Deadly addiction

Would you consider taking laxatives as a way to control your weight? Do you think about the wider health implications behind doing this? Should taking laxatives be considered as serious an eating disorder as anorexia or bulimia?

CLICK HERE TO SHARE YOUR VIEWS NOW

Comments

[michelle]

i abuse laxatives and they cause me terrible problems i want to stop but can't seem to. i want to cry when i go to buy them as i know what pain etc they will cause me. i have even been publicly incontinent! im a qualified nurse and understand what im risking by doing this but even that doesnt stop me. i dont know where this will end.

[Milly, Liverpool]

I have just started talking laxatives. I have one in the morning and one before bed. I go the gym three times a week but my weakness is my diet. I'm 9 stone 6 pounds and only 5'1" so hoping that taking laxatives will help me shift a stone or so to get me down to my proper weight as the doctor has refused me dieting pills. Once i'm down to my ideal weight, I will be stopping the laxatives and be continuing at the gym, hopefully i'll keep the weight off then too.

[luci]

i am actually thinking about starting to take laxitives as have been told u can lose weight fast with them, i also dont know what else i can take as i am on thyroxine so many good diet things wont work for me, i am a really poor eater and have a bad diet but dont know how to overcome this iv been to the doctors to explain this but he just said id have to change what i eat but it is to hard to do alone as i have always eaten poorly for as long as i can remember, i would really love to be able to go for a meal and eat whatever there was. i am 26 years old n need help ASAP?, ive been like this all my childhood aswell.

[rachel]

hi there, after reading this i wanted to cry i myself am 27 and have never really strugled with my weight untill my son was born ten months ago i had a little girl 8 years ago but didnt gain as mush weight, i am at a lose end iv tried weight groups but dont seem to be able to stick to them so iv resorted to taking laxatives for about the last month and iv lost just over a stone the thing is i dont want to take them but i keep doing it, i only take two most days but am really scared ill soon be taking lots more and im scared of the long term affects it will have on my body. another ? i have for pple is is it only after taking for a matter of months befor it wil effect you long term! i wanna be healthy but i wanna be thin more which is so wrong i know this but im still taking them.

[Michelle]

As someone who was diagnosed as Bulimic and who too was addicted to laxatives, I personally believe that they should only be available by prescription.....

It's a very real eating disorder, and just for the record, I too began abusing them after having untreated PTSD after the birth of my son who was delivered via emergency section. This is a real illness, it's effecting many women, and it's not spoken about enough.

I have been "clean" now for 3 years, but very nearly ended up on a colostomy bag at the age of 28. That option was my real wake up call. I had to be retrained to acknowledge when my brain was telling me to use my back passage, and then had to practice exercises to do so. I felt free for the first time in years. St Mark's Hospital in Wimbledon is fabulous, and it was the team there who finally helped me move forward.

Best of luck to those of you battling with this, it's possible to win if you keep healthy, supportive people around you, you can get better.

[catherine mousley]

Reading Ellie's story made me cry. I too take laxatives and have done since being introduced to them in an Eating Disorders unit by another patient when I was 15 (I'm 22 now) I know how hard it is for her, the daily struggles yet also the relief it brings when they finally work. I took 250 in a day once and had to go to hospital yet that still didn't stop me. I also know how hard it must be for the rest of my family, I keep them awake all night by being on the toilet. With help form a psychologist I'm down to 40 a day and hope I may be off them for good one day and the damage i've done won't be permanent.

[Ellie Lloyd]

hi there - i thought i should post on here as the article was about me.

i have had wonderful feedback from this article in the respect of getting the message accross of the seriousness of it.

in short it was birth trauma that triggered PND that then triggered my ED which doesnt only consist of laxative abuse, also involves me not eating for 3 - 4 days and often being sick when i do eat small amounts - binging is something i have never done, sometimes a piece of toast can trigger me to be sick or take laxatives.

this is now a situation for me that has gotten out of control and my main purpose for doing the article was to raise awarness so others didnt end up in the same situation and also because my local health authority havent really helped - i am on a one year waiting list! i have been made to feel that i am too fat to have a problem and too fat for it to be dealt with, thus fuelling it even more - even though i have lost over 5 1/2 stone.

i would class myself as a fairly intelligent person with generally very balanced views on things but this is something in my life that has completley taken control of me. i know in my head that it isnt good for me, that it is unhealthy and the health implications involved but a part of me is so scared of getting any fatter that i can stop as i still see myself as fat, which is where the addiction comes into it - even though they are not physically addictive psychologically i am dependant, and also addicted to the feeling of being hungry and every time i loose a pound it makes me happy and until i get the right support this is something i am going to have to battle with.

i just really hope that publishing the story will help others - if i had sought help before maybe i wouldnt be as bad as i am now - but i always felt too fat that nobody would listen, i would never ever want anyone else to feel the way that i have felt.

ellie
xxx

[Lilly]

"Would you consider taking laxatives as a way to control your weight? Do you think about the wider health implications behind doing this? Should taking laxatives be considered as serious an eating disorder as anorexia or bulimia?"

Plain and simply - in answer to this question, yes I do think abusing laxatives should be considered a form of an eating disorder and weight control - I can only imagine what the health implications could be from abusing such medication or other drugs at that matter.

There are healthier and smarter ways to control ones weight.

[Sue Cole]

I just wanted to make a comment about the interview with Kirsty Gallacher. She said that she hates her wobbly thighs and her muffin top ?? Duh, where? Has she not seen these photos?? It's no wonder kids these days are obsessed with their weight with women like her saying she was "Much heavier and miserable at 14 yrs. old when she was a size 12" !!!
She needs to stop obsessing about her weight and set young girls an example, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a size 12 when you are 5' 5" !!
If thats the way she looks at it, fair enough, but she should keep her thoughts to herself in future!
Either she has body dismorphia or that picture was over airbrushed!!

[clare]

i just wanted to say that Ellie was amazingly strong for coming out and telling everyone what is going on in her life, she has made other people with the same addiction realise they are not alone...that this does exist.

Ellie is one of the loveliest people you could ever want to meet and i am proud to call her my friend.
x

[Anne Finch]

Dear Fabulousmag

My Toxic Friends Experience

I have just spent the weekend spitting feathers over some toxic friends comments and when I sat reading your feature last night decided I could release my anger in an email to you. I am fortunate to live a fairly affluent area where even people like me who don't have much money do not know the real meaning of poverty, so when last week I organised a school disco at our local school to raise funds, I was completely taken aback by one mothers comment directed personally at me that the price of a ticket of £3.00 was a bit steep, rich coming from a person who's Jaguar car costs more than that in fuel to drive to school not to mention the gym membership and , shopping trips that these people seem to have money for, then there was the other parent who has four children at the school so couldn't possibly pay for all four so bartered to pay £10.

What is the matter with these people, I wonder if she would challenge the McDonalds Cashier to only pay for 3 happy meals or ask the cinema attendant to let four in for the price of three as she couldn't possibly afford to pay for all of her four children. I think not. Perhaps she shouldn't have four children I find myself muttering to myself and perhaps the other one moaning about the cost of the ticket should think about the price next time she pays her other childs private school fees. After all, I was only trying to raise a bit of money for all of the childrens benefit, not a holiday to somewhere exotic!!

It seems to be, the people who do the least moan the most. I have two jobs, two children a husband and a home and I also find time to serve on the school P.T.A , be a school govenor and run a Beaver Scout Group in my spare time so I would once in while like just a simple thank you rather than critisism for trying to do others a favour. I have always beleived you get out of life what you put into it but perhaps I would get less agro if I sat back and let others do it. The trouble is they won't.

Best Wishes

Anne Finch

[marie]

whats all this obsession with whacky diets and how to keep slim, loose weight etc.
no wonder those who are vulnerable, feeling low., depressed or under pressure resort to measures like taking high doses of laxatives.
ladies, be happy for who you are. i am proud to be short and plump. fortunetely my friend and family love me for who i am.

[Naomi]

Is it any wonder that people have to go to these extremes, when you have the likes of Kirsty Gallacher telling us how bad her body is! It is the attention seaking celebs like her, that give normal people a complex. Laxatives and similar over the counter products are the only option for some that can't splash out on expensive personal trainers, beautitions, dietitions, etc.

[mandy wingate]

no one should use laxatives to loss weight my friend has taken them since she was young i think she doesnt take them now like she did but she now doesnt eat to loss weight she eats licoish all the time and can go all day on a piece of fruite the sad thing is i have always been thin 7stone just over all my life i never diete never not eaten and always eat a lot everyday but people used to say i was anorexe and still do my doctor gets so annoyed as he says you are no way that as you got nothing to show any signs he says i am just one of thease people that can eat and eat and not put on weight but my friend wants to be thin like me witch is so sad as we are all diffrent a few years ago she decided to try and have a baby it didnt work as she has taken so many things in life to stay thin the sad thing is people do not think what they put in there body to stay thin can stop them having kids in the end so sadly there will be girls doing this forver as they want to be thin so sad just be happy to be healthy your health is your life dont destroy it