recovering bulimics?

Speaking from personal experience the only thing that helped me with the binging/addictions was time....and working through a lot of the emotional stuff and confidence issues behind why I did what I did with counselling and hypnotherapy. I was bulimic from about 14/15 until I was 24-ish and my binge/purge cycle was very much linked to heightened negative emotions (anxiety/fear/hurt/self-loathing/depression). and perceived failure I never even sought help for the bulimia specifically as I didn't see it as a problem because I didn't do it 'regularly' (never thought straight about it and at one point it even got competitive with a friend, when we were about 19/20 who also had an eating disorder). With the counselling for other stuff I sort of 'grew out of it' as my confidence improved.

I know that's not necessarily the same for everyone but that's what it was like for me.

My diary is open if you want to look at what I eat now. I don't binge anymore - I eat healthily and I try and exercise when I can.

I'm also trying to recover from bulimia
Eating enough healthy foods, lots of fiber and protein, helps me a bit.

Hi there (: I've been a diagnosed bulimic for six years, and although I'm not currently recovering or even trying to, I wish you all the best. I absolutely failed my recovery - why? Because I didn't understand what it was all about. Recovery = weight gain in my mind, so all I did was binge in order to gain weight, to try and please the people around me. I think the fact that you've made it through a month of recovery is absolutely amazing, and I have the utmost respect for you (:

You need to find alternatives to chocolate and junk food. I know it's hard and not as satisfying, but if you want sugar - go for sugars from fruit. Instead of chocolate, go for a low cal hot chocolate instead. It takes some serious will power to say no to cravings, and you'll need to kind of train yourself to like certain things.

I think the typical ways to stop binging revolve around keeping yourself really busy. There are ways to do this with exercise: e.g. feel a craving coming on, head to the gym instead of the kitchen. I know I used to knit a lot haha, whenever I wanted to run downstairs and throw myself into the fridge, I'd get into bed with some music and knitting, and just keep my hands busy.

The big thing with recovery is forgiveness, I think. Everyone's going to slip up, right? Even letting yourself have a treat or a one-off 'unhealthy' snack can make you feel really bad, but the trick is to let it happen once in a while. So you still crave chocolate - that's okay! Give yourself a weekly allowance maybe, or set up a system (and I know this is so dodgy because they always say don't reward yourself with food) where if you do a certain number of minutes of exercise a week, you get to have a chocolate bar. Be strict with yourself, but gentle (:

One thing that I've come down on, is not letting there be things that are (as my boyfriend calls them) "more-ish" into the house. Things that once they're open, you can go back for them - i.e. potato chips, peanuts, even things in jars (peanut butter is my downfall). I find that as soon as something's open, it's so difficult for me to say no and close it and put it back in the cupboard or fridge. If you like cookies, then go for the ones that are designed to go into kids lunch boxes - so there are mini packs. Don't buy family sized bars of chocolate. Go for smaller sized things. I don't know if you have much control over what food comes into your home, or if you even live at home, but when I'm back with my parents, they know that they can't have certain things in the house, and that makes it a lot easier for me. They ordered a pizza last night, and normally they order two and freeze the left overs, but because I'd binge on their left overs, they only ordered one so that they could finish it off and not put me in that situation (: Having other people know and help you out is surprisingly good.

Good luck, sorry for the long reply! Hope I was a little helpful, feel free to message me if you ever need anything (:

So much good advice from kritterxx ... don't really think I can add much apart from saying you CAN do it

I was severely bulimic for two years, b/ping multiple times a day, and now down to once a fortnight at the most.

The things that helped me the most.... seeing family and friends a lot, getting enough sleep, keeping 'trigger' foods OUT of the house, making sure I eat three good meals a day, and doing the things I love as much as possible to remind me of why I WANT to get better. Also I find it helps to plan and enjoy good, healthy meals, eat them sitting down and make the most of meal times, instead of eating on the go, snacking, picking at food, etc.

Good luck girl

i have anorexia, but also have the whole binge and purge cylcles too.