Laxative abuse

Potentially triggering for eating disorders.

When most people think of eating disorders, they think about someone starving themselves, making themselves sick and being really thin. However, eating disorders are a lot more complex than this. A further issue that is becoming more common in eating disorders is the use of laxatives.

Many of you might think that using laxatives seems a bit strange so why do people with eating disorders do this? Some people think that it will help them lose weight. For me, I enjoyed the empty feeling that taking laxatives gave me. I personally could never make myself vomit. But, laxatives were easy to get and although I knew that they did not stop me from absorbing calories, that feeling of emptiness was good for me. Laxatives help get rid of any retained water and that lowers the number on the scale. For someone suffering with an eating disorder, that is perceived as a great thing.

My laxative abuse started off by taking the recommended dose whenever I felt bloated. However, it soon got out of control. My body got used to the laxatives so I started taking more and more often. It was one of the hardest parts of my recovery. My body was used to being aided like this. It did not help that I was then diagnosed with IBS. When my IBS causes horrible constipation, I cannot take laxatives to help it. When you stop taking laxatives, you tend to get bloated and the eating disorder voices in your head convince you that this translates as getting fat/putting on weight. It takes a lot of strength to stop abusing laxatives, to recognise that this bloating is temporary and that your body can live without them.

So this all sounds really difficult and horrible, right? Yes but I am one of many examples that it is possible to stop abusing laxatives. Here's some advice:

• Remember that laxatives do not make you lose actual weight. They simply dehydrate your body which sometimes resembles losing weight.
• Laxatives can cause dehydration, bloating, electrolyte imbalances and a variety of health problems. Remember that recovery is about taking care of your health.
• Get rid of any laxatives you have in the house.
• Talk to your doctor or a friend, get some support.
• Take each day as it comes and be proud of your progress, do not beat yourself up if you slip up at all.
• Depending on how long you have been abusing them, you may have to reduce them gradually. Assess the best way for you to stop this, everyone is different.
• Drink lots of water and eat lots of fibre, it will eventually stop the bloating and stop your body's reliance on laxatives.

Beat, the UK's leading eating disorder charity, is currently seeking to address the problem of laxative abuse. They are calling for the sale of laxatives to be better regulated. This is so important. If laxatives are more difficult to access then less people will have the chance to take them. Take a look at what Beat is aiming for.

Currently MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) claim that they recognise the problem but do not believe that sales restrictions would be appropriate. I disagree. If laxatives were not so easily obtainable, if I could not buy lots of them at the age of 14 wherever I wanted, if I had to ask for them from behind the counter, if they were clearly not a weight loss aid... well, I really think that I might not have abused laxatives so readily and I think that's the case for many eating disorder sufferers. Something needs to be done because this growing trend is scary and dangerous.

Things I've learnt while job hunting...

As most of you know, I graduated this year and have been looking for a job since my internship finished. It's been a month. I've applied to over 50 jobs, had 5 interviews and am yet to get anywhere but I've already learnt a lot...

Some interviewers will not even have read your CV.

Yeah, that's right. They invite you along to interview without having looked at your CV that you spent ages working on. I don't know if they just pick random candidates and hope one of them is suitable. So expect them to ask really obvious questions sometimes. 

Putting your CV online will mean receiving lots of phone calls.

Mostly from recruitment companies wanting you to work for them. This might be good for you. But a lot of it is about sales and I, for one, am really fed up of these calls from companies that I would never want to work for.

You should always take a pen to your interview.

Well, you should always carry one but make sure you have a working one just in case. It shows you are prepared.

There's lots of specialist jobs available...

For budding engineers, teachers, lorry drivers and such, there is a lot of choice. But for those of us who are uncertain or want less common jobs, there is not much out there and it can get pretty frustrating.

You will start to question why you bothered with your degree.

If you are not looking to do a job directly linked with your degree subject, you will question why you bothered. You will remind yourself about "transferable skills" and all the interesting things you learned. But why didn't you pick something that would ensure a job at the end?! Why did we bother with degrees when everyone wants experience?!

It is not all bad!

Yes, job hunting is time consuming and stressful. It makes you feel like crap and useless. You start to apply to jobs that you really do not want because you need the money and you need to do something. However, it also gives you a chance to see what is out there and to explore your options if you are unsure. It provides time to think and to learn how to do well in interviews and applications.

So if you're like me and getting stressed and miserable with the whole job hunting thing, just remember that the right job will come along in the end and all this will be worth it!

Diets are dangerous...

Diets. We probably all know someone that's been on one. Most of us have been on one ourselves. It's usually just an attempt to lose a few pounds. Diets seem healthy, harmless and sometimes like the best thing for someone to do. But they can be dangerous and they can lead to eating disorders. I understand that this is not always the case. I understand that some people need to go on diets for health reasons but a hell of a lot of people who put themselves on diets do not need to lose weight.

A lot of people who develop eating disorders say that it began when they tried to eat a bit more healthy. Perhaps they started eating more fruit and vegetables. But then it can spiral out of control. It's easy to enjoy the weight loss. It's easy to start eating less and enjoying losing more weight. It's nice to see the numbers on the scale drop. People start telling you how good you look. You tell them about this great diet you're on.

Well, this can get serious really quickly. You eat a bit less and you lose more weight and soon it is not enough so you start exercising too or skipping meals altogether. It starts pretty innocently but it becomes more sinister. You get thinner. You get sick. Soon, you are in the grips of an eating disorder and really mentally unwell.

It's the new year in a couple of months. That means people will be going crazy talking about their desperate need to lose a few pounds, there will be diets advertised everywhere and celebrity fitness DVD's. People will buy into it but I am urging you not to. I want to remind you that this diet culture we are in is dangerous for everyone. As someone in recovery from an eating disorder, I can say that hearing friends talk about diets and calories makes me feel like I should be. It damages my recovery and diets put them at risk of potentially developing eating disorders. Eating disorders kill people.

It makes me angry. Seeing constant adverts for new diet pills and diet companies. STOP IT. Stop making people think that they need to lose weight in order to be happy. Stop showing unhappy fat people and happy thin people, the world does not work like that. People are not that simple. Weight loss is not equal to happiness. Eating Special K every day will not make your life better, following weight watchers will not make you a good person. Diets sometimes help you lose weight but unless your doctor advises you to do so, you probably do not need to. These companies are making money off of your misery, low self esteem and desperation.

Most importantly, the diet industry wants you to feel bad about yourselves. It wants you to hate your body so you buy their products over and over again in a desperate attempt to fix things. However, this doesn't work. So you try more diets and low fat foods and gym classes. Losing weight is not how you learn to love yourself. It is not how you become happy. Looking after yourself, being kind to yourself is how you learn to love yourself. And you should love every part of you because if we all show ourselves a little bit of love, these awful diet companies will go out of business. Eating disorders may decrease in frequency.

Ignore the diet talk. Do not buy into this culture. You are more than your weight and you deserve to love yourself for who you are not because you lose weight on a diet.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

If you've ever had to wait for any sort of health treatment then you probably understand how frustrating it is. Mind have published a report on waiting times for mental health treatments, specifically psychological treatments. Its findings are pretty scary. Of course, we all appreciate that we have access to free health care on the NHS in Britain. But, we also have expectations of the services provided to us. 

One in ten people wait over a year for treatment. In that year, a person with mental health problems could end up being in a very vulnerable state. Without treatment, that person's mental state could deteriorate making the need for therapy even more urgent. These people may become desperate and without someone to talk to, may be in a very dangerous mind set. Around 1 in 6 people who commit suicide are on waiting lists for help. That's a pretty terrifying thought, right? Imagine the amount of people whose lives might be saved if waiting lists were shorter, if people got help sooner.

Of course therapy does not work for everyone but it is very effective in treating a number of mental illnesses. My doctor recommended that I self referred to talking therapies. I did so three times before I heard anything. Then I was told that my problems were "too complex" and referred to the local complex needs service. After filling out some questionnaires and sending them off, I have yet to hear anything. It has been 6 months so far. In that time, my depression has got worse. There are so many people like me having trouble like this and something needs to be done.

Yes, there will be some limits on access to therapies due to the numbers seeking them. However, addressing this needs to be a priority. The next government has to take this seriously. Something needs to be done to stop struggling people being put in a more difficult position with little or no help.

How can you help? Write to your local MP asking what they will be doing to improve mental health services. Make sure that these issues are on their radar.