Avoiding vomiting is an important step in recovering from an eating disorder. Vomiting causes the body to respond with intense hunger, which leads to compulsive eating, and the patient, who may be in despair after eating so much, feels compelled to throw up again.

The aim of all treatment of eating disorders is to help patients experience real hunger and satisfaction so that they can control their eating themselves just as healthy people and animals do. Another aim is to recognize and understand all these feelings which they have tried to suppress by means of compulsive eating or starvation.

In the beginning, those patients who give up compulsive eating and vomiting don't feel well and many unpleasant sensations intrude on their minds. These must be taken up, expressed and subsequently dealt with.