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Bulimia Nervosa What is bulimia nervosa? Bulimia Nervosa is an illness that is most commonly found in girls of late adolescence and early adulthood. It is characterized by episodes of binge eating: eating large quantities of food in a very short time. This behavior may be very severe with enormous quantities being consumed, mostly carbohydrates. To prevent the otherwise inevitable consequence of weight gain, there are periods of food restriction and often vomiting, laxative abuse or excessive exercising. When vomiting is used then the binges become multiple with repeating cycles over several hours in which the sufferer eats until full, then vomits and eats again. With increasing severity, the girls’ lives become more chaotic with the focus increasingly on the bulimic behavior. Signs that may indicate that there is a problem include the tendency to leave the table immediately after a meal. Vomiting is most frequently induced by forcing two fingers of the right hand down the throat. This often causes a chronic blister just below the knuckle where it rubs on the upper teeth. Repeated vomiting quite often leads to a swelling of the salivary glands that show as a soft swelling at the base of the ears or just under the chin. If i