Expert: Joanne - 11/26/2005

Question
About a year ago was the first time that I binged and purged by making myself throw up.  For the past year,this is not something that I've done frequently all the time.  In Jan. (when I first started) I did it once a day for about a week.  Then over the summer, I did it once or twice a day for about two weeks.  Most recently, for the past couple of months, it is something that I've been doing on the weekends only, usually only one time during the weekend.  However, on Thanksgiving, I binged and purged 4 times, and today, I binged and purged 4 times.  I seriously hope to stop this behavior, and plan to call my doctor first thing Monday morning to ask for a referral for counseling.  My question is, have I already done damage to my body and my metabolism with my behavior, or will I be okay if I truly do stop this behavior starting right now? Thanks.  

Answer
Unfortunately, everyone is different, and damage will occur at different rates in everyone.  Thankfully, you aren't doing it very frequently, but you still may have done some damage.  Your teeth will probably be one of the most affected areas.  Have you noticed any extra damage to any of them as the acid can wear away the enamel on your teeth?  

I don't want to scare you as I seriously think that there will be very minimal damage!  I think providing that you stop the behaviours all together soon, if there is any damage to your metabolism or anything, it should manage to correct itself quite quickly.

Please reading my reply, I'm not sure that my answer is any good - you'd really be better discussing this with your Dr as he will probably do blood tests. Please remember to be completely truthful with your Dr over your behaviours as they will only be able to treat you from the info that they have.  Make sure that he knows exactly how long is has been going on, and how often.  I'm so glad that you realise that you have a problem, and even happier that you are going to get help with it!  I wish you all the success in the world.  

Please come back here if you have any more questions to ask, or just to let me know how things are going!

Holly