History-of-Anorexia-and-Bulimia

The history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia goes back centuries. There have been references to disturbances in eating in much literature. However, the recognition of recognition of more recent history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia, did not occur until the 1970's which is the way anorexia and bulimia are viewed today,

The first writings of history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia were noted in the late seventeenth century. “At the end of the late seventeenth century, the English physician Richard Morton described the occurrence of “nervous consumption”—a wasting different from tuberculosis due to emotional turmoil” (Vandereycken, 2002 p 152). According to the same author the loss of appetite and emaciation were common sysmtoms of well known diseases such as hysteria, mania, melancholy, as well as all kinds of psychotic disorders.

It is interesting that in the seventeenth century what was described as the beginning of the history of anorexia and bulimia was acknowledged as symptoms of other psychiatric problems. These are similar symptoms of other psychiatric illnesses known about today.Some of these include: anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia among others.

An individual can be anorexic and have some of these other disorder, however, the lack of appetite in these disorders is very different than what is considered in a diagnosis of anorexia which is the deliberate restricting of food.

In the history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia,the first descriptions of food purposely restricted were written in 1873 by Earnest-Charles Laseque. and Sir William Withey. The symptoms they described are similar to what is used to diagnose someone with anorexia nervosa in the present day. The signs these men wrote about were severe weight loss, amenorrea, constipation, restlessness without a relation to a another psychiatric problem.

It was not until the 20th century that anorexia, was a familiar problem in the main stream of western countries. In the 1960’s an American psychiatrist Hilde Bruch, wrote more about anorexia nervosa and added the issues of low self esteem and distorted body image an other aspects of this disorder. Although in the 1960s it didn’t seem that people were as aware of being too thin as a problem. A good example was the model Twiggy who was very thin and many women look to her as the ideal that they wanted to emulate rather than someone who had a problem.In the history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia they were first to be described to be classified as a psychiatric problem bu Gerald Russel who give a detailed discrimination. He divided them into three area’s a behavioral disturbance, a characteristic psychopathology and an eating disorder. “The behavioral disturbance leads to a marked loss of body fat; the psychopathology is characterized by a morbid fear of getting fat; and the endocrine disorder manifest itself clinically by amenorrhea in females and loss of sexual potency and sexual interest in males. These criteria have evolved into the current DSM-IV and IDC-9 criteria…” (Garfinkle, 2002 p.155).

Bulimia has recognized for centuries but not necessarily as a problem an example is that in ancient Rome people used to vomit up food they ate in the period of feasting. They even had special places for it called "vomitorium". The vomitorium was for the purpose of throwing up food after meals for guests who ate too much or wished to eat more.This was to show wealth and abundance.

Hay House Radio is Free Listen Get Motivated and Uplifted Free

Unbelievable Bargains at Hay House 1 dollar deals

In the eighteenth century physicians described several types of bulimia mostly related to overeating and vomiting. At that time, the purging was called hysterical vomiting. The medical community viewed this as some sort of gastric dysfunction rather than an eating disorder.

In my own practice I have seen people who do not intend to vomit however, do to some other problem. I have also seen people who have vomited so much that their body almost vomits automatically after they have eaten.

It was not until the twentieth century that the awareness and history-of-anorexia-and-bulimia became health care professionals. In addition their was a recognition bulimia started was a destructive manner in which people could eat what they wanted but not gain weight. “From the 1970’s on, a discrete of symptoms was identified, distinguishable from anorexia nervosa and obesity. Physicians progressively encounterd women who binged on large amounts of food but prevented themselves from gaining making themselfes vomit or using laxatives.

Over the years that I have worked with eating disorders, I have seen many people who have gone from being bulimic to anorexic. The similarities between anorextia and bulimia is the intense fear of gaining weight. There are however, some very distincted differences between the two eating disorders.

In anorexia the extreme fear of gaining weight is couple with the need to be extremely thin. The achievement of weight loss is usually done by restricting food and losing so much weight that people with this disorder are usually underweight. There are forms of anorexia that can be confused with bulimia. This is because some of the symptoms can look the same. In anorexia as well as bulimia their can be purging, using laxatives and/or over-activity. The main difference in anorexia is that people with this disorder cannot tolerate being at a normal weight for their height.

Even though the behaviors of people can be similar to those who suffer from anorexia there are distinct differences. “One essential distinction is that patients with bulimia nervosa maintain an apparently normal weight” (Beumont, 2002 p.167).

It seems that some people who develop bulimia try to restrict but cannot handle the deprivation. Consequentially, they binge, after the binge many people are overcome with guilt and purge.

Return to top of History of Anorexia and Bulimia Page