Diabulimia is a dangerous condition where young women with type 1 diabetes deliberately skip insulin shots to lose weight, leading to high blood sugar levels and potentially life-threatening complications. It is not recognized as an official eating disorder, but can be treated through professional counseling.
The scary world of eating disorders and distorted body images among young women has a potentially fatal new entry, a condition known as diabulimia. Diabulimia is an extreme method of weight loss that combines the natural side effects of juvenile diabetes with the unnatural compulsion known as bulimia or purging.
Some young women diagnosed with type 1 or “juvenile” diabetes are deliberately holding back their daily insulin shots to induce more rapid weight loss. Combined with other extreme eating practices such as binges and purges, the practice can become a life-threatening eating disorder.
Diabulimia is not recognized as an official eating disorder as of mid-2007, but many juvenile diabetes experts have known about this dangerous practice for years. Those who practice diabulimia as a means of weight management are often able to disguise their habit from others by blaming it on the natural side effects of the disease. Many type 1 diabetics are naturally thin due to their restrictive diets and regular insulin injections. Family members and friends may not even be aware that a juvenile diabetic experiences diabulimia.
There are a number of dangerous side effects associated with the practice of diabulimia, but perhaps the most concerning is the effect of high blood sugar levels on the body. Normally, a type 1 diabetic would have to monitor their blood sugar levels several times a day and inject a prescribed amount of insulin based on that reading. Insulin would break down the excess blood sugar and return the diabetic to a fairly normal interval between meals. Someone experiencing diabulimia, however, might inject only enough insulin to prevent total insulin shock. A young girl suffering from diabulimia may have extremely high blood sugar readings all day, seven days a week.
The pressure some young women feel to maintain a slimmer body can lead directly to the formation of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. When this pressure is combined with the social aspects of juvenile diabetes, the result can be some degree of diabulimia. The cumulative effects of long-term diabulimia are often permanently disabling or even life-threatening. The damage caused by insulin shock and uncontrolled high blood sugar levels can include nerve damage, eye bleeding, and serious circulatory problems. Some women who have diabulimia in their teens and early twenties experience these complications decades earlier than other type 1 diabetics.
Diabulimia can be treated through professional counseling, but many eating disorder specialists may not be fully aware of the specific complications faced by type 1 diabetics. Sometimes diabetics recognize the error of their ways and stop the behavior voluntarily, but they may however, there may be serious diabetic complications requiring medical intervention.
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