-Full Site -Film Catalog -Filmmakers -Study Guides

Companion Guide for A Season in Hell

QUESTION 6: IS REGINA "ADDICTED" TO BINGEING AND PURGING?

This is also a very difficult question to answer. There is a great deal of controversy among eating disorder experts as to whether bulimia nervosa is an "addiction" to bingeing and purging. Given the paucity of evidence, at this point it is best to be aware of the similarities and differences between this eating disorder and "chemical dependencies." It is certainly easy to see why many people would consider Regina addicted.

Similarities (As we would expect if bulimia nervosa were an addiction, it is characterized by)

(1) The subjective experience of loss of control over eating and purging.

(2) Preoccupation ("obsession"?) with food, eating, and purging.

(3) Using food and purging as anesthetics for uncomfortable feelings like stress and anger.

(4) Secrecy and fierce denial, even in the face of overwhelming self-injury.

(5) In many instances, a progressive worsening of the disorder, culminating in self-absorption, internal emptiness, and narrowing of involvements.

(6) A paradoxical security in the constancy of habitual, but injurious behavior.

(7) Manipulation and enmeshment of family and friends so as to create persistent disturbance in their lives while somehow sustaining the disorder.

Differences

(1) There is no good evidence as of this writing that bulimia nervosa is a life-long disorder from which one is always "recovering," but never "recovered."

(2) As discussed previously, there are good reasons to conceive of cravings, preoccupation, and the cycle of abuse as the effects of self-induced starvation and of habits, not as hypothesized "disease" entity.

(3) There is as yet no substantive evidence for that "disease entity" or for the proposition that food has addictive properties.

(4) As discussed previously, there is good reason to wonder whether the all-or-none (abstinent = in control vs. Sick = out of control) thinking so prominent in the chemical dependency model isn't part of the problem in bulimia nervosa. In this regard, application of this model may increase the probability of relapse.

(5) Some experts worry that a chemical dependency model of bulimia nervosa displaces the all-important sense of control from the person to the "substance" (e.g., a cookie or a potato chip).