Expert: Joanne - 9/27/2006

Question
Hi Holly,
Thank you very much for your reply.  I will try to follow your advice.

My parent knows about my disorder also, but there's nothing much that they can help.  We booked the (specialist on eating disorder) counsellor a year ago, but unfortunately i am still on their waiting list.
There's almost like two different people living inside of me.  And yes, this has become my daily habbit already.  Right now, I feel that my life is like trapped into this disorder, cause i always keep thinking about it.  I just want to be normal...
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Followup To

Question -
hi, i am currently 18 years old and i know i have eating disorder for almost three years now.  It all started when i was in grade 11, where i was at 5'5 weighting 79lbs.  i think this may be caused by the stress and pressure that i have had at that time.  well, things started to change after i came back from my vacation from hong kong last december.  i started bingeing alittle, due to peers and family forceing me to eat.  For not long, within two to three month, i gained 30lbs.  I cant stop my binging.   To me food is like drug, once i have the first bite, i cant stop.  But until it's so full that it hurts my stomach badly.  I talked to my family doctor about it, then she gave me some medcine to help me control.  It does work for the first couple of weeks.  But problem starts again till now.  Everyday is like a fresh begnning, i tried not eatting as much, but by the end of the day, i fail again....every day..repeat and repeat....i've done soo much research about this disorder, and i know very clearly that it's bad for health and i know what chemical i am lacking in my brain, i also know what to do in order to prevent binging....but i just cant help myself...what should i do?

Answer -
I think that you should make an appointment with a dietician and get them to work out a proper meal plan with you so that you are eating enough.  Hopefully, this will help stop the binging to an extent.

Unfortunately, the rest relies on your willpower not to do it.  You need to sit and work out when the most likely times for you to binge are, then work out what you can do to stop yourself.  If it is a certain time of day, make sure that you are busy over that period of time.  Are your parents aware of the situtation?  If not talk to them.  If they are aware, ask them to help support you.  Get them to avoid buying the foods that you are most likely to binge on.  Be around them when you are tempted to binge.

I think that you should consider speaking to a counsellor as well.  Sometimes there are psychological reasons that you are continuing with these behaviours.  It can become habit more than anything else.  So you need to find someone that can help you work through the reasons that you continue to do this and hopefully that should solve the problem.

I hope that this has been of some help.  Please feel free to come back and ask any further questions.

Holly

Answer
You're 18, are you still in school? Or even uni?

If you are in either, they should have some sort of guidance or counselling service within the school.  Maybe consider going to them and see what they can offer.  Sometimes it helps to have people argue your case.  

I don't know where you are from, so things may be slightly different for you!  But when I contacted my guidance teacher at school, he gave me all the support I could have asked for.  He also decided to contact professionals for me, and he got a woman that specialised in the area to come and meet me at the school the very next day.  Now I may just have been lucky, or he maybe exaggerated the situation, I have no idea, but in this situation, anything is worth a go!

I think that if this isn't an option, you should maybe go back to your Dr and ask that he refer you again, stressing how much this is affecting you.  There may be people out there that maybe iller, or have more money or anything, but if you are willing to make a go of this, and really fight for recovery, I would hope that people will be more willing to work with you.  Now, some specialists realise that if you ask for help and are made to wait for ages, by the time that help is available, you may be in deeper and not willing to accept that help.  It is important that Drs and other professionals realise that you are ready to receive this help now!

I hope this is going to work for you!  Whatever way, yes or no, let me know what's going on!

Holly