The Bulimic Brain
Jacky Duong has been fighting the urge to throw up since she was fourteen, and recent research suggests the battle is largely with her brain.
By Rachel Gross
- Anna Hiatt
- For UC Berkeley student Jacky Duong, the binge-and-purge cycle is a seductive voice that has dug its way deep into her mind.
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Because of its stigma, it's difficult to know how widespread bulimia is. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, the disease affects 1 to 2 percent of adolescent girls. But shoplifting can be even more covert. Though recovering bulimics may be willing to talk about their eating problems, many "suffer in silence" when it comes to taboo topics like shoplifting, according to Dr. Tony Paulson, co-author of the book, Why She Feels Fat and the director of a private recovery clinic in Sacramento. "I have yet to see a billboard promoting help for compulsive shoplifting," Paulson noted.
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