There are two main types of treatment given to those suffering with bulimia nervosa; psychopharmacological and psychosocial treatments.

Counselling and certain medication, such as lisdexamfetamine and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs), may help. Some recommend a multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of the disorder.

Prevention aims to promote a healthy development before the occurrence of eating disorders. It also intends early identification of an eating disorder before it is too late to treat. Children as young as ages 5–7 are aware of the cultural messages regarding body image and dieting. Prevention comes in bringing these issues to the light. The following topics can be discussed with young children (as well as teens and young adults).

- Emotional Bites: a simple way to discuss emotional eating is to ask children about why they might eat besides being hungry. Talk about more effective ways to cope with emotions, emphasizing the value of sharing feelings with a trusted adult.

- Say No to Teasing: another concept is to emphasize that it is wrong to say hurtful things about other people's body sizes.

- Body Talk: emphasize the importance of listening to one's body. That is, eating when you are hungry (not starving) and stopping when you are satisfied (not stuffed). Children intuitively grasp these concepts.

- Fitness Comes in All Sizes: educate children about the genetics of body size and the normal changes occurring in the body. Discuss their fears and hopes about growing bigger. Focus on fitness and a balanced diet.

Internet and modern technologies provide new opportunities for prevention. On-line programs have the potential to increase the use of prevention programs. The development and practice of prevention programs via on-line sources make it possible to reach a wide range of people at minimal cost. Such an approach can also make prevention programs to be sustainable.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment has been demonstrated as a more effective form of treatment for BED than behavioral weight loss programs. 50 percent of BED individuals achieve complete remission from binge eating. CBT has also been shown to be an effective method to address self-image issues and psychiatric comorbidities (e.g., depression) associated with the disorder. Recent reviews have concluded that psychological interventions such as psychotherapy and behavioral interventions are more effective than pharmacological interventions for the treatment of binge eating disorder. There is the 12-step Overeaters Anonymous or Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous.

There are several supported psychosocial treatments for bulimia. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which involves teaching a person to challenge automatic thoughts and engage in behavioral experiments (for example, in session eating of "forbidden foods") has a small amount of evidence supporting its use.

By using CBT people record how much food they eat and periods of vomiting with the purpose of identifying and avoiding emotional fluctuations that bring on episodes of bulimia on a regular basis. Barker (2003) states that research has found 40–60% of people using cognitive behaviour therapy to become symptom free. He states in order for the therapy to work, all parties must work together to discuss, record and develop coping strategies. Barker (2003) claims by making people aware of their actions they will think of alternatives. People undergoing CBT who exhibit early behavioral changes are most likely to achieve the best treatment outcomes in the long run. Researchers have also reported some positive outcomes for interpersonal psychotherapy and dialectical behavior therapy.

Maudsley family therapy, developed at the Maudsley Hospital in London for the treatment of anorexia has been shown promising results in bulimia.

The use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be quite effective for treating bulimia nervosa (BN) in adults, but little research has been done on effective treatments of BN for adolescents. Although CBT is seen as more cost efficient and helps individuals with BN in self-guided care, Family Based Treatment (FBT) might be more helpful to younger adolescents who need more support and guidance from their families. Adolescents are at the stage where their brains are still quite malleable and developing gradually. Therefore, young adolescents with BN are less likely to realize the detrimental consequences of becoming bulimic and have less motivation to change, which is why FBT would be useful to have families intervene and support the teens. Working with BN patients and their families in FBT can empower the families by having them involved in their adolescent's food choices and behaviors, taking more control of the situation in the beginning and gradually letting the adolescent become more autonomous when they have learned healthier eating habits.

Cognitive behavioural therapy, individual therapy, and group therapy are often beneficial in helping people keep track of their eating habits and changing the way they cope with difficult situations.

There are several 12-step programs that helps overeaters, such as Overeaters Anonymous or Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous and others.

It is quite clear through research, and various studies that overeating causes addictive behaviors.

In some instances, overeating has been linked to the use of medications known as dopamine agonists, such as pramipexole.

Treatment varies according to type and severity of eating disorder, and usually more than one treatment option is utilized. There is no well-established treatment for eating disorders, meaning that current views about treatment are based mainly on clinical experience. Family doctors play an important role in early treatment of people with eating disorders by encouraging those who are also reluctant to see a psychiatrist. Treatment can take place in a variety of different settings such as community programs, hospitals, day programs, and groups. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) recommends a team approach to treatment of eating disorders. The members of the team are usually a psychiatrist, therapist, and registered dietitian, but other clinicians may be included.

That said, some treatment methods are:

- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which postulates that an individual's feelings and behaviors are caused by their own thoughts instead of external stimuli such as other people, situations or events; the idea is to change how a person thinks and reacts to a situation even if the situation itself does not change. See Cognitive behavioral treatment of eating disorders.

- Acceptance and commitment therapy: a type of CBT

- Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT), a set of cognitive drills or compensatory interventions designed to enhance cognitive functioning.

- Dialectical behavior therapy

- Family therapy including "conjoint family therapy" (CFT), "separated family therapy" (SFT) and Maudsley Family Therapy.

- Behavioral therapy: focuses on gaining control and changing unwanted behaviors.

- Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)

- Cognitive Emotional Behaviour Therapy (CEBT)

- Music Therapy

- Recreation Therapy

- Art therapy

- Nutrition counseling and Medical nutrition therapy

- Medication: Orlistat is used in obesity treatment. Olanzapine seems to promote weight gain as well as the ability to ameliorate obsessional behaviors concerning weight gain. zinc supplements have been shown to be helpful, and cortisol is also being investigated.

- Self-help and guided self-help have been shown to be helpful in AN, BN and BED; this includes support groups and self-help groups such as Eating Disorders Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous.

- Psychoanalysis

- Inpatient care

There are few studies on the cost-effectiveness of the various treatments. Treatment can be expensive; due to limitations in health care coverage, people hospitalized with anorexia nervosa may be discharged while still underweight, resulting in relapse and rehospitalization.

For children with anorexia, the only well-established treatment is the family treatment-behavior. For other eating disorders in children, however, there is no well-established treatments, though family treatment-behavior has been used in treating bulimia.

Compulsive overeating is treatable with nutritional assistance and medication. Psychotherapy may also be required, but recent research has proven this to be useful only as a complementary resource, with short-term effectiveness in middle to severe cases.

Lisdexamfetamine is an FDA-approved appetite suppressant drug that is indicated for the treatment of binge eating disorder. The antidepressant fluoxetine is a medication that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of an eating disorder, specifically bulimia nervosa. This medication has been prescribed off-label for the treatment of binge eating disorder (BED). Off-label medications, such as other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have shown some efficacy, as have several atypical agents, such as mianserin, trazodone and bupropion. Anti-obesity medications have also proven very effective. Studies suggest that anti-obesity drugs, or moderate appetite suppressants, may be key to controlling binge eating.

Many eating disorders are thought to be behavioral patterns that stem from emotional struggles; for the individual to develop lasting improvement and a healthy relationship with food, these affective obstacles need to be resolved. Individuals can overcome compulsive overeating through treatment, which should include talk therapy and medical and nutritional counseling. Such counseling has been recently sanctioned by the American Dental Association in their journal article cover-story for the first time in history in 2012: Given "the continued increase in obesity in the United States and the willingness of dentists to assist in prevention and interventional effort, experts in obesity intervention in conjunction with dental educators should develop models of intervention within the scope of dental practice". Moreover, dental appliances such as conventional jaw wiring and orthodontic wiring for controlling compulsive overeating have been shown to be “efficient ways in terms of weight control in properly selected obese patients and usually no serious complications could be encountered through the treatment course.

As well, several twelve-step programs exist to help members recover from compulsive overeating and food addiction, such as Overeaters Anonymous and others.

Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. It is sometimes a symptom of binge eating disorder or compulsive overeating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive quantity of food. A diagnosis of binge eating is associated with feelings of loss of control.

Overeating is the excess food in relation to the energy that an organism expends (or expels via excretion), leading to weight gaining

and often obesity. It may be regarded as an eating disorder.

This term may also be used to refer to specific episodes of over-consumption. For example, many people overeat during festivals or while on holiday.

Overeating can sometimes be a symptom of binge eating disorder or bulimia.

Compulsive over eaters depend on food to comfort themselves when they are stressed, suffering bouts of depression, and have feelings of helplessness.

In a broader sense, hyperalimentation includes excessive food administration through other means than eating, e.g. through parenteral nutrition.

Typically the eating is done rapidly and a person will feel emotionally numb and unable to stop eating.

Most people who have eating binges try to hide this behavior from others, and often feel ashamed about being overweight or depressed about their overeating. Although people who do not have any eating disorder may occasionally experience episodes of overeating, frequent binge eating is often a symptom of an eating disorder.

Binge-eating disorder, as the name implies, is characterized by uncontrollable, excessive eating, followed by feelings of shame and guilt. Unlike those with bulimia, those with binge-eating disorder symptoms typically do not purge their food, fast, or excessively exercise to compensate for binges. Additionally, these individuals tend to diet more often, enroll in weight-control programs and have a history of family obesity. However, many who have bulimia also have binge-eating disorder.

→Swollen of salivary glands lead to the change of facial shape

→If gastric juice is flown to the esophagus constantly, it will lead to a corrosion of the wall of esophagus(long term harmful effect)

→If gastric juice is flown to the oral cavity, it will lead to a corrosion of the oral tissue, dissolve the enamel and consequently cause the loss of teeth/increase chances for tooth decay

A review on behavioral addictions listed the estimated the lifetime prevalence rate (i.e., the proportion of individuals in the population that developed the disorder during their lifetime) for food addiction in the United States as 2.8%.

There are numerous ways in which individuals can reduce emotional distress without engaging in emotional eating. The most salient choice is to minimize maladaptive coping strategies and to maximize adaptive strategies. A study conducted by Corstorphine et al. in 2007 investigated the relationship between distress tolerance and disordered eating. These researchers specifically focused on how different coping strategies impact distress tolerance and disordered eating. They found that individuals who engage in disordered eating often employ emotional avoidance strategies. If an individual is faced with strong negative emotions, they may choose to avoid the situation by distracting themselves through overeating. Discouraging emotional avoidance is thus an important facet to emotional eating treatment. The most obvious way to limit emotional avoidance is to confront the issue through techniques like problem solving. Corstorphine et al. showed that individuals who engaged in problem solving strategies enhance one's ability to tolerate emotional distress. Since emotional distress is correlated to emotional eating, the ability to better manage one's negative affect should allow an individual to cope with a situation without resorting to overeating.

One way to combat emotional eating is to employ mindfulness techniques. For example, approaching cravings with a nonjudgmental inquisitiveness can help differentiate between hunger and emotionally-driven cravings. An individual may ask his or herself if the craving developed rapidly, as emotional eating tends to be triggered spontaneously. An individual may also take the time to note his or her bodily sensations, such as hunger pangs, and coinciding emotions, like guilt or shame, in order to make conscious decisions to avoid emotional eating.

Emotional eating disorder predisposes individuals to more serious eating disorders and physiological complications. Therefore, combatting disordered eating before such progression takes place has become the focus of many clinical psychologists.

Emotional eating may qualify as avoidant coping and/or emotion-focused coping. As coping methods that fall under these broad categories focus on temporary reprieve rather than practical resolution of stressors, they can initiate a vicious cycle of maladaptive behavior reinforced by fleeting relief from stress. Additionally, in the presence of high insulin levels characteristic of the recovery phase of the stress-response, glucocorticoids trigger the creation of an enzyme that stores away the nutrients circulating in the bloodstream after an episode of emotional eating as visceral fat, or fat located in the abdominal area. Therefore, those who struggle with emotional eating are at greater risk for abdominal obesity, which is in turn linked to a greater risk for metabolic and cardiovascular disease.

There are no specific guidelines for the treatment of diabetes and disordered eating, but the standard approach for treatment of two complex conditions as multidisciplinary team of professionals which in this case could include an endocrinologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, dietician, etc.

If a person with Type 1 diabetes who has diabulimia suffers from the disease for more than a short time—usually due to alternating phases during which insulin is injected properly, and relapses, during which they have diabulimia—then the following longer-term symptoms can be expected:

- Severe kidney damage - high blood sugar can overwork the kidneys, eventually leading to kidney failure and the need for a kidney transplant

- Severe neuropathy (nerve damage to hands and feet)

- Extreme fatigue

- Edema (during blood sugars controlled phases)

- Heart problems

- High cholesterol

- Osteoporosis

- Death

Often, people with Type 1 diabetes who omit insulin injections will have already been diagnosed with an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa These individuals are often not aware that diabulimia is more common than they think and is also very difficult to overcome. Unlike anorexia and bulimia, diabulimia sometimes requires the afflicted individual to stop caring for a medical condition. Unlike vomiting or starving, there is sometimes no clear action or willpower involved. Diabulimia may be more appealing to individuals who want to lose weight.

Many articles and studies further conclude that diabetic females have, on average, higher body mass index (BMI) than do their nondiabetic counterparts. Girls and young adult woman with higher BMIs are also shown to be more likely to have disordered eating behavior (DEB). Many authoritative articles have been published which show that preteen and teenage girls with Type 1 diabetes have significantly higher rates of eating disorders of all types than do girls without diabetes. This condition can be triggered or exacerbated by the need for diabetics to exercise constant vigilance in regard to food, weight and glycemic control. In adolescent females, increased weight gain that insulin treatment can cause may play roles in the increased risk for onset of anorexia and/or bulimia.

Vitamin poisoning is the condition of overly high storage levels of vitamins, which can lead to toxic symptoms. The medical names of the different conditions are derived from the vitamin involved: an excess of vitamin A, for example, is called "hypervitaminosis A".

Iron overload disorders are diseases caused by the overaccumulation of iron in the body. Organs commonly affected are the liver, heart and endocrine glands in the mouth.

As of 2016 is estimated that about 821,000 deaths of children less than five years old could be prevented globally per year through more widespread breastfeeding.

The evidence for benefit of supplementary feeding is poor. This is due to the small amount of research done on this treatment.

Specially formulated foods do however appear useful in those from the developing world with moderate acute malnutrition. In young children with severe acute malnutrition it is unclear if ready-to-use therapeutic food differs from a normal diet. They may have some benefits in humanitarian emergencies as they can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with clean water, and can be stored for years.

In those who are severely malnourished, feeding too much too quickly can result in refeeding syndrome. This can result regardless of route of feeding and can present itself a couple of days after eating with heart failure, dysrhythmias and confusion that can result in death.

The usual treatments for overweight individuals is diet and physical exercise.

Dietitians generally recommend eating several balanced meals dispersed through the day, with a combination of progressive, primarily aerobic, physical exercise.

Because these general treatments help most case of obesity, they are common in all levels of overweight individuals.

Compulsive talking goes beyond the bounds of what is considered to be a socially acceptable amount of talking. The two main factors in determining if someone is a compulsive talker are talking in a continuous manner, only stopping when the other person starts talking, and others perceiving their talking as a problem. Personality traits that have been positively linked to this compulsion include assertiveness, willingness to communicate, self-perceived communication competence, and neuroticism. Studies have shown that most people who are talkaholics are aware of the amount of talking they do, are unable to stop, and do not see it as a problem.

The causes of childhood obesity can be based on both a combination of individual choices and socio-environmental adaptions with genetic factors playing an important role also.

Obesity is caused by eating too many calories compared to the amount of exercise the individual is performing, causing a distorted energy balance. It can lead to diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Obesity is a condition in which the natural energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other mammals, is increased to a point where it is associated with certain health conditions or increased mortality.

The low-cost food that is generally affordable to the poor in affluent nations is low in nutritional value and high in fats, sugars and additives. In rich countries, therefore, obesity is often a sign of poverty and malnutrition while in poorer countries obesity is more associated with wealth and good nutrition. Other non-nutritional causes for obesity included: sleep deprivation, stress, lack of exercise, and heredity.

Acute overeating can also be a symptom of an eating disorder.

Goitrogenic foods can cause goitres by interfering with iodine uptake.

Medication may be used for people with severe and debilitating symptoms. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the first-line medication. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved four SSRIs for the treatment of PMDD: Fluoxetine (available as generic or as Prozac or Sarafem), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), and escitalopram oxalate (Lexapro). Unlike treatments for depressive disorders, SSRIs do not need to be taken daily but instead can be taken only in the luteal phase or during PMDD symptoms. This is because those who respond to SSRIs usually experience symptoms relief within 1–2 days. Studies in rats suggest this rapid response to SSRIs is due to the elevation of the neuroactive progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone in the brain, rather than serotonin. Luteal phase dosing can be started 14 days before menses and subsequently discontinued after start of menstrual flow. People taking SSRIs to ease PMDD generally report >50% alleviation in symptoms, which was significant improvement compared to placebo.

Although less studied, SNRIs have also shown benefit in PMDD. In a randomized, controlled clinical trial of people with PMDD, 60% of the people taking venlafaxine improved versus 35% on placebo. Improvement was noticed during the first treatment cycle with 80% symptom reduction.

Another FDA approved treatment for PMDD is the oral contraceptive with ethinylestradiol and drospirenone, a novel progestin. It has been shown that hormonal birth control containing drospirenone and low levels of estrogen helps relieve severe PMDD symptoms, for at least the first three months it is used. The idea behind using oral contraceptives is to suppress ovulation by controlling sex hormone fluctuations during the luteal phase.

There have been some nutritional supplements that have been shown to help alleviate the symptoms of PMDD. In 1998, a placebo-controlled, randomized trial of 720 people with PMDD found that calcium carbonate demonstrated up to a 50% reduction in symptoms, compared with a 30% reduction in the control group. Herbal treatments that have shown promise in PMDD include chasteberry ("Vitex agnus castus"), St. John's wort ("Hypericum perforatum"), and ginkgo ("Ginkgo biloba)". Studies have been conducted on the efficacy of chasteberry and gingko, but as of this writing, no randomized controlled trial has been conducted on the efficacy of St. John's wort in alleviating PMDD symptoms.