nausea, headaches, feeling hot& sometimes chest pain

[EmptySoul]

I have bulimic/anoretic tendencies(definitly not a full-blown disorder, it usually happens in stints, a week on, a few weeks off...) and an iron deficiency, but I don't think that really explains whatever's wrong with me.

 

Usually if I don't eat I get nauseas and get headaches etc. But now it seems that even if I eat I'm still feeling this way all the time. It's horrible because I'll feel sick for hours or even days and I keep having to eat when I'm not hungry to try to get it to go away. I was having just the horrible headaches for a while, now it's everything. I went to the doctor for the headaches, they didn't find anything, thought maybe it's migranes. A couple months ago after an anoretic/bulimic stint I couldn't stop feeling nauseas and I started having horrible leg, foot and back aches all of a sudden, so badly that I couldn't sit or stand still for more than a few seconds. It went on for 2 days and finally it got so bad that I had to go to the hospital. They didn't find anything, just gave me a shot for pain. Now, I haven't been throwing up/starving for a while, so I don't think it's that. Any ideas?

 

(Please don't lecture me on my ana/mia tendencies, I'm well aware that it can cause a lot of health problems and result in death.)

 

-E.

[arwen]

You ask us not to lecture, but the irregularity of your food intake is probably the cause of all you are experiencing. When you have longer periods of eating very little or nothing, your stomach gets smaller and your body goes into a slower mode, when you eat a lot more, and additionally throw up, your stomach will expand but also get used to the reflux, hence you get nauseated. I don't know what you mean by full blown, but to me that sounds like denial. Don't let it turn into a daily pattern of having such irregular intakes. It takes a lot of time and strength to get out of this, and I think honesty to your doctor or parents would be a good first step.

 

I am not saying this out of the blue, I was anorexic for three years and I know what it did to my body. Please be careful, you don't have a reserve body to live your life with. Why do you mess around with food? Do you have any idea of what might be the cause of this?

 

Take care,

 

Ilse

[EmptySoul]

I have depression. To me bulimia/anorexia are just something else that helps it all stop for a little while, like cutting.

 

-E.

[arwen]

I thought something to that extent. Focussing on food, not eating, or eating a lot can be as addictive and harmful as cutting yourself. I am sorry you feel so low, but there are ways out. Anxiety and depression can really be like a prison, keeping you from feeling alive. Things like cutting, drinking a lot, using drugs, starving, over eating, all are ways to not feel at all.

 

I have thought a lot about my depressions, and came to the conclusion that in fact, also depression and anxiety are ways to not feel. In fact, they themselves are not FEELINGS. They are a reaction to other feelings, like pain, anger, sadness, and yes, even happiness. Do you get some counselling for this? Because I think you should sometimes another perspective can really change the image you have about yourself. Do you know what things in your life attribute to you being depressed?

 

Not eating well can really affect your moods as well. Please don't read this as a lecture, it's not intended. I have to force myself to eating three healthy meals from time to time, even if I consider myself as recovered from anorexia. I have noticed over time that my schemes of eating infrequently and sleeping too short really aggrevated my depression. So whenever I enter the darker zones so to say, I start eating things that are easy to take in (it's hard to force yourself to eat potatoes if you really don't feel like eating). I take the smoothies or make them myself, eat yoghurt with grains and raisins, anything that has good nutrition and is easy to swallow. Keeping things as regular as possible, also sleep, makes the feelings of depression and anxiety easier to bare.

 

In addition, the things you chose as a way to not feel depressed are self-destructive by nature. Is there anything healthy that you would enjoy but that could also lift your mood? Even if it's temporary, because also starving/eating/cutting are temporary reliefs. For me, swimming and practising capoeira (Brazil martial art) has a good effect on my mood. It's somehow much more difficult to do positive things to change your feelings. Somehow, it's easier for a human to turn to selfdestructive behaviour, I still don't know why that is, but it may tell you something about the way you see yourself.

 

Hope this helped a bit,

 

Ilse

[BrokenWingedFaery]

Most likely what you're dealing with is related to the eating disorder. I highly suggest that you eat alittle bit each day if you can and work on keeping it down.

 

The worst thing, imo, about bulimia is that it comes back and bites you in the tail even years down the road. I haven't purged more than once or twice a week in about two years now and I still have days where my body goes "oh, **** food...must hurl". It's a crappy way to live and a terrible thing to have to deal with. I'm not trying to lecture, I just...I'd prefer to see you well.

 

ilse had a good idea, with the smoothies.

 

Also, take a multivitamin, if it doesn't irritate your stomach too much. Vitamin deficiency can cause some of your symptoms and your iron deficiency can cause a bunch of unpleasantness.

 

Please be careful with you.

[EmptySoul]

I've been to counselors, been in a mental hospital, and taken meds. None of it works, I'm just going to have to do it myself, and I'm working on it. Thanks for replying.

 

-E.

[BrokenWingedFaery]

If you wanna talk, and I promise not to lecture you, PM me. I've also got my email addy and AIM sn on my profile.