Things came to a head for her when one day she noticed that she threw up blood. She was not exactly sure what this meant at the time, but she did know that this was a serious problem. She decided to reach out to her roommate and tell her about her problem with Bulimia. Her roommate took her to the emergency room and Sara was admitted for some tests. A thorough evaluation of her physical and mental health took place. It was during this time that she began to take stock of all the scary effects of this illness on her well-being. She had stopped menstruating for ten consecutive months, her skin was so dry it actually hurt, and all the color had left her face. Her hair started to fall out of her head and she grew hair on her arms and legs as a way to compensate for the fat loss on her body. She was cold all the time and constantly exhausted. When exercising, she felt as if she was going to pass out and fainted on more than ten occasions, with one laceration on her forehead that required stitches and a creative story about tripping and falling when jogging on a park trail. She lost friends and close family ties. She became much more isolated and egocentric. She stopped participating in things that she once found interesting, desirable, and pleasurable. All that mattered to her were her binges and purges.
Sara luckily got the help she needed. She sought out a team of eating disorder specialists and began treatment and recovery immediately. She quickly realized that she needed to treat this serious illness aggressively. She met weekly with a therapist for both individual and group counseling; she met monthly with a nutritionist for meal planning; and she met bi-monthly with a medical doctor to assure medical stability. Sara explored the reasons why she began engaging in this behavior and what led to the maintenance of this negative coping mechanism for close to a decade. With the help of her team, she began utilizing alternative behaviors to help her meet her needs in a healthier and more functional way.
