Addicted to a little pink pill

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-17-2004
Addicted to a little pink pill
8
Wed, 07-14-2004 - 2:41pm
So here is the deal. I have become dangerously obsessed with my body image lately. I have gained about 20 pounds in the last four years...and although some people might think that is nothing, it is a HUGE something, to me. I grew up being a size 2, and now with my thighs and my "J-Lo booty" (as my BF calls it- in the most adoring way), I am running about a size 9 or 10. So about a week ago I went to the grocery store for a very specific thing. Laxatives. I have never taken one before, but I heard that they can make people lose weight. I am so desperate to get some of this weight off that I am willing to try anything!! Almost. I hate throwing up - hate it! I did it the other day after I ate a hot dog and it was aweful! I don't even know what made me do it, but I did, and I won't do it again. But now the problem is, after only a week, I'm totally addicted to these things! I take two sometimes three a day, and to be honest, I feel like it's working. Of course I'm miserable running to the bathroom all the time, but I am already feeling better about myself. And to type that makes me so sad because I cannot believe that it has come to this. So now, not only am I taking these laxatives religiously, I'm hardly eating too. And I know it's unhealthy, but my head is telling me it's working....I just need some insight on this. AM I CRAZY!!? I don't even really know what I'm doing...I just don't want to look like I do anymore..Help!
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2004
Wed, 07-14-2004 - 3:10pm
hiya Laura,

you aren't crazy, but laxatives will not make you lose weight. they dehydrate you and deplete electrolytes and disrupt your body's electrolyte balance, but no way are you going to see real weight loss using laxatives. messing with your electrolytes like this means you are risking death.

laxatives are supposed to help people with very occasional constipation. i have read horror stories from women who abuse laxatives...very quickly they find themselves needing to take boxes and boxes of the pills to get the same effect, and also eventually need hundreds of them just to have any bowel movement at all.

these are the reasons i have always stayed away from laxatives. you have options besides using laxatives and purging. you can get help from a therapist and recover. there is nothing wrong with your natural size, whether it's a 2, 10, or any other size. and you can learn to eat what your body needs and feel comfortable at your natural size.

when i started to feel desperate and consider using things like diet pills, laxatives, vomiting, etc., that's when things really started plummeting for me. my physical and emotional health went straight down until i crashed. you don't have to feel like that. there are plenty of people who can help with your feelings about your body and any problems you have with laxatives.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-17-2004
Wed, 07-14-2004 - 3:19pm
I guess on some level I know that I won't just drop twenty pounds by taking laxatives, but I do hope that after I eat a meal, the food won't have so much of an affect on me if I take the laxatives. I just can't stand to throw up. And the thing is....I'm hardly eating at all anymore too. Some days I'll eat normal, but other days, like today I won't hardly eat a thing...just enough to keep me from passing out from hunger. And as sad as I know it is, I don't want to stop! I want to just get down to a desired weight and then deal with the problem from there. And I know I am going about this the complete wrong way...but I am already feeling better about myself...
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2004
Wed, 07-14-2004 - 3:27pm
ok just one more thing then...by the time the laxatives work, your body has already absorbed all the calories it could from the food. you're not getting rid of any calories, only water and nutrients and poo. that's why you'll never lose any real, lasting weight with laxatives.

i can't stand to throw up either. i also can't stand feeling hungry, dizzy, sick, weird, and all the other horrible feelings this stuff causes. that's why the only option left to me is recovering :)

i can relate to your idea that you'll get down to your desired weight, and THEN take care of whatever eating problems you have. i thought that too, for a long time. the problem with that plan is by the time you get to your original desired weight, you'll probably have a lower weight in mind, and you'll start going for that one. also you've given your eating problems plenty of time to get worse, along with your health, making it harder for anyone to help you. you've lowered your metabolism even more, making it more likely that you'll gain more weight when you recover.

please think about getting help and getting better now. but if you can't take any other step, at least try not to use the laxatives. they are going to bring you nothing but pain and trouble.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-14-2003
Wed, 07-14-2004 - 3:37pm
Yes, you are crazy... stop taking laxatives... they will MESS YOU UP. Do you want to have a coloscopy bag when you are 40? They ruin you system nad NO they don't help you lose weight... except for WATER WEIGHT!!!

Guess what, the food has to go through you no matter what... and if it goes through you, you are absorbing the calories... so taking a laxative doesn't make you lose weight, just water. ANd that is easily regained

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 3:41pm
Hey, let me give you some advice. Is it correctal you are taking? Well I have a long sorted history with correctal. i began casually using it in highschool. I would take some the night before a big date or event to make sure my stomach would be flat. After a while I was totally obsessed with it. I had to take more and more of them because I started building up a tolerance. I began throwing up too. I know what it is like, you start doing it as a quick fix. You know, too much pizza for lunch- a few pills tonight and it will be gone by morning. It would give my back the sense of control that I felt I had lost when I ate too much. It took forever for me to admit that I was bulimic because it was always the last time. You know tonight I'll do it but it is the last time. Well I last timed my way up to about 40 pills a day. That is about 13 times the maximum doseage. I could very easily have had a heart atack and died.-a few times- I am telling you this because you are on a very very slippery slope. you need to stop now and get to some kind of group or private counseling. You don't have to accept the way you look. You can lose wieght and tone up of you want. But do it the healthy way. This path could kill you. If it doesn't kill you it will ruin your life. I would cancel dates because I felt to fat to go or I would skip class because I couldn't get off of the toilet. I quit seeing friends and boyfriends and had to miss work and school. I ended up losing a job, breaking up wih my boyfriend and failing a semster of college before I finally drug myself to the doctors. Then it took an MD, nutritionist and therapist over two years to get me back on track. My periods are still not regular, I am still underwieght, I struggle with it everyday. My bones are brittle from nutrition depletment, at my worst I struggled to make it up a flight of stairs because I was so weak, and I might not be able to have children. My point is. Stop now before you lose control. Eating disorders control every asspect of your life. They give the illusion that you are in control but it is a lie. They control you. All my problems started at just 1 or two a week. You have to stop now and if you try to stop but just can't seem to then you need to tell some one and get professional help now.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-23-2004
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 4:23pm
I used to take rediculous amounts of fiber, and I mean rediculous amounts, but I've never abused actual laxitives. I just ate the fiber cause it totally filled me up on really few calories, but it did make me crap an awful lot.

Laxatives are really dangerous and you can get very addicted to them.

Meg

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 7:26pm

Hi Hon,


About 17 years ago I was hooked on Correctol. I used to take it occasionally for constipation issues from not eating right/enough.... well it soon turned to a daily pill.... I got dangerously thin and malnutritioned. Nowdays I do not take the laxatives BUT I do occasionally slip into malnutrition and my electrolytes get low.... my heart freaks out. I just had an appointment with a cardiologist today and he wants to do exploratory surgery..... I freaked out and said no, so he gave me some pills to take daily.... I looked up the side effects of the pills and they can be deadly dangerous if I get low on electrolytes... the saga spins....


Anyway, please take care of yourself... you don't want to be like me!

Hugs, Michelle


Whether or not you see it, there's a rainbow after every storm.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 9:11pm

Hi Sweetie,


I really can't add anything to what everybody has already told you but didn't want you to think that I don't care. I didn't get a chance to really post until now.


Laxatives ARE addictive, they WILL mess up your body, and you will NOT loose weight with them. What you are seeing right now is probably water loss due to dehydration. If you are truly overweight and NEED to loose weight, then a sensible food intake and sensible exercise will get you there.

Love & hugs, Kristina


The opinions I have expressed here are from my own experience and are not intended as medical advice or to take the place of your own physician's advice.

Love & hugs, Kristina