Bulimia is just about the most common eating disorder we get to help people with. The usual way bulimia manifests itself in thought, feeling and behaviour is by a cycle of bingeing and purging (or just eating and purging). The cycles of bulimia tend to be driven by feelings of fear and/or low self-image.
Anything you repeat often enough will become 'automated' by the unconscious mind, so the bulimia seems to happen all by itself, seemingly just out of conscious control. Basically, bulimia becomes a habit you can't quite control. This in turn often leads to feelings of depression/self loathing/anger and feelings of failure.
Going over the past is usually a waste of time
Going over the past in an attempt to understand how the bulimia 'began', or searching for 'deep hidden meanings' seems to us to be a very long winded (and often fruitless) approach.
By contrast, our approach is almost directly opposite to many counselors and psychotherapists in that we work directly with the bulimia patterns, literally teaching you HOW to think differently, to help you to build flexibility and choice into your thoughts, feelings and behaviour's in the present, because, basically, this is all you need.
Hypnotherapy is also used to map resources from areas of your life when you have felt confident, relaxed and resourceful (even if you haven't felt these things for a while!), to those times when you would have engaged in bulimia.
Planning For Bulimia
What everyone with bulimia has in common is 'planning'. Some wake up in the morning and plan what they are going to eat and when and where they will purge. Others will say to themselves 'today will be a good day' and start the day with the best of intentions. Then they will start breakfast/lunch/dinner and get to a point where they think, 'I have eaten this much, I may as well keep eating, I can always throw up afterwards'.
Think of either of these thought patterns as 'plans'. It's not as if you do this deliberately, if you really had a conscious choice you would feel good and eat a healthy balanced diet. However, when your brain is educated/trained to do something else instead of planning for bulimia, the bulimia will stop. It's that simple.
Bulimia and Fear
As we have said, bulimia is usually driven by fear that if the person doesn't binge then they will put on weight. Unfortunately the activity of being bulimic often actually works against the body becoming slim, healthy and fit, For example, someone with bulimia and worried about their weight will often skip breakfast. If they were to eat something like porridge then their metabolic rate would increase and they would more effectively burn calories, and foods like porridge provide a long term energy release so that the person isn't 'starving' by lunchtime. Almost invariably when the person stops being bulimic and starts to eat a healthy balanced diet they usually find it astonishingly easy to lose excess weight.
Bulimia and Nutrition
Most bulimics know more about nutrition than many nutritionists, it seems to us. On the very rare occasion when the person is ignorant of the basic facts of what constitutes a healthy diet then we get them to go and see a nutritionist for specific help and advice before they see one of us.
How Long Will The Therapy Take?
We find that on average we can help people to stop 'doing bulimia' with 2 - 4 hours of NLP and hypnotherapy, and on many occasions we have seen people who have binged and purged daily for years and got them to stop doing it in just one session. It is our job to help you to change the cycles of behaviour, help you to feel better about yourself as you are, help you to move away from bulimia, and consequently help you to move, once again, to a healthier and happier way of living.
Read an article fom Elle magazine about Hypnotherapy And NLP For The Treatment Of Bulimia »
