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#1 | ||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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Does anyone have a relative or someone else close to them who suffers from clinical bulimia nervosa? My girlfriend does, and I am beginning to suffer from it as well.
Not suffering in the sense that I am developing the disease, but suffering in that the stress it causes me is very fatiguing. I feel utterly helpless 100% of the time because everyone I talk to about it says that it is something she will have to come out of herself. I have done a great deal of research and read enough about the disease enough to understand this concept, but despite that, I still want to help any way I can. I have discovered research by a Swedish institution that is developing a new form of treatment for the disease. It was published in Dr. Sabine Naessen's doctoral thesis in January of this year. This experimental treatment fights bulimia from a physiological standpoint, as opposed to the traditional CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) that is geared more toward the psychological side of the disease. Though physiological treatment has been researched in the past, it has been more in the form of developing a compensation for the elevated serotonin levels in bulimic patients, and hasn't been explored throughly, due to the fact that the agent tryptophan is banned by the FDA. Thus, this new form of treatment offers a new doorway to overcoming the disease entirely (3 subjects in Dr. Sabine Naessen's study completely overcame the disease due to the anti-androgenic treatment received during the study) and is very exciting, for me at least. Until more research is conducted and more is discovered about the possibilities of anti-androgenic treatment becoming mainstream, I can only hope to simply be there for her (my girlfriend) as much as I possibly can, since that is the only thing I have been told that I can really do. My question, then, is: does anyone have a good way to support someone with bulimia in a way that is therapeutic? I am sick of not being able to actively do anything, and I would like to know if anyone has had experience with this/had experience helping someone through bulimia, and if they know of anything that works well. Thanks a million!
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#2 |
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I've never known anyone in this situation personally, so I probably couldn't be of any help, sorry :/ but I just wanted to mention that it's a disorder, not a disease. XD "Disease" makes it sound like it's caused by bacteria or something.
Best of luck in dealing with this. It's not easy.
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#3 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
Age: 28
Posts: 368
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i think it is a totally retarded mental disease.
i dont know how to help you. |
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#4 |
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(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ watermelon
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It saddens me how some people do actually develop the disease, but it is completely normal. I have learned from first hand experiance of how to support someone with bulimia because one of my best friends suffered through it for around a year (and still is, but is getting better).
The best thing to do would be to tell an authoritive figure that could help you. Talk to your friends about it and definitely let people know. No one can help if no one knows about the problem. You should also understand that bulimia is a type of disease that can be helped. You have to psychologically change your thinking. There has to be an origin to your problems, whether they be neglection, lonliness, or other stressful things. It's best to find out WHAT made you feel as if you will resort to binge eating. In Health class, we learned that people who binge eat and then control the food intake with purging is what bulimia is ultimately. It's the fact that you are able to control one thing in your life, which is eating as much as you wanted, and then still staying skinny at the same time. My advice would be to find out the origin to your problem and try to fix it anyway you can. Again, telling parents or teachers can help you go to doctors who can give medication if needed.
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#5 | ||||||
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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Not making anything personal, just stating the facts. ![]() Quote:
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As for the rest of your post, Windscarredfaith, I agree, except for a few things. One, that there are purging and non-purging types of bulimia, so for your health teacher to say that bulimia is binge eating and "controlling the food intake by purging" is not entirely accurate. Two, that one of the main criteria for diagnosing bulimia nervosa is consuming "a large amount of food in a rapid, automatic and uncontrolled fashion" (from Dr. Naessen's thesis). You may be confusing this with purging, which is a way that bulimics try to control weight gain after a binge, but I could be wrong, I'm not sure what exactly you meant by "you are able to control one thing in your life, which is eating as much as you wanted". Finally, going to "doctors who can give medication if needed" is what she is already doing. I don't disagree with that, but it's kind of stating the obvious, wouldn't you say? Plus, the most common medication prescribed by doctors for a condition such as bulimia nervosa is fluoxetine (you may know this as Prozac) or any other drug from the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) class. SSRIs are very well known for the extreme nature of their adverse side effects, both short term and long term. There are quite a few serious long term sexual side effects of those medications as well, so we don't want to do any more damage than we already have. I hope to have babies someday. ![]() I appreciate your feedback, though, Windscarredfaith, it means a lot that you care enough to post something intelligent in response. But truthfully, we have done/are doing everything you've mentioned. Do you know of anything else I might be able to do to help? Oh, and please, kylehaas, I didn't ask for everyone who doesn't know how to answer my question to post in this thread. So if you don't mind.
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#6 |
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(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ watermelon
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Maybe you should give her lots of compliments all the time, even about small things, just to perk up her day, and boost up her confidence level. I think that it's important for her to feel special, even with all she's going through. Be sure to be there for her as much as you can, and... have you guys found what's making her turn to bulimia? Is it stress, abuse, peers?
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#7 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,345
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it's not a retarted mental disease...
ive dealt with it for years...and like with most ppl with ed's it comes and goes or changes...from mia to ana... ive never been too bad seeing as ive always managed to stay over 100 lbs one thing that my family used to do it make me eat pizza...and that's the worst for a bulimic to eat :/ hmm sorry i can't really think right now, maybe ill have something important to say later on
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#8 | |||||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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You're right, though, about boosting her confidence level. As I'm sure is common sense, bulimia is somewhat of a self-confidence issue, so anything along the lines of "I really liked that green and white-striped polo you wore to the DMV today" helps. Quote:
It's just that I can't accept that as being the only thing I have the power to do, so I'm trying to figure out if anyone that has been through this did anything extra to help speed recovery besides just being supportive.Again, don't get me wrong here. I agree with everyone who says that being close and not getting upset with her behavior is very important for those who are spectators. It's just that I feel like I should be able to do more than that. Quote:
Basically, there was a verbally abusive/controlling boyfriend about two-three years ago that caused her eventually to start to feel so bad about herself that she resorted to bulimia. Back then, it was because of that guy. Now, it is simply a habit. She can't stop doing it. It is her way of dealing with any stress in her life. There is no more abuse at all, in any aspect of her life (except, of course, the abuse she causes to her own body), and peers play no role at all. As for the other possible cause you mentioned, the only stress in her life is that of everyday life in high school, which is no more stress than anyone else her age is going through. Except for her, this is too much a lot of the time. She will blow some little problem way out of proportion and it will cause enough anguish to make her start a binge/purge cycle. That, of course, is what bulimia does to its victims. It screws up your mental processes to a higher degree than many other anxiety-related diseases. Since there really is no environmental factor causing her symptoms now, it really is only a matter of treatment and overcoming the disease. Until then, she will continue her binge/purge cycles habitually (4-6 times a week is what I've found that she averages).
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#9 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,345
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o well she's not too bad then, so that's good...but doing that at all is never a good thing. i used to do that so many times a day
do you think she does it now, not only out of habit but because she feels it's one of the only things she has control over? and im sure she knows the damage shes doing to herself, and any type of help...either medical or not can only go so far...
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#10 |
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(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ watermelon
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Who said it was?
Also, I think what you can do is to remind her that her previous boyfriend is gone. He has no role in her life anymore and even though there are scars, there are better and more supportive people (including yourself and parents and friends) to help her. Remind her that things might not always work in her favor, and that if she gets through it day by day, things will become better. Be sure to tell her that she can solve her problems rationally. Try to get her into the habit of stopping, taking a breath, and then tackling the problem, not immediately resort to binging. Food is a temporary comfort, but the problem that was there to begin with will never be solved if she doesn't stand up to it.
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#11 | |||||
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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It's like a different part of her personality takes over and she is forced to do it. That's usually how she describes it to me. Quote:
It's good to hear from you, AriesMalvis, having been/being a bulimic yourself. This is what I was hoping for: input from both bulimics and non-bulimics. Thank you.
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#12 | |||||
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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Last edited by johnnyhoney0; 03-15-2007 at 09:41 PM.. |
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#13 |
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you need to set up an intervention
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#14 | |||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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I hope you're not talking about what I think you are, because that is absolutely out of the question.
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#15 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,345
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no definitely don't do that! i don't kno why ppl think those things help ppl. if you did that you could make things worse...
you could scare her so bad...and she'd lose trust in you so def just stay the way you are...honestly you're such an understanding person...most ppl aren't like that. i hope your gf knows how lucky she is...even if she does have these hardships. ppl like you do make things so much easier
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#16 |
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#17 | |
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Oh, BTW we had an intervention for my great uncle and he has been sober for 9 years. |
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#18 | ||||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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2. You are quickly steering this conversation in the wrong direction. EDIT: You apologized before I posted this, sorry. ![]()
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#19 | ||||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 73
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#20 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,345
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oh and first of all i didn't mean to be mean about the whole intervention thing...i mean i kno it can work...but i also kno that it can be a very scary thing. interventions are better suited to treat certain things...ed's not being one of them...well maybe over eating...
and hmm...well i kno im not recovered tho i have greatly improved. and everyone who has any type of problem handles it differently. there's no surefire way that can work for everyone...so im not gonna act like there is. and i kno how it is for it to feel like you're not doing enough...but as long as you're they're by her side being understanding...that's definitely enough. i kno you prolly just wanna do whatever it takes to make her all better...and tho you can't be a cureall...who knows you may be the one to help her thru all of this.
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