I am in my early twenties and I am bulimic. It all started several months ago with my strong urge to overeat. I would feel guilty, sad and depressed after that and I didn’t want to gain weight so I induced vomiting several times a day (after every meal, large or small). Since I seriously hurt my throat in this way I started using laxatives. When my body got used to the dose and did not react I took double doses. There was constipation and then there was diarrhoea, and then again constipation, and again diarrhoea... When I finally reached for help, the doctor found (among other damages in my organism caused by my overeating and vomiting) IBS. I’m on a special diet now and things are getting better, but the doctor says that this irritable bowel symptom cannot be cured. Has anyone developed irritable bowel as a result of bulimia? What exactly does this “cannot be cured” mean?
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I know exactly how you must feel, but let me tell you first that irritable bowel syndrome is not a disease. It is functional disorder and it cannot be cured - this means that you will probably experience the symptoms throughout your life, but the good side is that it cannot worsen or develop into something dangerous (like colon cancer). I excessively used laxatives during my bulimic episode and developed IBS too. I never had constipation, but I caused serious diarrhoea, sometimes even bloody. Now, three years after that I have completely normal life, apart from IBS. It really causes great problems. I’m gassy all the time - literally. I wake up with a serious abdomen pain and after using the toilet (diarrhoea from early morning, it’s basically never anything else but diarrhoea) I feel like going there again. After every meal, very often even after a glass of water, I need to use the toilet. Sometimes it can really hurt. My meals are very small - even my little daughter eats more for one meal than I do, and, yet, I just can’t avoid using the toilet. I don’t eat chocolate, don’t drink milk, coffee or tea, my doctor made me a whole list of those “don’ts” and it still causes me so much trouble. I’m at home all day long, if I go out it almost always ends up nasty and unpleasantly. As for the therapy, I used Lomotil and Imodium, but no help was found. The doctor will prescribe me Lotronex these days. Lotronex is notorious for turning even the hardest cases of diarrhoea to constipation. I hope it will work.
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