their depression, they panic and hesitate to even get help from a doctor. They hide this from everyone, think they will solve it on their own and always say tomorrow is the end. But those tomorrows never come. Sometimes they go to the doctor with another problem,
For example
A dentist sees that there is sensitivity in his/her teeth despite taking good care of them. The dentist sees the erosions on the teeth as the reason for the sensitivity and if necessary, gives an appointment for another session; he/she explains that this condition is usually caused by too much stomach acid circulating in the mouth, that they will solve the reason together and that he/she can share the secret and maybe he/she will need to spend a little more time than usual
Etiology
The sense of hunger and satiety, managed by the central hypothalamus, gives important signals regarding the regulation of food intake, that is, the harmony between the body's energy expenditure and calorie intake. There is a disorder in this signal function in obese people. The regulation of hunger and satiety cannot be managed appropriately for the situation and the person cannot perceive his/her physiological hunger and satiety sufficiently. The intensity of the feeling of hunger and satiety is mostly darkened by emotional states that do not match reality. The pathologically increased eating behavior in obese people is due to the increased feeling of hunger on the one hand and the decreased feeling of satiety on the other, that is, the perception quality of both feelings is impaired together.
Increased calorie intake due to pathological eating behavior serves to protect most obese people from unpleasant feelings (narcissistic injuries, depression) and shows even more sharp behavior in cases of object loss.
These pathological mental states are usually based on very intense pre-sexual developmental disorders. Eating alleviates unpleasant feelings for the person. In this way, the person feels a little balanced mentally, albeit temporarily.
In some cases, extreme joy and euphoria are encountered during eating. As a result, in obese people, psychological defense reasons are transformed into a physiological action and used uselessly.
The frequent circulation of stomach acid in the mouth and its contact with the teeth, and the chemical dissolution of the acid wastes, cause erosions on the teeth.
Treatment
First, the chronic habit of throwing up almost every food that enters the body through vomiting should be treated, if necessary with the help of a psychiatrist, and the existing eroded teeth should be treated immediately and the patient should be kept under follow-up for a few months. It should be explained to the patient very well that this disease can lead to death as a result of becoming a habit.
The person should first be advised to make peace with himself. It should be taught that diseases caused by wrong eating habits can cause other very dangerous diseases and if necessary, the dentist should continue his/her treatment with the support of a psychiatrist.
Esthetic composite veneer or filling restorations can be made on teeth that have undergone erosion and enamel damage. Some advice and preventive medical information can be put into action to eliminate bad breath.
