ABSTRACT
Some people with an eating disorder also have problems with alcohol and drug abuse, shoplifting and/or overspending. These behaviours may simply result from the “wiring in” of wanting/craving for different substances that arise in the context of bulimia (see Chapter 4 on the topic of how alternating starving and bingeing creates food addiction and makes developing cross-addictions to other substances easier). For some people, using substances and overspending may also be a way of coping with difficult feelings and thoughts that parallel those described in Chapter 10 as underlying your binge eating.
