Question: What is bulimia? Dr. Carolyn Ross: Bulimia is an eating disorder that involved binge eating as well as the use of a compensatory purge to get rid off the calories you are eating. Purging can include everything from self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills as well as compulsive over exercising. People with bulimia have one trade that is common amongst all of the eating disorders and that is the intense preoccupation with weight, shape, and body size, so body image issues.