WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF YOUR BULIMIA?

By this, I mean the purpose, need, reward, or reason for behaving the way you do. So, for the sake of simplicity, I call it the function of your bulimia.

Once you begin to understand why your bulimia is serving a function, it becomes much easier for you to know why it's so difficult to stop the patterns of behavior—and how you’re going to begin to learn to replace this function positively.

THE FIRST STEP IS AWARENESS OF HOW AND WHY YOU ARE BEHAVING THIS WAY

Let's start to break down your pattern of behavior. I want you to tune into and specifically think about how to identify the possible functions that bingeing and purging serve.

To begin with, look through the list below and see if you identify with any?

It helps me to cope with an enormous amount of negative thoughts and feelings.

It's a way to punish me for reasons, only I may know.

It's an attempt toward perfectionism.

It's my only way to gain comfort in my life.

It's the only way I can have any kind of control in my life.

It's a way to control my weight.

It's a way to distract me from the stress of daily life.

It's my way to shout for "Help."

It's a way to relieve boredom.

It's a way to suppress traumatic memories or feelings of anger or anxiety.

It's a way to gain relief or some sort of freedom.

It's a way for me to rebel against the "Good Girl."

Great! Having read through the list, now make up a list of your personal functions of your bulimia.

So grab your notebook and list the functions of your bulimia.

Well done, but you may be surprised that your bulimia isn’t about weight loss so much, even though that’s a significant concern. So much more is going on that’s keeping you clutching to this pattern of behavior.

Thinking about your list and creating your own functions, you can then become:

•  More aware of your eating triggers, patterns, and habits.

•  More aware of your values and desires.

Now that you’ve written out your detailed list, here's the exciting part; we need to reevaluate the function causing your bulimia.

Thinking about your list of "functions" now, write down what you could do differently to begin to satisfy these.

Grab your notebook and list:

YOUR OLD FUNCTION/NEED

WHAT YOU CAN CHANGE/DO DIFFERENTLY

Fantastic, now you have a clearer idea of what your functions are and how you can begin to replace them. We’ll be working with those functions throughout the course.

So, let's continue on your exciting new journey of changing the functions of negative thoughts, feelings, and limiting beliefs that have led you down this dark tunnel. Into new positive ways of thinking, feeling and learning about your incredibly powerful mind and how you can begin to use it to change how you think and feel so, when you are ready zip to the next lecture.