Anorexia and bulimia

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Nov 2003
Posts
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Location
Southampton, UK
I want to learn more about these conditions, how it feels to go through it and how people have conquered it. Does anyone know of any good books to read or does anyone want to share their personal experiences.
 
Moses said:
One thing which seems silly about this topic is how anorexia and bulimia are accepted as being genuine eating disorders, whilst many people don't accept there can be a legitimate reason behind someone being obese.

Anyway, if you don't want to be horrible depressed, ignore 'thinspiration' sites.
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There's obviously people who have a problem with over eating and is undoubtedly a medical problem. However, even more I suspect just have terrible diets and do no exercise or say nonsense like it's their genes. But this is quite off topic, let's keep it on topic for Mr. Burnsy.
 
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I know someone that's been through everything someone can do with anorexia, she almost died 3 times, self harmed to get attention that she wasn't being treated right. Read up on private healthcare anorexia hospitals some pretty moving stuff, they tie people to beds and force feed them like battery hens just to get them fattened up do they can ship them out and get another person in. A lot of illegal and morally reprehensible stuff goes on in private anorexia hospitals by all accounts
 
Moses said:
One thing which seems silly about this topic is how anorexia and bulimia are accepted as being genuine eating disorders, whilst many people don't accept there can be a legitimate reason behind someone being obese.
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Anorexia and bulimia are disorders to do with self-image. Unless you're suggesting that people get more obese because they believe they will be more beautiful? (Granted there are probably some weirdos who think that way! :p)
 
Moses said:
One thing which seems silly about this topic is how anorexia and bulimia are accepted as being genuine eating disorders, whilst many people don't accept there can be a legitimate reason behind someone being obese.

Anyway, if you don't want to be horrible depressed, ignore 'thinspiration' sites.
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You're not allowed to claim that obesity can be a result of a legitimate eating disorder, especially not on this forum. You'll be shouted down by all of the armchair GPs and psychologists who know that obesity is something that comes as a result of choice.
 
Being fat, thin or whatever all tend to be symptoms rather than the actual cause of problems.

Personally I think I got so big as a defensive mechanism more than anything after a bad relationship, when you're over 22 stone people don't tend to want to have much to do with you, especially not romantically, prevents you getting hurt again.

For people to think that every single person who gets obese just because they are lazy and eat too much is a massive understatement.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I want to learn more about these conditions, how it feels to go through it and how people have conquered it. Does anyone know of any good books to read or does anyone want to share their personal experiences.
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I've told this many times on here but here goes again:

In 1985 I decided to go on the Cambridge Diet which was 3 drinks a day but the following day I decided not to have the drinks and just live on water.
In the first week I lost 1 stone so carried on.
It took 2 weeks to lose another stone and then 6 weeks to lose yet another stone.
Hunger pains were my greatest feeling because i knew the body was eating my fat away.
After a while I realised I could eat but then throw it up and I would sometimes throw up until I saw blood.
It got so bad that I would go into different shops and buy lots of Mars Bars, crisps and other such goodies, eat them all in one go and then hit the toilet.
Around April 1988 I collapsed at work and the Sister in our surgery bombarded me with questions and I broke down and admitted what I was doing and within a week I was sectioned into a Mental Hospital called Cheddleton.
I couldn't understand why I was in the ward I was in because I was the youngest at around 30 and everybody else was mostly male aged around 50 to 70.
After a few days I realised that everybody in that ward was anorexic/bulimic and the popular myth of it being only teenage girls was 100% BS.
The head Nurse became my best friend, still is today and played in bands with me.
He figured out that my condition wasn't just in my head and got the psychiatrist to send me for tests where I had a major blockage in my bowels because of my bad habits and I had an operation.
I got out after 1 month and from May to September 1988 I lived in mental hell but refused to take pills.
I had no idea of the stress I had put on my family and in September i decided to kill myself.
I typed 4 suicide letters on my Atari ST and then sat down to my last meal before I went to the train track.
For some unknown reason I turned the TV on and on came Kilroy Silk where he was talking to very young children about them dying from cancer and what they would like to do before they die.
I don't believe in the paranormal but something made me have that day off to commit suicide, made me turn the TV on and hid the remote control so I couldn't switch over.
That moment changed my life and I haven't had one day off work since then.
It took my wife ages to gain my trust because I'd put her through hell and even to this day I could easily just stop eating if I wanted but I don't.
For a couple of years between late 88 to 90 I did help to 'Counsel' other sufferers but I got bored.

Any questions just ask.
 
For a year or so we had an anorexic girl living with us so that we could make her eat properly. My mum was a headteacher and she was one of the staff there. After my sister went to uni, she essentially just moved in. Fantastic teacher - naturally gifted and very intelligent - but a mess in terms of her self image.

For her it was all a control thing and she had a pretty unstable family life. She didn't eat particularly much, of course, but it was the exercise that really stripped the weight from her - she would go swimming for 2-4 hours 3-4 times a week, amongst other things. She was hospitalised several times due to impaired nerve function in her limbs and erratic heart rates, but she was always *just* above the required weight where they would actually keep her in properly. She would lie about attending appointments and naturally about what she was eating.

We kept her eating and we would all sit as a family at the table until she had finished, plus some time to let at least some of it digest before she would throw it up (depending on her mood at the time). This meant even a simple meal could take anything up to around 2 hours of the evening.

Whilst this helped her physically, it didn't do a thing mentally and as soon as she would leave for a few days, then it was all the same story. There is little long-term point in treatment (except as a stop-gap) unless the person can themselves see what's wrong with what they are doing.
 
AGD said:
Anorexia and bulimia are disorders to do with self-image. Unless you're suggesting that people get more obese because they believe they will be more beautiful? (Granted there are probably some weirdos who think that way! :p)
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This but anorexia is more than just an illness to do with self image. People who haven't suffered with it cannot comprehend its full scope. My friend who had anorexia says she is still not fully over it even though she has been at a healthy weight for some 7 years. She is also highly intelligent she knew all along that she was damaging her body and she didn't want to die but her illness was forcing her to come close to doing so.

Anorexia is a mental illness, a state of mind comparable more to the bipolar/ schitzophrenic than the obese
 
Ahleckz said:
There's obviously people who have a problem with over eating and is undoubtedly a medical problem. However, even more I suspect just have terrible diets and do no exercise or say nonsense like it's their genes. But this is quite off topic, let's keep it on topic for Mr. Burnsy.
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is it a medical problem? its mostly a rich western person with nothing to worry about other than their body image issue... after limited reading (60seconds) its only a modern thing in the past it was done but usually for social / religous / misguided (as in they thought it would improve health) reasons...
 
Used to know somebody who binged and purged,

They would skip meals all the time, then go & eat a massive cake & 15 packs of crisps - the purged it all, the repeat.

I think it stemmed from them being obese as a child I'd guess, then trying to lose weight a constant thin/fat cycle - but I've never experienced it myself so can't really provide anything apart from a third person account.
 
fus said:
Wow, I've seen some pretty heartless here on this family forum, but this takes the prize! Well done, you are a winner. You'd have a 'holiday' pretty quickly were I a mod.


Back on topic; a good resource and one that I use all the time: http://publications.nice.org.uk/eating-disorders-cg9
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Sorry for offending you.

I'll take your advice in. I may have trouble keeping it down though.
 
scwba06 said:
This but anorexia is more than just an illness to do with self image. People who haven't suffered with it cannot comprehend its full scope. My friend who had anorexia says she is still not fully over it even though she has been at a healthy weight for some 7 years. She is also highly intelligent she knew all along that she was damaging her body and she didn't want to die but her illness was forcing her to come close to doing so.

Anorexia is a mental illness, a state of mind comparable more to the bipolar/ schitzophrenic than the obese
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The bit in bold is why this thread exists. I want to start to understand the thought root processes which often lead to this condition. Control seems to be a big part, as does self esteem. The bit ANother mentioned about unstable family life etc also seems pretty plausible. If I can get to the point where perhaps I can understand why it happens, it might be easier to support someone who wants to recover.

Also, lets avoid the jokes people, this thread isn't the time or place.
 
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