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age
30-35,
anonymous
writes: Hey, I was just wondering what this is doing to my body.At the moment I am eating nothing all week apart from on Fridays when I have a binge. After this binge I am sick but I only make myself sick three times after each binge, no more and no less. I also exercise one hour a day, I used to do much more than this but I don't have time any more. I am 9 stone 6, 15 years old and 5 ft 3 by the way! Reply to this Question
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reader, anonymous, writes (18 October 2008): Please babes, listen to what country woman and the other aunts have told you. You must seriously tackle your eating disorder, it is more a threat to your future than you realise. You can still be a doctor with a eating disorder, your parents advice is wrong. No one has a right to see your medical records, and even if they do, a eating disorder will not bar you from entering any career you choose. But sickness will. You are depriving your body of the essential vitamins and nutriments that a young girl needs to develop properly. Tell your mother you need to see a doctor. This thing will seriously mess up your life. Please listen to the aunts, they know, they have experienced this. You don't really realize how much you could ruin your health and your life.
A
female
reader, Country Woman  +, writes (18 October 2008):
 OK I take on board what you are saying about the GP aspect but you need to do something and I would have thought that your parents realising you have a problem they would be looking into everything to try to resolve this.
OK you want a future in medicine but a personal psychologist or psychiatrist must have codes of practice that they have to adhere to. Ignoring the problem and saying this could affect your future i.e. college/university is no good to you if you have done so much damage to your body now that you are in no fit state to even attend a university etc. Or even worse that you have killed yourself beforehand.
This is serious and someone needs to get you help for this addiction. You are addicted to controlling what you put into your mouth and just by saying OH it's OK it will sort itself out is just not good enough. Your parents need to act now or you do. I realise you are a young girl who is fast approaching womanhood but the damage you are doing to your body now means that entering into womanhood will be affecting badly. You need help with this addiction and there is surely someone you can see to stop the cycle of this habit.
IT WON'T GO AWAY ON IT'S OWN. I don't know if you parents are burying their heads as they don't want to admit you have a problem as they may see this as failing you as your parents but that has to be put to one side and also your future career, you won't get one if you don't deal with this eating disorder NOW believe it is too late to change this cycle of self distruct. That is what it is and you have had sound advice from so many other people who have had personal experience of eating disorders. Much more than me.
I am on the other end of the spectrum as I use food for comfort and mine is all linked to my personal life and what is happening for me. I am now seeing a hypnotherapist to try and make my sub conscious deal with my emotional state rather than my conscious state and it is making me think.
I am overweight and feeling awful with my body but I am getting help and I am also visiting a dietician through my doctor. I am a woman of 43 so my career aspects are so different to you but I want to be around in a healthy body for my now 7 year old daughter so my motives are different to yours I realise that.
I have had a personal long term relationship break down of almost 20 years, I lost my dad last February so I have had to deal with a close personal loss as my dad was so special to me and also I have had financial problems like you wouldn't believe.
We all have crap to deal with but it is how we deal with it that makes us the adults we finally turn into.
Your parents - especially your mum have scared you into not getting help because of your future but SOMETHING and I don't know what needs to be done. Keep talking to them and asking them to get you help before it is too late as you probably need their consent for anything, get them talking to www.nationaleatingdisorders.org or even visiting the website as all the aunts that have answered you are worried about you as they have first hand experience of what you are now going through so please take this advice from your friends online and make the changes now before it is too late sweetheart.
We all care and we want what is best for you, the level of calorie intake you are saying is like you say NOT NORMAL and that is the cycle and the purging is what needs to be addressed NOW not in 6 months or a years time because then more damage will have been caused.
You cannot stop this on your own and you need support of professional help and your family support 100% behind kicking this addiction.
You are no freak by the way just a young woman who has issues and they are what need to be addressed otherwise this cycle would not have started in the first place, once that is addressed then the eating will start to recover and in turn so will your body OK.
You can mail me direct at any time even just for a chat OK.
Take care sweetheart and keep talking as that is the important element here as the secrecy is what is fuelling this addiction.
Oh I wish I could help in a much more direct way as being a mum myself I would hate to know my daughter was going through this and having to ask anyone who would listen for help rather than doing it for her myself.
You do have friends on this site though so NEVER forget that and keep us posted OK, even if it is like a daily diary so that we can try to help you in any way we can.
Big hugs and kisses go out to you and know that we DO CARE about you OK.
Lots of love.
Country Woman
xx
xx
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A
female
reader, JustChillin  +, writes (18 October 2008):
 Well...I can answer that first hand...you see I had an eating disorder for many years in my late teens and early twenties. It most certainly is NOT good on your body and it will do damage to your teeth, as I've had to spend quite a bit of money in having the damage repaired. It will break the enamel down on the teeth, which in turn will allow tooth decay and cavities. On top of that, if you are purging and starving to lose weight, you will NOT lose any weight...at least not on a long term basis...your body actually will hold on to every ounce of food you take in, because when you don't eat on a regular basis, your metabolism slows down and your body goes into what is known as a "starvation mode"!! So you basically are defeating your purpose. If you are needing to lose weight, there are more healthier ways of doing that! Think of your body as a car...a car needs fuel to run...so does your body!! Your body needs food as its fuel...so you have energy to get through the day. Eat regular well balanced meals and exercise more. Another thing that the continuous purging will do...is to put an added strain on your heart. Eating disorders are serious and usually have other underlying reasons as to why you are either starving yourself or forcing yourself to purge. I would recommend that you get some help. There are organizations out there that can help. I would recommend nationaleatingdisorders.org Learn to accept your body, embrace your body, take care of your body...we only get one in our lifetime!! =)
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A
female
reader, birdynumnums  +, writes (18 October 2008):
 Country Woman's answer is terrific. Every time you make yourself sick, the vomit contains bile which erodes your esophagus (throat) and it erodes your tooth enamel. The problems that can come later include heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeats) and many other life threatening issues. Starving your young body MAY lead to your never achieving your full height or bone density, and cause MANY more health issues. Please take what Country Woman said to heart and reconsider what it is you are doing. Bingeing and purging is a control issue related to a lot of other issues. You should try to talk with your Mom or an Aunt that you can talk with about what you are doing. This may seem like a great quick fix, but it isn't solving anything and it will take it's toll on your health. Take good care of yourself with the decisions that you make for yourself and your body, you only get one!
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (18 October 2008): This isn't how eating disorders start - you already have an eating disorder and should stop immediately and/or seek help. To be healthy you need to eat every day and should never throw up after eating. If you continue you will do your body a great deal of damage, you will ruin your internal organs, risk a lifetime of health troubles if you don't kill yourself.
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female
reader, SugarCookie +, writes (18 October 2008):
I dont know what your weight means but you do have an eatting disorder. I had one when i was 14. I was 5 ft 3 and 150 pounds when i started i threw up once a day for almosta year drinking soad to keep up my blood sugar up so i woukdn't pass out. When I stopped I was 5ft 3 110 pounds with 34DD boobs and i wore a size two. My legs wouldn't even touch. I thought i was being good about what i was doing. I brushed my teeth to make sure that they didn't fall out and i only threw up once a day and i thought i was keeping myself healthy and any health problems would happen when i was older.
At 16 one year after i stopped i started having blood when i went poop and i had sever acid reflex which i have to take meds for twice a day. I did a lot of damage to my stomach and now am at high risk for ulcers and i only threw up one year.
The worst part about it is that it really messed up my metabolism. i can eat healthy and eat smaller portin and i still cant lose weight all because I trained my body to store food because i starved it for so long. It is so much better for your body to just eat right and its not worth stomach surgery which will leave 4 puncture marks on your stomach forever.
Please learn from my past and get help from friends and family. My fiance is the one who made me see how beautiful i was and he actually loves the fact that i am a bigger girl however he would scream at me for calling myself that. LOL!
I believe that you already have an eatting disorder because mine started from two days not wanting to go to school so i made myself throw up to stay home and then realized how easy it was. I can tell you you will always think about throwing up again first multiple times a day then maybe once a day and then every few days. you just have to find a way to remind your self why you dont want to any more. Mine is my health. If i throw up again i have a very good chance of ripping my stomach and dying.
A book that i read which was an autobiography was a book called Wasted : A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher. It might help. If you have any question that you want answered by someone who has been there feel free to write me.
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reader, anonymous, writes (18 October 2008): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questiony
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reader, anonymous, writes (18 October 2008): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionHix
To Country woman, I have asked my parents and they say that seeing a GP would be a mistake. They said that he told them even tho evertythin I tell him would be confidentual, to get into any uiniversity or any gd job, I need to sign a contract saying that the people who need to can see my GP and he has to tell him everything. This means that I cant go to a GP, as i wont be able to have as gooder future as i want to. It would be a big risk as i want a career in medicine (maybe a vet or doctor) I asked about private councelling but my mum said you cant trust any of them. What shuld I do? Also, just to add, when I binge i binge alot, about 5000+, sometimes even 10000 calories in one day. This cnt be normal.
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A
female
reader, this_years_love +, writes (18 October 2008):
 as a recovering bulimic i can tell you from experience the best thing to do is get help for this NOW.
i know its terrifying, scary, embarassing, etc..i know that and i know its unfathomable that your parents find out...but you need to get on this sooner, the longer you let it go for the harder it is to break this cycle.
there are so many things it is doing to your body...
firstly by starving yourself all week your body's metabolism is lowered so that when you eat ANYTHING it will store it as fat. This makes it more difficult to loose weight, ironically enough. secondly, your binge/purge cycles will lead to electrolyte imbalances (you can loose feeling in your feet, get dizzy, light headed etc), and not to mention vomiting regularly rots your teeth, your gums will be more sensitive, and your throat will almost always be sore. you can also pop blood vessels in your eyes, loose your gag reflex, and get swolen cheeks and throat.
as if that wasn't bad enough, because of the lack of nutrients you are consuming during the week you are leaving yourself wide open to infections and illnesses...before my recovery i limited myself to roughly 200-500 calories per day, often fasted, and often binged and purged. i was sick ALL the time..colds, the flu, you name it i had it-i was getting to vitamins to help ward them off. and the intensity of my illnesses were SO much worse-a normal cold could last 2 weeks with me. now i get sick perhaps once every two months at most and the length of the illness is so much shorter.
what really worries me is that you have started so young...i had disordered eating my whole life but didnt start heavily restricting or purging until i was 17...and even then it absolutely consumed me-and i had a life, a support group, a great family and i ilost touch with ALOT of these things. it got so bad that i would start to purge whenever i was upset-it was like a drug to me like a high...i remember being upset at one of my friends 18th birthday parties because the guy i liked wasn't showing me enough interest so i went into the bathroom and made myself throwup to feel better. i would go home from school to purge, do it in public places, do it when friends were over...it's addictive and was the hardest part of my eating disorder to move on from by far.
i hate to think what you must be going through now and what you must be feeling..i know, i have been there and i know i hated myself for every minute i stayed like that...eating disorders can take over your entire life if they aren't dealt with..i've been in recovery since may and i dont remember the last time i was so happy...
i have a whole new outlook now.
please take this seriously and please get help...i had to tell my dad i was seeing a psychologist for OCD and they still don't know about my eating disorder..i wish i could've told them but i knew my recovery was the priority...do what you need to do to get better
also please message me if you'd like to chat
xx
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A
female
reader, Country Woman +, writes (18 October 2008):
Hi sweetheart
Well this type of eating habit is doing your body no good at all I am afraid.
By not eating all week your body thinks you are in starvation mode and is saving up anything as fat storage because you are depriving it of nutrients.
By binging on a Friday and then purging yourself at least 3 times after each binge there is no goodness getting into your body.
Your weight is going to drop off you if you keep this up. You are also going to affect your periods as well.
Your body needs food for energy and by exercising at least one hour each day you are not providing your body with enough fuel and you are going to make sure your blood sugar level is dangerously low and you will end up having fainting spells and this on a long term basis can have detrimental issues for your health.
I don't know what has caused this to happen for you right now as I suspect you are very body conscious and I don't know if that is because someone has said something to you at some point about your weight or by looking at magazines or models or you aspire to be like someone.
You can be healthy and watch your weight.
To have regular exercise every day your body needs and depends on a certain about of fuel which is derived from food. Just imagine running a car constantly without regularly putting petrol in it plus oil, eventually the car would run out of fuel and the engine will cease up as it is getting no lubrication as it doesn't have regular top ups of oil.
Your body is no different, there is always a recommended level of calories when you are regularly exercising and I am sure that any gym or PE teacher could confirm this fact or even the internet. I think an average intake of calories is approximately 1200 per day and you are not giving anything at all to your body. When you do eat you binge and then purge so you have an eating disorder and this needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.
You know that what you are doing is no good for you as you wouldn't have asked the question in the first place. Go and talk to your doctor - maybe ask for a female one if you feel a little conscious with a man. Explain how you are feeling right now and she could help explain the levels of calories against exercise ratio that you need to achieve each day.
You must have family and friends who are noticing what is going on with you not eating at all and surely they must be asking what is going on? If not then someone should be and you need to talk to someone you can trust such as a family member or a close friend or even a teacher you really like. If none of those are possible then talk to a female doctor as you cannot keep going the way you are right now.
Please promise me you will stop the starvation and binging as you are going to make yourself seriously ill and that would be such a shame as you are young and there is so much you can look forward to believe me.
Here anytime to chat as we all are so never be afraid to ask for help on any subject and keep me posted on your next move OK.
Wait to hear from you again.
BFN
Country Woman
x
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A
female
reader, thunderchild +, writes (18 October 2008):
 why... its not healthy... this is how eating disorders start...
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