Bulimia is an eating disorder characterised primarily by binging and 'inappropriate' compensatory behaviours, such as purging or excessive exercise. Many individuals with bulimia experience chronic disordered eating, dissatisfaction with treatment, and difficulty establishing a 'new life'. Recovery-oriented practice, which focuses holistically on the person and their own aspirations for treatment, has recently been advocated in the treatment of eating disorders in Australia and other countries. However, questions have been raised about how this practice might be integrated into existing treatment approaches. Taking a social constructionist approach and using a case study of one woman's account, together with literature on patients' treatment experiences, we examined recovery from bulimia. Three themes were identified: bulimia was constructed as 'consuming one's life', an experience protracted through treatment ('treatment and becoming the eating disorder'), which makes life 'beyond treatment and attempting to live without bulimia' challenging. Based on this analysis, we argue that recovery-oriented practice, while seemingly commensurate with patients' needs, may be challenged by long-standing meanings of mental illness and experience of bulimia specifically.

中文翻译：

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“总是与饮食失调有关”：通过面向康复的贪食症找到人。

贪食症是一种饮食失调症，其主要特征是出现暴饮暴食和“不适当”的代偿行为，例如排便或过度运动。许多患有贪食症的人会经历长期的饮食失调，对治疗的不满以及难以建立“新生活”。在澳大利亚和其他国家/地区，最近在饮食失调的治疗中提倡以恢复为导向的做法，该做法着重于人和他们自己的治疗愿望。然而，已经提出了关于如何将该实践整合到现有治疗方法中的问题。我们采用社会建构主义的方法，并通过对一个妇女的帐户进行案例研究，以及有关患者治疗经验的文献，研究了贪食症的康复情况。确定了三个主题：贪食症被构造为“消磨生命”，一种通过治疗（“治疗并成为饮食失调”）而延长的经历，这使生活“超出了治疗范围，并尝试过没有贪食症的生活”具有挑战性。基于这一分析，我们认为，尽管恢复期导向的实践看似与患者的需求相称，但可能会受到长期存在的精神疾病含义和贪食症的经验的挑战。