*alissa*
07-17-2006, 01:21 AM
I am starting the Eating Disorder support thread. Please share your stories with others. It helps so very much to know we aren't alone, and to talk to people that understand!
I will start with mine.
It started in 6th grade. I would have been around 12. I starting gaining alot of weight when I hit puberty. I hit puberty a little early, around 10 I think. I was a self concious girl before then, so the weight gain devestated me. And of course, kids can be cruel. I started skipping breakfast and ate very little at lunch. I would eat a healthy dinner, then go into the bathroom and throw it up. The next year, I skipped breakfast AND lunch, and ate very little dinner. I read that you still retain some food in your body after purging, and I wanted as little as possible staying in me. It progressed worse each year. By the time I was 18, I was starting to exhibit very scary health problems. I would pass out with out warning. My blood pressure is naturally low, and the years my body had starved took it's toll on my already low blood pressure.
I was in a car accident at 19, and they were terrified of giving me any kind of pain killer because it is a depressant, and they were afrid my heart would stop. They gave me low doses, and they were few and far between. I was made by the doctor and my mother to drink 3 ensures a day, and threee slices of toast with peanut butter on them until I gained enough weigh tback to be considered healthy. I was so drugged up, and in pain, and worried I would never be able to walk again, I didn't fight it much.
However, after I was able to walk again, I started starving myself again. With in a month, I had lost 20 pounds. It was soon after I became pg and miscarried. 2 months after that, I was pg again, and I knew I couldn't expect this baby to live if I didn't eat. After he was born, I stopped eating again. It was the only way I knew to lose the baby weight. After a year of starving myself, a strange thing started to happen to me. I couldn't keep anything down. Not even water. My body was rejecting the small amounts of food I did offer it, and I was losing more rapidly witheach passing day. I was passing out again. I lost 10 pounds in one week. I was scared. I went to the doctor, and after 5 months of exams and needless surgeries, the news came back to me. I had Chron's disease. The doc's don't know what exactly causes Chron's, but it may be heredity. I will always wonder if it was my bulemia and anarexia that made me end up the way I am now.
Today, I am fairly healthy. I eat, and try not to think about all the weight I have gained. I like to think of my extra pounds as a safe gaurd now. With my disease, you can lose weight so quickley, that I have lost 15 pounds before even realizing it. So my extraa cushion is a "cushion" of safety to me. If I have a bad flare up, I have extra to lose before becoming grossly underweight.
I hope my story can help someone who needs to hear first hand dangers of ED, and I hope I inspire more ladies to share their stories as well.
I will start with mine.
It started in 6th grade. I would have been around 12. I starting gaining alot of weight when I hit puberty. I hit puberty a little early, around 10 I think. I was a self concious girl before then, so the weight gain devestated me. And of course, kids can be cruel. I started skipping breakfast and ate very little at lunch. I would eat a healthy dinner, then go into the bathroom and throw it up. The next year, I skipped breakfast AND lunch, and ate very little dinner. I read that you still retain some food in your body after purging, and I wanted as little as possible staying in me. It progressed worse each year. By the time I was 18, I was starting to exhibit very scary health problems. I would pass out with out warning. My blood pressure is naturally low, and the years my body had starved took it's toll on my already low blood pressure.
I was in a car accident at 19, and they were terrified of giving me any kind of pain killer because it is a depressant, and they were afrid my heart would stop. They gave me low doses, and they were few and far between. I was made by the doctor and my mother to drink 3 ensures a day, and threee slices of toast with peanut butter on them until I gained enough weigh tback to be considered healthy. I was so drugged up, and in pain, and worried I would never be able to walk again, I didn't fight it much.
However, after I was able to walk again, I started starving myself again. With in a month, I had lost 20 pounds. It was soon after I became pg and miscarried. 2 months after that, I was pg again, and I knew I couldn't expect this baby to live if I didn't eat. After he was born, I stopped eating again. It was the only way I knew to lose the baby weight. After a year of starving myself, a strange thing started to happen to me. I couldn't keep anything down. Not even water. My body was rejecting the small amounts of food I did offer it, and I was losing more rapidly witheach passing day. I was passing out again. I lost 10 pounds in one week. I was scared. I went to the doctor, and after 5 months of exams and needless surgeries, the news came back to me. I had Chron's disease. The doc's don't know what exactly causes Chron's, but it may be heredity. I will always wonder if it was my bulemia and anarexia that made me end up the way I am now.
Today, I am fairly healthy. I eat, and try not to think about all the weight I have gained. I like to think of my extra pounds as a safe gaurd now. With my disease, you can lose weight so quickley, that I have lost 15 pounds before even realizing it. So my extraa cushion is a "cushion" of safety to me. If I have a bad flare up, I have extra to lose before becoming grossly underweight.
I hope my story can help someone who needs to hear first hand dangers of ED, and I hope I inspire more ladies to share their stories as well.