Bulimia Nervosa and Hypnotherapy

Understand more about Bulimia

If you suffer from Bulimia

Using Hypnosis to manage Bulimia

I offer a treatment system for bulimia nervosa that has proved effective and removes the issue entirely in most cases. If you are suffering from Bulimia keep this in mind. Your toughest decision is to get help. Once you make thta decision, everything gets easier. You are not alone. We can sort this out.

Generally participants in the treatment system are expected to commit to 4 sessions, spaced two to three days apart. Sometimes results are swift, other times we have to work a little longer. I have many satisfied clients and friends who have been relieved by this system.

If you are unable to get to my Vancouver office, and would prefer to work on our downloadable therapy program please go to the download site for the Bulimia Self Hypnosis Program. If you want to work on this issue remotely email me to discuss the matter.

If you suffer from Bulimia

When you suffer from bulimia I understand how frightening the condition can be.  I work very closely with my bulimic clients, and do everything I can to support them. In some instances this I quite literally a 24 hour task. However, the result is that I experience consistent success with bulimic clients and we overcome their issues together. If you feel unable to discuss this with anyone, feel free to contact me to talk about it. It doesn’t have to be a problem, if we manage it together.

Below is an article about bulimia I was asked to write recently, you may find it of interest. The most important thing to keep in mind as you strive to overcome this horrible condition is this: There is no shame in this condition. It is an illness – just the same as diabetes or the flu – you didn’t choose it.

Between us we can overcome this. I have with many clients and you must not feel alone or desperate. It’s simply a case of dealing with it. You really can do this.

I was disappointed to get an email from someone looking for help with bulimia recently who said:

“I talked to one of the doctors I see that is the director of the eating disorder program at St. Pauls hospital and she said that "there is  no evidence that hypnotherapy works" and that its a waste of money.... I don’t necessarily take that to heart, as I know their are varying opinions and I want to check with a few other doctors I see.”

I found this very disturbing. The fact is, you should be aware that in treating Bulimia hypnosis is a viable option and anyone who tells you otherwise is flying in the face of well established medical research. In 1892 the British Medical Association convened a team of doctors to research hypnosis as a treatment methodology. Their results were published in the British Medical Journal later that same year. They concluded that hypnosis was indeed of value and was effective particularly in the cases of anxiety related issues.

In 1955, the Psychological Medicine Group of the BMA commissioned a Subcommittee, led by Prof. T. Ferguson Rodger, to deliver a second, and more comprehensive, report on hypnosis. The Subcommittee consulted several experts on hypnosis from various fields, including the eminent neurologist Prof. W. Russell Brain, and the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion. After two years of study and research, its final report was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), under the title ‘Medical use of Hypnotism’. The terms of reference were:

To consider the uses of hypnotism, its relation to medical practice in the present day, the advisability of giving encouragement to research into its nature and application, and the lines upon which such research might be organized. (BMA, 1955)

This is a much more thorough and extensive report, and constitutes one of the most significant documents in the history of hypnotherapy research. With regard to efficacy, it concludes from a systematic review of available research that,

"The Subcommittee is satisfied after consideration of the available evidence that hypnotism is of value and may be the treatment of choice in some cases of so-called psycho-somatic disorder and psychoneurosis. It may also be of value for revealing unrecognized motives and conflicts in such conditions. As a treatment, in the opinion of the Subcommittee it has proved its ability to remove symptoms and to alter morbid habits of thought and behavior."

Personally I don’t know who the Director of the Eating disorder program at St. Paul’s is, or what her experience of hypnosis may be.  I do however know that sadly understanding of Bulimia is sorely lacking in certain parts of the medical profession in BC. One client reported her doctor suggested 'You should eat more'.

You need to get a broad base of information on the subject before deciding what to believe when dealing with Bulimia. It is in your interests to keep in mind that you will hear a lot of nonsense sometimes coming from people who should know better, but speak from a position of relative ignorance. I prefer to listen to a more established medical authority – the British Medical Association. As someone needing support, you should be aware of the facts though – we can beat this together.

Using Hypnosis to Manage Bulimia

Up to one in ten women between 18 and 25 will at some stage suffer an eating disorder. Worse still, it will be the one in ten we least expect. Clients are mostly female, but not exclusively.
As a hypnotherapist specializing in eating disorders I often work with clients struggling with Bulimia. In many cases they consider themselves overweight, and yet are not. Like anorexics, they have little idea of how they appear to others.  Yet, this is not an issue that has a great deal to do with food.  Food is merely the media of expression for the problem.

Here’s an example.  A client tells of how they first began their bulimic behavior in school. The symptoms subsided a few years later, only to return following a painful breakup with a boyfriend. On closer examination it turns out that around the time the client started her bulimic behavior, her mother was going through a separation and her father had left the family home.
The bulimia was related to her feelings of abandonment and insecurity, and had little to do with food.  However, as a means of expressing herself, and a tool to create a physical response, food became a viable media. As unlikely as it may seem, this client was looking for security and a means to satisfy her own feelings of abandonment. No amount of reassurance about how little she needed to loose weight would have any positive effect.

When a second situation of abandonment was experienced, she reverted to a ‘successful’ behavioral pattern, and returned to bulimia. She would probably go through spells of bulimia her entire life, at every point where she felt abandoned, if her situation went unaddressed.
In this simplistic example things appear straightforward. Unfortunately, life is rarely this simple. However, when the cause of the initial outbreak of bulimic behavior is uncovered in many instances, using hypnosis, the behavior can be altered, or eliminated completely. Hypnosis can also play a valuable role in intervening when a sufferer needs to increase their food intake rapidly. 

An unusual and effective method to achieve this is to place a sufferer in hypnosis, stimulate them to eat some high protein foods, such as a boiled egg, and a protein drink, and then while they remain in hypnosis, take any memory of eating these foods away. Without the memory of eating, there is no desire to purge.

In a bulimic ‘binge purge cycle’ hypnosis can be used to interrupt and relieve the process. Ultimately the causes will need to be addressed, however the bingeing can be stalled or prevented using the right suggestions.  The single most important aspect of using hypnosis with bulimic clients is to reassure the sufferer that there is no shame in this debilitating condition. It’s a disease, just the way flu and diabetes are. With proper care bulimia can be overcome.
Treatment options for hypnotherapists.

A key aspect to realize in the treatment of bulimic clients is that to disrupt their binge/purge cycle can greatly weaken their resolve to complete it. Although this can provide a valuable nutrition boost, it may not actually end the bulimia.  In most cases bulimia needs to be dealt with at the point of origin. Then sources of anxiety need to be systematically removed. As they are isolated and removed the client will binge less and so purging will reduce.

Regression to find the original causes is the hypnotherapists most valuable tool.  There is a body of thought out there, and therapists hear this all the time, that 75% or more of bulimic clients have been sexually abused. As a forensic hypnotherapist I am very able to detect this – however, in my experience this is simply not the case. There are higher incidences of sexual abuse in bulimic clients than in the population generally, but we are not talking about more than 20 to 25% - probably less.

The bulimic client is more likely to have been exposed to some trauma than the general population. Trauma is a very broad term and can range from seeing your younger sibling hit by a vehicle, to not being asked to be in the school play, depending on the individual.

The anxiety the bulimic client experiences can easily be managed using hypnosis. The results are often dramatic and swift.

.....

A variety of factors can contribute to the onset of bulimia.
These include:

• Various psychological factors have been shown to be more common in those with bulimia and thus may be a contributing factor to the onset of this disorder. A low sense of self-esteem, anxiety, and those with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are some of the most common traits.
• The interpersonal environment of an individual plays a large role in affecting an eating disorder. An unstable relationship between various members of the family, as well as a history of abuse, can contribute to the problem.
• The presence of a family member with history of an eating disorder also can play a role in the onset of bulimia. Biological make-up of a person may also affect their chances of developing bulimia. There is some evidence that the brain chemical, serotonin, may have an impact in those who develop bulimia, as serotonin helps to regulates food intake.
• Also, the culture someone lives in greatly affects their susceptibility to this disorder. In Western society today, thinness is an obsession and it is often promoted that to be beautiful or successful one must maintain the perfect body.

All of these factors join to increase a person’s susceptibility to bulimia and oftentimes worsen the condition.

How can hypnotherapy help?

After exploring the individual circumstances and assessing the contributing factors, the client is put into hypnosis and a series of exercises undertaken. These radically reshape the clients behavior relating to food, and their perceptions relating to their own body image.

A typical treatment plan to take care of bulimia requires 6 sessions spaced two to three days apart.

What are the effects of Bulimia?

Bulimia has a whole array of medical complications that can arise as the disorder worsens. These effects will infiltrate every inch of the body both physically and mentally.

Some effects of bulimia are:

Physical Effects

* Irregular heart rhythms, heart failure
* Dry skin, callused or sore knuckles
* Sore, swollen cheeks
* Increase in cavities, tooth enamel loss, gum disease
* Stomach ulcers
* Rupturing of the esophagus, soreness
* For women, irregular periods
* Complications of the intestines
* Dependency on laxatives

Emotional Effects

* Depression
* Fluctuating emotions
* Feelings of anxiousness
* Poor self-image
* Feeling out of control
* Isolating oneself from others

Signs of bulimia

1. Swollen cheeks or jaw

2. Dehydration

3. Binge eats

4. Calluses or sores on knuckles

5. Going frequently to the bathroom after meals

6. Misuse of diuretics, laxatives or enemas

7. Stomach problems

8. Feels out of control when eating

9. Secretive about eating, or hides food

10. Broken blood vessels in the eyes