Mia Prensky's blog  Mia Prensky's picture  Bulimia on the Brain
As a long time sufferer of bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder
characterized by episodes of bingeing on food followed by
purging either through the use of self-induced vomiting or by
the abuse of laxatives and/ or exercise, often including
episodes of self-starvation, I have struggled with the negative
stereotypes that insist on eating disorders as being the result
of vanity, the desire to be thin, a characteristic highly
promoted in our culture as a key element to feminine beauty and
attractiveness (2). While social and environmental factors
cannot be discarded as playing a crucial role in the development
and perpetuation of eating disorders, resulting in abnormal and
often extremely dangerous extremes as an attempt to control
weight, we must take into consideration the other factors, such
as abnormal brain chemistry and genetics, that are now shown to
influence and even predispose the development and persistence of
eating disorders in certain