What ae the long term effects of bullemia?

[juicychops]

Does anyone know? im quite interested in eating disorders and what causes them (and being a previous sufferer or bullemia and compulsive eating)i was interested to know what the long term effects are. i was reading a thread about this and as i have been in the same position, i know how horrible it is and how hard it is to get out of this vicious circle. I know that eating disorders arn't good for your health, but what are the actual long term effects?

Juicychops - I know that one of the more superficial side effects is rotten teeth. The stomach acid rots the teeth.

My cousin has been bulemic for 10 yrs and that's one of the signs I notice.

My friend from school developed it too.... she didn't/still doesn't know that I knew... but it was obvious.

Don't know what the longterm effects are on your health though, sorry.

I've just replied to your other thread where you're asking about online therapy. Long-term medical effects of bingeing/purging/vomiting? Depends on the individual, I wouldn't want to scare you--please get some advice from a doctor (or a dentist if you used to vomit a lot) if you are worried.

All I can say is I was an anorexic and bulimic in my teens and early 20s. I probably stopped both completely around the age of 21.

I'm 40 now and in between those two times, I've led a very active, fulfilled life and had two healthy kids very easily.

The food thing stays with you mentally forever I think. Thank god though that in my maturing wisdom(!!) and having kids and healthscares (unrelated to previous eating probs), I now eat completely for health.

It scares me the harm I must have done to my body but you do think you're immortal when you're young.

If i eat certain foods now that used to trigger off my conditions, I can remember those times vividly, the difference is that now I eat good stuff and eat without guilt.

This is such a complicated subject. I could waffle on for ages about it and would do anythin g to prevent someone else starting off on it.

Are you OK now juicychops?

The other messages have just popped up. Yes, the teeth thing is so true.

My teeth are great now, because most of them are veneers!!! The acid wore most of my own down!

I became very hairy too and periods stopped. Heart became rapid. I must really be lucky though because as I said when I got the eating sorted, everything returned to normal , except the teeth of course, but something always stays in the mind!

Im mostly ok now... still go through phases of it though. But from the age of 15 to 18 i had a lot of personal problems and lots of horrible stuff happen to me so thats what kind of started it all off and so now if something reminds me of stuff that happened it starts it off again. its not nice but its just something i live with. Would see a counceller but i would have to explain to the doctor and eventually my dp so i'd rather not.

Eating disorders are symptoms of underlying problems like depression, so unless you tackle the reason for having food issues, you'll never really be 'free' of eating problems.

Potassium deficiency is one of the more serious, as this can cause problems with the heart. I think bulimia is in a way more dangerous than anorexia, because there often isn't such a visible weight loss, but the body's chemistry is more disturbed, and I think bulimics have more heart problems than anorexics. Does your partner know at all about your previous problems? I've had kind of 'sub-clinical- eds, particularly at university, and dh was totally unaware until I told him. Was ok about it though.

He kind of knows bits but i haven't really gone into it in detail before. I don't know what how he would react if i told him about it all. He doesn't do well with stuff like that. He wouldn't know what to do or say.

I kept a diary so dh just read that, and then he didn't need to say anything, because I wasn't 'telling'him as such.

what I want to know (and sorry to have to ask) but how do anorexics/bulimics cope with the constipation issue?

Thats how my mum found out about my eating. I wrote a letter to myself about what i was doing but then i ripped it up in to tiny pieces. my mum emptied my bin, found the bits and stuck them together. she didn't know what to say in case i didn't want to talk about it so she wrote me a letter saying that she knew. I never told her about the problems that were causing it though.

i dont remember having constipation. You just don't need to go very often

but if you're not eating, or sicking up what you do eat surely you dont need to go at all?

Compo - I used to down packets of laxatives. I'd actually forgotten about lots of this stuff. I've never really spoken so much about this before. It is a secret, shameful disease, or at least it was 20 years ago for me.

Juicy chops, if ever you want to CAT me, I would do absolutely anything to try and help. I really do hope you're not going through this badly. If you are, please talk to someone, even if it is only facelessly on here.

Mine didn't start with depression or anything like that. I was the typical confident girl, rather mollycoddled at home I suppose and I was trying to exert my independence by deciding I would eat what I wanted. It all went downhill from there...

oh I see

Im going to bed now... so so tired. il email in the morning and will CAT ya. Thanks girls
nite nite

Sleep well, and just reember, it is an illness. Don't be ashamed and you can get over it for good. Hopefully, talk tomorrow.

emmatom - me too. horrible period in my life

Are you well over it now tortoiseshell?

The only good thing to come out of it for me is I'm so aware of it and so hopefullu my attitude now will help my kids not to fall foul to it.

I am, but can still be 'triggered' - either into eating nothing, or binging, but am much more in control. Thoughts still remain though - I don't think you ever get rid of the preoccupations!

I know what you mean about helping children avoid it - I worry that anxieties are passed on, but being aware has got to be good!

I believe you recover in stages, different things help you to get over it, ie changing where you live, what you do, things that you associate with the behaviour etc.

These were all good stages for me over the years and the final nail in the coffin of the old habits was becoming a mum and having a bad health scare.

When I was pregnant with my first I had a dodgy mole removed from my breast. Because I didn't actually have that babe in arms and the full maternal instinct hadn't kicked in, I was so chilled about it ' Oh it will be fine, it's nothing'.

Actually it could have been very not fine, but the point is it didn't worry me unduly.

I then had my children and had a breast lump.

Completely different story - I went into a black hole for the 3 months it took to have the op to remove it and have, finally, the all clear. And this black hole was there, not because I was scared of dying, but because I was absolutely terrified of leaving my children without me.

I am an older mum as well and since then I'm on a mission to feed by body as much of the good stuff as I can to keep it going as long as poss. for their sakes.

I've been doing this for a long time now and I eat a lot, but I eat all of the right stuff and have found a place I am happy with.

The thought of what I did do to my body in those dark years scares me, but as I said, it seems to have recovered.

So, maturity and motherhood were my saviours.

Are you an older or younger mum?

I also find it helps to think of whatever you put in your mouth, what happens to it. Think of it being a strong body that needs good things to fuel it. Also, I can still remember those horrible, horrible thoughts after overeating and chucking up or the extreme hunger pangs (even after 20 years!!) and I never want to have them again. So when tempted, try all these tricks.

As we know, it's all in the mind isn't it!

mine all started with depression and being obsessed with my weight. i put on quite a lot of weight when i was 15-16 and people used to tell me i was fat which made me feel down then i'd eat more. One day i started a diet and kept it up for weeks and weeks and did really well. Then one day i had a 'bad' day and ended up having a big binge and ruined it all. I decided to make myself sick. It was so easy that i decided this was the best way to be able to eat what i wanted but loose weight too. And then a load of really bad stuff happened to me which affected me in a bad way and i ended up suffering silently with depression. The 'bad stuff' continued to happen for a couple of years and so my eating got worse.

That's what p*sses me off with diets and how they screw up people's minds.

You get the high when you've lost weight quickly by depriving yourself and then the deprivation kicks in bad time and you overcompensate and so it goes on.

Chuck all dieting and eat good food. I put a post on a Food thread that was called 'Help, can't stop eating'. A couple of ladies found that of some help.

It's all about stocking your kitchen up with loads of fruit and veggies and substituting all the full- fat snacks with the healthier low fat stuff. That way you eat properly and don't have the hunger or feeling of deprivation, so you help to break the cycle and it becomes a way of life to eat well and not to diet.

Please take a look at that thread juicy chops and see if any of it helps.

Emmatom, that's so true about recovering in stages. I'm in my late 20s btw. I still have times where I feel like not eating is the only route to happiness - and sometimes I actually crave the feelings of hunger (sounds mad I know)- even though I know it's totally wrong. I think I quite liked feelings like being dizzy when I stood up, because it proved that I was succeeding in some screwy kind of way.

It does help to only have healthy foods in the house - I've been living on raw carrots this week, because they're in the fridge, whereas if there were biscuits I'd probably eat those.

Were you two mostly bulimic, or anorexic as well? I tended towards anorexia, but definitely had bulimic features.

Feels really weird writing all this - haven't really 'talked' about it much, specially not recently.