Eating disorder anyone?

[Pina colada]

I suffered from bulimia, even before I knew what it was.  I used food to comfort me and fill the void as I felt unloved and unlovable when i was younger.  My parents didn't have a good marriage, I was often ignored and emotionally I was left on my own.  I suffered  emotional abuse, teasing, name calling, etc. from an older sibling.  This behavior went on until my sib got married and moved out, and was never addressed.  As a teen I turned to binge/purge eating.

I am happy to say that in my twenties, I fell in love, got more control of myself, and out grew the unhealthy eating behaviors.

Just wondering if others suffered eating disorders because of a pwBPD in their life?

[eeks]

I'm sorry you went through that, that you were being abused by your sibling and it was not heard and addressed by your parents.  I have no experience with eating disorders, but it makes sense to me that a person might use food (nourishment) as a means of comfort, when emotional comfort (nourishment) was not available from your parents.

How did you learn to transfer the needs that you were trying to meet with food, to whatever the "real" need was for you, with respect to receiving comfort from others?  Was it just that you happened to meet someone who you fell in love with, and you realized this other experience of intimacy was possible, or was there more to it than that?

[Pina colada]

Hi eeks and thanks for replying.  I did use food as comfort and a substitute for love.  I knew something was wrong, but, did not know what it was.  I read fashion magazines and read about my disorder.  This happened after i graduated college and was working on myself.  I had made friends and my mom came to me, to work on our relationship!  I was lucky.  I was able to overcome my problem without deep therapy.  I never did "purge" by throwing up.  I binged and exercised and used diet pills to help me fast.  I actually bought a treadmill and exercising regularly helped me focus on eating "normal" and healthy!  The intimacy issues didn't resolve early on and I feel i am still a work in progress.  Mending relationship with my mom whom is deceased, forging awesome relationship with my uncle whom is deceased, having loving relationship with my brother, father and , on t and cousins helps too!  Unfortunately my sister has BPD but I am NC for my own peach of mind.  I am working on accepting that relationship never was and will never be.  It is sad... .

[rotiroti]

I've always had an unhealthy relationship with food - I love food and trying to new things in general, but there were definitely times I went to it for comfort. It definitely was at its worst following the b/u, I would binge and then would go running or cycling for hours on end... .which in turn pumped even more endorphins.

I'm glad you brought this subject up as it was something I had brought up with my therapist.

It's hard because it's so readily available and it is SO comforting... .but you know what? We've beat it before and I know that means we can beat it again if it were to come back.