I have bulimia, depressed and lonely. Please help

Hi Zoe my name is Maria I'm a single mother of 4 my eldest daughter is bulimic has been for 7 years .she hid it well for a long time I've know for about 3 years now and it has been a roller coaster ride .Have u spoken to any one in your family about your eating disorder ? If I can help you in anyway please message me x

My initial thoughts were..10 stone or 10kg? Both are a lot of weight to be losing, but 10 stone would imply that firstly you had serious weight challenges beforehand, and losing such a large amount of weight in a short space of time even if you were overweight would be very dangerous. 10kg over a short space of time, whilst much less than 10 stone, is also a big drop (although slightly less concerning than in stone!) but it is a cause for concern and it's good you are seeking professional help.

I have to some extent suffered with bulimia, but never been able to vomit, so my bulimia has take the form of laxative abuse and exercise, when my anorexia was out of control combined with bingeing. I can fully emphathise with the pain, in particular when I had eaten and was unable to remove the food I had consumed.

It took me years to confront my binge issue, and I finally brought it up with my previous dietitian, who was not surprised that I suffered with binges alongside my anorexia nervosa (anorexia nervosa is my diagnosis).

As we were addressing the anorexia we also looked at nutritional education around the bingeing.

2/3s of bulimics recover by re-introducing carbs regularly back into their diet.

The reason that binges occur, is because your body is craving energy (rather like when you hold your breath, you have shortness in breath, because your body is trying to reach oxygen as fast as possible). The same thing applies with energy. If you deprive yourself of energy it will seek it in its densest form, so cheese, chocolate, chips, toast etc. etc.

The reality is, eating regular meals throughout the day with carbs will help your bulimia.

Of course it isn't as straightforward as just eating. You don't just suffer with bulimia out of bad eating habits. It's about understanding why your food behaviours occur to, and developing other healthy coping strategies instead when life goes wrong. E.g. the other day at work I received some stressful news. My default was to refer to anorexia. This has probably been the quickest I have ever been able to get back on track after a set back. The goal now is to not keep getting to the point in future. I know that situations where I feel out of control mean I slip up and fall into my anorexic defaults.

Recovery is a difficult process. It requires commitment. It requires belief. It's like the person who wants to go on a diet, and the diet starts tomorrow example...well if you keep that mentality, the diet will never start. Recovery starts today.

Recovery requires acknowledgement that some days will be better than others.

It requires confiding and surrounding yourself with people who care about you, because doing it on your own is hard. Have you thought about joining a support group? Beat (the eating disorder charity) run some brilliant support groups run by trained facilitators. I definitely recommend these.

It's also about having healthy goals in your mind to keep you motivated during the times when you are struggling.

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to message me if you want.

Hi there sorry to hear you are having a bad time, having an eating disorder is a very lonely existence. I have anorexia and is supportef bt the ED team, my cureent BMI is about 15 i try to maintain that otherwise they will make me work with dietician and i cant cope with eating plan that they insist on. I restrict my eating to evenings but like you end up binging and using laxatives. Then i feel disgusting and guilty the next day. like you i only really have 2 friends but they dont live close by and like you dont want to be a burden. My family live along way away from me and dont understand. I have been in hospital numerous times and a stsay in an ED unit which i found really awful, but it does work for some. Im 50 now and have had this since i was 16, so maybe its harder when the person has had it longer. I think what im saying is your young and really need to get a grip of this as ED completely controls my life and you dont want to be like that. Try going on beat forum and talk to like minded people who will understand where you are coming from, dont think you are burden and use any means of support. My personal experience is that binging just makes us more hungry so try each day to eat your different food groups, ie carbohydrtae protien and fibre, we were taught this in unit it stops the cravings by eating regular meals.I wish i could offer more help as im really struggling myself i just wanted to reach out and reassure you.