by Andrea Roe

Many people with an eating disorder abuse laxatives

I struggled with an eating disorder for six long years and also abused laxatives during this time. I was addicted to them. For the longest time, I could not even imagine my life without them. I knew they did not help me lose weight, but somehow they were reassuring. Whenever I binged, I felt so ‘full’, ‘stuffed’ and ‘dirty’, and I used laxatives in order to feel ‘clean’, ‘pure’ and ‘empty’ again. I was obsessed with getting food out of my system as quickly as possible. Even though I was bulimic, I never threw up. I used other purging behaviors and laxative abuse was one of them.

I abused my body for many years with binging, fasting, over exercising, and laxative abuse. I don't even want to think about all that I have done to my body. To be honest, I consider myself lucky that I am still alive. Today, I am recovered and healthy. I am thankful for my body and I am grateful that it has not given up on me after so many years of severe abuse. I don’t take laxatives anymore. I am proof that it IS possible to get off of them.

Laxatives do NOT make you lose weight

Laxatives are not a way to control or lose weight. They do not remove food from your body before the calories are absorbed. The belief that laxatives are a way for losing weight is not true. It is simply a myth.

Laxatives remove a lot of water from your body, and this ‘water loss’ is often mistaken for ‘weight loss’. Your body not only loses a lot of water, which causes dehydration, it also loses essential minerals and electrolytes– and the mineral and electrolyte balance of your body gets upset. Electrolytes such as potassium, sodium, and magnesium are essential for your body. An electrolyte imbalance in the body is harmful and can lead to muscle pain, spasms, fainting spells, irregular heartbeat, and in some cases even death.

Laxatives are physically addictive. Over time your bowels forget how to work on their own.

Laxatives artificially stimulate nerve endings in your large bowel, which is also called the colon. Long term laxative abuse can damage your colon and eventually your colon may fail to function which causes constipation. Laxative abuse can lead to permanent damage of your bowels.

Laxative abuse is harmful for your body.

Using laxatives is harmful for your body and, using them, you put your health and also your life in danger.

Laxative abuse not only causes electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, and constipation, it can also cause severe abdominal pain, nausea, colon infection, irritable bowel syndrome, internal organ damage, and even death.

If you have any specific questions, please get in touch with your doctor.