Substance Abuse in Women With Bulimia Nervosa | Psychiatric Times

Substance Abuse in Women With Bulimia Nervosa | Psychiatric Times

She takes various forms of medication, there was the tegretol and the anti-depressants, which I’m convinced were prescribed for her as treatment for the Borderline Personality Disorder, but which also helps with the seizures which the Bulimia will cause. She lies about her reasons to take tegretol, and claim that she was Epileptic, which is a convenient facade because it can’t be proven by the average person and isn’t a socially unacceptable affliction in the way Bulimia and BPD are. The Epileptic claim also garners an amount of sympathy and license, which makes it all the more convenient. She has a golden retriever which she will from time to time claim is a service dog, though nothing could be further from the truth, but when pressed she’ll claim that the dog is trained to help her in the case of a seizure, and try to take the dog shopping with her. Not because she has any attachment to the dog, but because it would allow her a privilege which others are not able to enjoy, because it would mean that she was somehow superior to them. She also takes various other drugs in the form of legal medication. Painkillers for instance, she takes painkillers daily, once at least to the point where she was hospitalized. She also takes tranquilizers like rivotril and sleeping tablets. In effect, she has constructed a character who lives life in public on her behalf, and she feels she hides. Her teeth have been veneered more than once to help hide the effects of the bulimia, unfortunately as long as she continues with the bulimia her teeth will continue to suffer damage, she will inevitably have to have her teeth removed and have a plate made. She will soon be thirty three years of age, but her teeth already are in a similar condition to those of her sixty seven year old mother. Her dental work is often the reason put forward for the need for pain killers, though she will continue to take them in the months between dental work being done. She smokes heavily and drinks large amounts of coffee, she takes medication at the slightest provocation, sometimes injuring herself deliberately and then having medication prescribed. I do believe that the only reason she hasn’t turned to illicit narcotics is that they are not socially acceptable, and she feels that this kind of narcotic would expose the real person.

The high rate of comorbid substance abuse in women with bulimia nervosa (BN) has remained consistent in the literature. This article reviews the prevalence of substance abuse in BN and summarizes treatment approaches for persons with BN and comorbid substance abuse.

Source: Substance Abuse in Women With Bulimia Nervosa | Psychiatric Times

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