Undiagnosed Bulimia

Firstly keep talking to your best friend, there is a good support on line called Beat they support people with eating disorders and they would be able to advice you. Secondly I would try and see a different doctor, I have anorexia and she has been so good and continues to be, as for work why would they need to know it's your private business!!! I hope you can find some help x

Hi Claire - sorry to hear that you are struggling. Bikerjools has made some very good suggestions.

I agree, speaking to another GP is a good idea. Unfortunately a lot of GPs are unequipped to deal with eating disorders (as well as other mental illnesses) due to the very limited training they receive., however there are some brilliant ones out there. It might be worth asking the surgery if they have a mental health expert e.g. a GP with a special interest in mental health. There may well be other surgeries too, so you can always register with somewhere else instead. I actually did this when I was new to an area. I registered with one place, because their website was good and I thought it would be really on top of things. The GP I saw was awful, and they also were useless over my medication when I said I needed more than a month of it due to being on holiday. My medication was epilepsy medication (I suffer with epilepsy) and without it it's a risk to life. The GP also said that "I wouldn't be able to be on medication forever" which was incredibly uneducated. I moved to a new surgery and had the best GP ever. When I moved out of their catchment, they made a special case to keep me on, due to the rapport with the GP in managing my condition. So there are excellent places out there.

As Bikerjools mentioned, Beat - the UK's eating disorder charity - provides a free and confidential helpline, which is open 365 days a year from 3pm - 10pm. Their services extend to 1-2-1 chat, twitter chat and emails. They also run online support groups, including ones specifically for bulimia sufferers, so you might find this helpful. They also have a resource (leaflet) which helps people prepare for meeting with their GP to broach the subject of eating disorders. There is a tear-off slip for the GP too, which advises them on what they should do next. If they are unhelpful about you being overweight, I would signpost them to the new NICE Guidelines, which indicate that referrals for treatment should not use BMI as the sole criteria. Many places aren't aware of the new guidance (published May 2017) so they will often refer to the previous guidelines. 

Whilst preparing for your appointment, consider writing a food and mood diary, which documents how you feel when you eat or at the time and what you've eaten. It can be hard and people often are embarrassed to put what they really ate, but trust me, it really helps. My diagnosis is anorexia, but it took me years before I told my dietitian that I also binged. He turned round and said "of course you do, it's the body's natural instinct" and explained why this was happening. It made things so much easier, I can tell you.

I really want to congratulate you for speaking to your friend and opening up this conversation. It can be so so hard to admit you have a problem, but this step you've taken is the first on your road to recovery. Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses and nothing to be ashamed of. You don't choose to have cancer, and you definitely don't choose to have eating disorders. I've always said, if eating disorders were a choice, I'd have chosen to give mine up years ago (thankfully I'm very much in recovery now). They are not about food and weight, but about responding to difficult situations - past and/or present. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot. There is also sufficient evidence that points to biological reasons e.g. someone has a genetic predisposition to develop associated emotions and behaviours.

On work - this is a tricky one. I've experienced pole opposite reactions. The first was when I was out of work, following voluntary redundancy (not for my eating disorder - just the result of a restructure), and was getting desperate for a job. When I got offered one, I was anxious about disclosing in case my offer was revoked (we get into all sorts of legal complications if your job offer is revoked over an illness, as it's discrimination unless there is a justifiable reason why you couldn't do the job...). I was being bullied by my manager and as a result my ED went downhill, so I disclosed. She turned round to me and said "well that's not a disability, I haven't seen you not eating, what do you want me to do, wrap you in cotton wool?". I'm disappointed to say that they are a very large and well known international charity too. The consequence of my manager's bullying affected me enormously, and I ended up quitting, because I could see how much it was affecting me. Given that this was only my second job, it was an incredibly difficult decision. I was lucky that I got a job soon after, and disclosed my condition from the offset. I had made my decision that going forward I would disclose, because anywhere that put this against me, wasn't worth working for. The new charity I worked for couldn't have been more different. I had been wondering what to say, and my line manager in my first 1-2-1 said outright "I know you were bullied at your previous place, I'm going to do everything to help improve your self-confidence". She was amazing at talking through what were reasonable adjustments, like booking out a meeting room to eat lunch in and suggesting that I ordered room service when having to stay in hotels for work, flexibility for my appointments and allowed me to work from home on the days I'd seen my dietitian because I'd often struggle post-appointments having been weighed. She was amazing.

Sorry for rambling on, but I hope this helps somewhat. There are steps you can take such as informing work about the steps you are taking to help yourself, suggesting reasonable adjustments and explaining that you have some steps in place to cope when you are having a difficult day. You can also provide your work with information about eating disorders, which is readily available from Beat. They might also want to call up the Helpline themselves to get some advice. The bottom line is that if they discriminate against you as a consequence, they are breaking the law (Equality Act 2010). Eating disorders are a disability. Therefore any discrimination will provide you with a very clear legal case. That being said, you might want to consider looking for other jobs if you think that they are going to continue to make things difficult because it may become an environment which is unhelpful to you. I believe that Mind have some helpful advice on mental health in the workplace.

Hope this helps, and good luck with everything.