Expert: Nafeesah - 8/9/2009

Question
I've been bulimic for nearly a year and a half.  I've gone through phases of doing it multiple times a day to just a few times a week.  I still have trouble with binging but I feel like I am psychologically strong enough to overcome my addiction, and am currently in the process of stopping completely.  However, I am overwhelmingly worried about what i have done to my body.  Recently I have had constant nausea and various stomach pain.  I over all do not feel well and its been this way for about a month.  I truly feel like my bulimia caused this and I am very miserable.  Is this problem completely attributed to my addiction and will i ever feel good again?

Answer
If you're experiencing nausea and stomach pain that comes from the fact that you've been so used to making yourself vomit you actually teach your body to purge and it gets used to doing that. If you're having some issues like this it's time to talk to a doctor about this and find out if you've damaged anything from all the time you were bulimic and also look at counseling so you can work on the issues that lead you to being bulimic so you can begin to heal and recover from this and to have a better relationship with food and learning that making yourself throw up can lead to health problems later on down the line. You will have some issues like hair loss since you deprive yourself of nutrients and erroding enamel on your teeth, but only a doctor and a dentist can tell you the extent of damage done to your body as a result of your bulimia.