Expert: Joanne - 10/14/2006

Question
I have been bulimic for almost 2 years now. Lately, however, I have gotten completely out of control. I cannot eat without bingeing and all I ever think about is what I can eat and when I can eat it. My binges take up so much time that I fear i am wasting away my life. I see a phychiatrist now but nothing seems to be helping. When do you think it becomes too desperate that someone needs to seek in patient treatment? DO you have any advice on conquering this awful disease?

Answer
I don't know about in your area, but here in the UK, I don't think that anyone will take you inpatient with bulimia unless you are really fighting for your life, or you have huge amounts of money to pay for the treatment.

For me, I had a choice to make!  My medical career or an eating disorder, and when you think logically about that, there really is no competition.  Don't get me wrong, I still fight with the urges to starve myself or make myself sick in order to lose a bit of weight, but then I remember the mess that I got myself into.

I was told when I was receiving treatment, that one of the best ideas to combat this illness was Avoidance.  Avoid eating at the times of day that you are most prone to binge during.  If that is not practical, try eating somewhere that it is impossible to purge, or eat with people.  Inform these people of your problem (best to be family or close friends, but some prefer people that are no more than acquaintances) and have them eat with you, helping you engage when you are full, or help keep you away from the bathroom.  I don't mean by physical force or anything like that, but just simple reasoning sometimes can be enough.

Arrange to do activities after eating so that you don't have the time to binge and/or purge.  Walk a dog after your meals, or join some sort of exercise group.

Although this is not completely recommended as you may end up exercising excessively instead of vomiting, and that can cause problems later as well, I found that instead of purging, I would go running or swimming for ages to burn the calories that way.  Slowly this may also encourage you to eat less as it can be uncomfortable to do this when you have eaten too much.

Now other people may have other suggestions than these, and maybe more approved ways of doing things, but these worked for me in the beginning.  

Find a goal that you want to work towards, one that you can't have bulimia if you want to achieve it, and really go all out to make it happen.

Speak to people that you feel you can trust.  You need support in order to get through this.

Try to eat three balanced meals a day.  This is hard as binging can become habit more than anything else, so try to stop yourself overeating.

Bulimia is really just a cycle.  You eat too much, you feel guilty, you make yourself vomit, you feel ashamed and/or guilty, you feel down for doing it again, you eat, and you feel guilty, you vomit.....

It is all about trying to break into this cycle somewhere.  Does something ever happen that makes you feel the need to binge?  Are there certain times that you do it?  Are there certain feelings that you can temporarily mask by doing this?

And keep working with the psychiatrist.  If you feel it is not working, try another one!  Just don't give up!

I hope that you feel this has been of some help.  If you have any other questions, or need someone to talk to, please come back!  I'm more than happy to help if I can.

All the best
Holly