I'm a former bulimic myself and it's a horrible, horrible addiction.
I realized I was an anorexic, a bulimic, and a compulsive overeater.
I had really bad polyps on my vocal cords, and I've had them since I was a kid, but the bulimia made it 10 times worse. They were bleeding constantly, and it was straining on my voice. And just the lack of nutrition - my vocal cords couldn't keep up because I was so unhealthy.
There's a brain chemistry - the floatiness and the disassociation and all the things that came with starving - I became addicted to.
That went on for a long time: telling various tales from my experience being anorexic and bulimic, and having people say, 'You've got to write this; you are a writer,' and me not knowing how to approach the material.
I was my thinnest when doing 35 fashion shows a week in different countries because I didn't have time to eat. I've never bought the idea that models in fashion magazines cause readers to have anorexia and bulimia. And you can't be a model if you've got those conditions anyway, because you'll get acne and hair all over your body.
I always felt that anorexia was the form of breakdown most readily available to adolescent girls.
I like to play pranks on my girlfriend, you know, keep things fresh for me, make me laugh, you know? She hates it. But like, the other night, I put Saran wrap over the toilet seat, you know, which doesn't sound that original, but she's bulimic.
What's the difference between bulimics and anorexics?" I ask. "Anorexics are anorexics all the time," she says, "I'm only bulimic when I'm throwing up." Wow. She sounds just like my dad! "I'm only an alcoholic when I get drunk." There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. Penelope gorges on her pain and then throws it up and flushes it away. My dad drinks his pain away. (107)
I used to binge-eat and make myself throw up. I was a fat kid. Obviously I didn't quite master the bulimia.
While Jane Fonda has no shortage of knowledge to share, I was particularly moved and fascinated by her recovery from bulimia, which she battled with for over 25 years.
I have permanent damage to my body because I wanted to be thin.
For the longest time, Indian women have been okay with being curvy. But I think the modern Indian woman needs to get toned. I don't endorse being thin. Anorexia and bulimia are a reality in India because everybody wants to be thin.
I went through this difficult time [in the 1984] when we were making our third record where I kind of lost my mind. That's when the bulimia kicked in. And that's when I got really freaky.
I was in my mid-40s. I was a bulimic, and I realized if I continue with this addiction of mine, I will not be able to continue doing my life. The older you get the more damage it does; it takes longer to recover from a binge. And it was very hard.
I had bulimia for a few years. I was really sick. I don't know that person; I can't believe that was me.
When they took TV to Fiji they found that after 3 years nearly 12 girls out of 100 were over the toilet bowls with bulimia because they felt inferior.
I've decided that perhaps I'm bulimic and just keep forgetting to purge.
Weight was the thing I hyperfocused on. It went from me losing a few pounds to slowly over time losing more and more weight and becoming more and more focused on it.
I think I look very healthy. You've already seen what I've eaten, so I couldn't be anorexic, and I wouldn't throw up if you paid me $1,000, so I'm not bulimic. Okay, for $1,000 I would stick my finger down my throat, but throwing up is the worst thing in the world.
Sooner or later even the most ambitious glutton must crawl away and seek the solace of the vomitorium.
And dieting, I discovered, was another form of disordered eating, just as anorexia and bulimia similarly disrupt the natural order of eating. "Ordered" eating is the practice of eating when you are hungry and ceasing to eat when your brain sends the signal that your stomach is full. ... All people who live their lives on a diet are suffering. If you can accept your natural body weight and not force it to beneath your body's natural, healthy weight, then you can live your life free of dieting, of restriction, of feeling guilty every time you eat a slice of your kid's birthday cake.
I used to get drunk every night until I puked. Finally I admitted, "I am a bulemic".
While I was never diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia at the time, I've learned that starving myself and bingeing means I had both.
I mean, we all know the dangers of starving, but bulimia? That can't be that bad. It's only bad when you get really thin. Who worries about bulimics? They're just gross.
