Signs Of Bulimia - The Toilet

Signs of bulimia - The toilet People often associate the purging part of bulimia with vomiting. Although this is the most widespread purging method, you should be careful not to assume it only happens in the toilet. There are plenty of other places a bulimic can purge, as you'll discover in our other videos. For the time being however, we'll focus our attention on the toilet. Here's what you should look out for: Is the toilet always spotlessly clean? In reality few people have time or the inclination to meticulously and repetitively clean their toilet.

However, if you send a lot of time vomiting with your face in the toilet - you'd probably want it to be clean. Another reason for a bulimia sufferer to meticulously clean a toilet is to cover up any evidence. Vomit and bile tend to leave a greasy film even after the toilet has been flushed - so over-cleanliness could be a good sign of bulimia. Is there a greasy residue around the waterline? Is there a greasy film floating on top of the water? Both of these things are the tell tale sign that vomit has been in the toilet recently. This greasy film floats on water so is actually quite difficult to flush away.

It has to be removed chemically with cleaning products. Do you notice 'bits' in the toilet? Undigested food often consists of 'floaty bits'. Obviously these rise to the surface once the bulimia sufferer has vomited. Upon flushing the toilet the water turbulence mixes much of the floaty material into the water and it is sent around the u-bend to the sewer. However, small bits can escape the turbulence and return to the surface of the water in the toilet. Look out for small floaty bits. Toilet paper. Using toilet paper as a concealer or helper is important in several bulimia strategies.

For example floating toilet paper on top of a greasy film will absorb much of it and when the toilet is flushed the absorbed film is removed along with the toilet paper. Toilet paper can also be used to retain floaty bits by helping to trap them during the flush cycle. Finally, you may well not be surprised to find toilet paper in your toilet. However, the question you should be asking is 'what would a bulimia sufferer be concealing with that?' Time, frequency and distractions in the toilet. How long does the potential bulimia sufferer spend in the toilet? How often do they use the toilet? Do they run the tap or use some other noise as a distraction when they're in the toilet? Vomiting can be a noisy process - be wary of intentional distractions. Multiple flushes. If you hear your toilet flushing multiple times when a certain person uses it - you need to ask yourself what specifically they're trying to get ride of. Modern toilets work pretty well for urine and faeces - but they're not designed to get rid of undigested food and bile.

Nose blowing. Vomit has a nasty habit of getting into the nose on its way out. So, if you hear habitual nose blowing following a trip to the toilet (pre or post flush) there's a possibility it's to clear the nose of traces of vomit.

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