Has anyone conquered anorexia/bulimia ?

[seashell]

i am sorry i snaped at you ok

[NikNak4700]

Oh, it's ok....I didn't post that because I was upset. I just wanted to make sure everyone else knew what I meant and understood...i didn't want to confuse anyone! I was afraid that if you misunderstood me, others might as well!

[seashell]

no sometimes i just can get in a mood

[Fiosh]

Just wanted to thank you all for your input!

Peace,

Fiosh

[LadyRaven]

These are combinations of food addictions and the need to control things in one's life combined with an unchristian preoccupation with looks. I was a bulimic for a few years.

I prayed to have the courage to stop purging only, as I felt that was all the spiritual fortitude I could muster at that point and I did conquer that (though I still have a very strong gag reflex to the point where I can throw up from a throat culture). Then the purging had to be curtailed, but that was the hard part, it is hard to break an addiction to something you need to survive. It's not like cigarettes or booze that you can just give up.

You have to find whatever hurt is being medicated via this addiction and allow God to heal that, this is the only way to heal it.

[fallen_stone]

i battled it, and i still am battleing it.

the only person who can help you is you.

Everyone tried to help me, i was even threatened to be sent to a center, but it came down to me being ready or not. Kind of like a smoker wanting to quit, only when they are ready can they do it. I wasn't ready to give up my control, i was controling my body, becuase i felt so lost in the wold that i could not change anythign but my body. i wasted away to bare bones. and still when i get emotional, i find myself fighting not to eat, but i think back to when i was paper thin, to when my skin was greyish and my eyes were sunk. I think about how i could see all my bone through my skin, and i eat just a little. i find it helps to eat lots of small meals throughout the day. Maybe a few bits of an apple now and a small plate of kraft dinner later small portions add up throughout the day and you don't find yourself getting sick either.

hope all is well with you, and i hope you find it in you to help yourself!

[LadyRaven]

Looking for info for a friend. Any ideas about how to battle these illnesses successfully?

Thanks,

Fiosh

I was bulimic for years. I still have a very sensitive gag reflex, to the point where those throat cultures can be embarrassing.

Bulimia in my case was a mixture of a food addiction and the shame associated with it which led to desparate measures in order to hide it. Other things developed around it as the disease progressed, but they were basically side issues.

Food addiction is very tricky to deal with because, well, unlike alcohol, you can't avoid it altogether, you have to either learn to deal with food, or you will end up finding another addiction.

Addictions fill holes.

In order to "get over" bulimia, you have to find the hole, the cause of the hole, the method of filling it and then begin doing that. For me, my hole was my whole being. My soul, the being GOD created, was lost, being pushed aside as I felt I had to live a lie in order to please everyone. I "gave up" my bulimia (the behaviours, not the disease itself) in college, but went from one bad thing to another trying to make myself feel good. Sure I was no longer throwing up, but my insides were still as sick as they were when I was.

Eventually I had to learn to be truthful in all areas, including the person hidden in my soul. I had to stop living a lie and pretending to be a certain way when I wasn't that way. I had to stop trying to please people to gain acceptance since the only being I need to be accepted by is Christ. Learning that HE is enough and through that that I in Christ am enough was the cure.

Most things all come down to that, but they have very strange ways of manifesting themselves. You can't just repeat that over and over and have the healing occur. I'm sure sometimes God heals people spontaneously, but I am of the firm belief that when it comes to addictions He usually prefers to walk us through them and heal us gradually from the inside out, in order to make us stronger and give us insights into the way our souls work.

Oddly enough, alot of the work done on my soul took place by stealth as I learned good sound doctrine and began making practical application of it. Learning that the darkest places in my soul were no darker than those of other people and yet understanding at the same time that they were completely supremely dark and unworthy in the light of the eternal...and thus completely understanding the depth of my salvation... If Christ's singular act was "enough" save people with souls which were depraved and unsavable by other means, then it is "enough" in other areas too.

Anorexia, I am told, has to do with control, or a perceived lack of it. But I can't say anything from experience about that. I've always loved food too much to ever think about a life not eating.

[LadyRaven]

Ok, for Seashell's benefit (per our PMs), I need to clarify what I said. I would never say that you can be completely cured of an eating disoder...I mean, it is a mental disorder or a mind game you play instead of a physical disorder. I am not cured...but I am better....God helps me get through it on a daily basis....I struggle every day.....I want to binge and purge...I don't want to get fat, which is what I feel like I am all the time...I don't want to struggle with the scales...but I do. BUT....with God's help you can learn to cope and stop feeling so down on yourself...it's all about learning to love yourself the way you are....it's hard, but a person can get better. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying everyone should be able to be CURED...there is a difference between getting better and being cured.

I believe you can be because I have been cured. I am no longer in need of these types of crutches emotionally. I developed the disease in college...I finally conquered it in Christ about 5 yrs ago. I have been a believer 35 years, and I am 42 yrs old.

You are still focusing on the dynamics of what goes on on the surface to your disease. That's not meant as a criticism, because you do have to have enough control over things to not "fall" when you do the dirty work of fixing the underlying reason you "need" to play mind games n the first place. And your perception of your body is only a symptom also. This unfortunately is actually the hardest part, and the most essential because unless you check yourself into a mental health facility where they can control your urges for you, you WILL fall when you start to dig up the dirt which has clogged the filter of your soul...if you don't have that control even when you are under stress.

[cutiepie1497]

please if i could just ask you guys to pray....i feel myself spiraling downwards....it hasnt started yet, but I can tell its about to hit head on......please, just pray. this is more than I can swallow right now. its easy now with school, i can say i ate breakfast and lunch at school, and i either dodge supper or throw up afterwards (i havent since valentines day) but please, if you would just pray for me.

[Floatingaxe]

My husband had a bad case of anorexia. He became so very thin, and I was worried about him. My friends took me aside and asked me if he had cancer or something. He was wasting away, and looking deathly.

I asked God to help me speak to him in a manner and with words that he would really hear, as I believe this anorexia was a demonic force that had gotten hold of his mind, telling him LIES.

Then I sat him down and spoke. Had to do it twice, 45 minutes each time. Then I started giving him little rich snacks in the evenings where he would eat them and appease that hunger that he had been pushing into oblivion.

Over a period of about 3 months, he started looking forward to the snacks. Just a tiny luncheon plate with about 3 little things on it: cheese, grapes, apple slices, 1 cracker, small piece of cake, etc.

Eventually, he was healed, and I attribute it to the Lord, answering my fervent prayer. He had a plan for my husband's life, and He wasn't going to let anorexia get in the way of that! That was 20 years ago. He is a blessing to me and his children and grandchildren now! God is good.