Buy Walking VideosPostSecret: Chronic Health Problems
This postcard from PostSecret showed up in last Sunday’s list:
It reads:
I suspect that my chronic health problems are related to the fact that I make myself throw up multiple times a day.
To me, the first thing I think is, “Don’t do that! Just stop it.” When I am tempted to binge, however, the advice, “Don’t binge! Quit eating so much you hurt yourself,” doesn’t really help me. In fact, it makes me want to do it even more. Talking to a doctor never really helped me either. Their advice wasn’t much better than, “Don’t do that.” Oh yeah, and the ever-present, “Eat more fiber.”
I suspect that we’ll eventually find that all eating disorders are triggered by physiological responses in the body rather than psychological responses in the mind. In the future, there will be a diet to stop bingeing, a diet to stop starving yourself to death and a diet to stop causing yourself to vomit. Until the doctors figure it out, find out what YOUR healthiest diet is for your body. I KNOW there is some way out there to prevent you from feeling to constant urge to vomit. Find it.
PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.
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May 8th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I saw this Postsecret and wondered whether you would write about it.
I can’t begin to understand what it’s like to feel the urge to vomit or binge. While I do over-eat at times, I wouldn’t categorize it as binging, and the thought of vomiting makes be shutter. I do appreciate your insight on the topic, though.
I have a comment on your post. You said that if someone tells you to stop binging, it makes you “want to do it even more”. In the next paragraph, you wrote that you think it’s a physiological response.
These two ideas seem to contradict one another. Maybe I’m not understanding what you wrote.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Ernie,
Thanks for commenting. Actually, I think that they are BOTH physiological AND psychological. Unfortunately, the weight loss industry has focused solely on the psychological aspects.
I think it has to do with the gluttony is a sin thing from way back. Once we get over that idea, I think we’ll be able to find the REAL reasons behind eating disorders.
Laura