I Binge Eat...HELP!!!

[brian1052000]

Ok I seriously need help...I am a binge eater. I will go 3 days at the most without eating, and when I do eat, I eat until I am about to be sick...for example I will eat little or nothing on Monday-Wednesday and on Thursday I will go to Wendy's and order a: Classic Triple Combo Large size with a Coke and Two Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. It is really depressing. I need help...any advice??? *thanks*

 

[PhoenixRising]

You really need to seek some professional help. Eating disorders are not to be taken lightly, and need the supervision of professionals to be properly treated.

I hope you can find the help you need.

 

[KaraBulut]

What you are describing is classic cyclic anorexia-binge eating. You need professoinal help beyond what we can provide in this forum.

Don't think that you are a rarity. Eating disorders in gay men is another one of those common problems that no one ever talks about. It is a serious medical issue and if you continue this, you can do signficant damage to your health.

 

[confused01]

Hi brian!!! I didn't think I would find much boys like myself. I've already posted a thread myself before: I've got a serious eating disorder. I don't binge eat (though about once in a month I can't resist it). Normally I try to eat under 300kcals/day, but that wasn't possible until this week because I had exams and I couldn't concentrate. Because I ate more during the exams I'm "punishing" myself by having a 0 kcal diet until I faint. It's been 4 days now and I only blacked out.
I'm absolutely not encouraging other people to become anorexic, but I do like the fact that we're not alone, and that we could find support with each other.
My BMI so far is 17,9 but I want to go to a bmi of 17....

 

[KaraBulut]

Confused01:

Same advice for you:

It is a serious medical issue and if you continue this, you can do signficant damage to your health.

Get help. Now.

 

[confused01]

Thanks for caring karabulut, I really appreciate you being worried. I don't want to look for help though. I'm scared they will make me eat. I'm aware that it's very irresponsible. I'll be the first to admit that it damages my health (I'm a student in the medical branch myself) but I really can't help it. Imagine having to live day by day with the feeling that you're enormously fat and ugly. Restricting my food intake is the only thing I can do to make me feel a bit better. If they'd force me to eat I'd just become more depressed.

 

[KaraBulut]

I'm scared they will make me eat.

Well, you need to eat to stay alive. So what's your alternative here?

Everything that you have said reads like a case study for anorexia. If you are in healthcare, you know this.

And you know until you get on medication, this abnormal thought pattern will persist until it kills you.

 

[jockboy01]

I absolutely agree with KaraBulut. Confused1, you need to get help. The goal of the help isn't to force you to eat, but rather to help you realize that you aren't fat and ugly. This in turn allows you to eat without the guilt. Nobody is going to hold your mouth open and poor food down it (well, unless you're on death's doorstep and even then I'm not sure). Thinking that other people like you is support will only leading to the two of you dying together from your illness. You need professional help, and soon. If you're in the medical field, you should already know this. Now go do it before it is too late. I assure you, corpses are far uglier than fat people... especially emaciated corpses. Get help... get it now.

 

[tallguy297]

Hey Brian...Hey Confused...

Guys, thank you so much for posting. I dont have a medical background... but I know for certain that Jockboy does and I would beleive every word he says in an instant. I would trust him with my life and I know that he has only your interests at heart.

What I can say though is this.

You two guys have enormous courage to come here and post. Courage enough to lay open your fears and your anxieties and courage enough to seek advice. That alone deserves huge credit - its something that would paralyze a lot of us with fear... and yet you guys have already cleared that hurdle...

Brian, Confused... you guys have huge unlimited futures. You have lives that stretch out before you, you have unknown opportunities and chances ahead, you have love to discover and happiness to know that right now you cant imagine.

You have family, friends and colleagues that respect and admire you for who you are... you are the guys that they joke with, laugh with, talk too. You are even surrounded by friends and "family" right here on JUB. You are surrounded by people who know the real you. You are surrounded by people who value you for who you are.

All of your posts show intelligent caring loving guys... but they also show guys who know they have a problem. Your posts show us that you know whats going on isnt right... that your own logic and common sense tell you that something isnt adding up. Even through the confusion thats causing you to feel the things that you do, both of you still understand that logically things arent the way they should be.

We will never understand the compulsion that drives you to feel the way you do, the frustration and the confusion that you must fight with everyday. But I can promise you that we can and will appeal to that part of you that knows this is wrong, that part of you that knows you need help, with all our hearts to implore you to seek help. Not because we think less of you but because we value you. We care about you and we want to support you.

Your value and worth come from deep inside you... not the outside. Your value comes from all of you... your heart, your mind, your spirit. Your value and worth come from being all you can be, from fulfilling your every wish and desire and living open happy healthy lives. Your happiness can only come from inside.

So please guys, please... talk to your GP's... tell them what you have told us here. Dont subdue that part of you that knows you need to do this. That part of you is the part that wants to care and nourish you in every way. Its the part of you that is right. Its the part of you that wants you to be all you can be.

Use that same courage that you used to open up to us here. Force yourself to muster that again to make this right. Find that strength to ask for help...

You already have my admiration... now you have my support and the support of the other members here as well to get yourself well. Please guys... make the move... get the help you need and get better!

 

[brian1052000]

Thanks Guys for all the advice

 

[confused01]

Yes, thank you all for the advice. I'm very thankful that you guys are so caring. The cause is rooted deep with me though. I'm actually unsure if I'll ever be able to be helped. It's impossible to take the cause away at this moment, and it's something that keeps repeating itself. (hard to explain, I'd have to wright down my whole life story)
@karabulut: Yes medication... Ironically I'm studying pharmaceutical sciences. I know most mechanisms of medication prescribed to persons with anorexia or depression, bipolar disorder etc. . It wouldn't work for me because I would misuse the medication. For example: I know lithium has got as side effect a slight increase of weight, so I wouldn't take it. I'm probably going to be the most irresponsible pharmacist ever :-(
@jockboy: You're right, I know I need help. It's destroying me, both physically as mentally. It's strange though because it's also a coping mechanism and making other things more bearable. Therefore it's really hard for me to decide that I want to be helped.
@tallguy: You are a very warm person. Maybe if I had run accross such helpful people before I wouldn't have started with it in the first place. Actually I feel really sorry I can't do anything in return for you.
I can't promise I'll talk about it with my GP, but after reading your comments I've spoken about it with two persons close to me. Maybe some day I'll be able to talk about it to my doctor.