What Bulimia Taught Me. | Susannah Laing | TEDxCumbernauldWomen 

This shook me to my core. Thank you for being brutally honest and sharing the horrid experience that is bulimia. As a bulimic myself I think there needs to be more representation like this in the media. Eating disorders aren't pretty little stick thin girls who say no to dinner. Not all the time.

They burned off precancerous cells off my esophagus 3 times from 22yrs of bulimia. I'm still throwing up and I need to treat this addiction like alcoholism. Day 1 is tomorrow ♥️

Thank you for sharing this. As a male who is struggling with bullemia for years your story hit home. Sometimes i don't know how to handle emotional pain and throwing up is an easy way. I wish i could fully escape the obsession with my weight and my body image. It's hard a journey.

Lady with eating disorder here. Have been a binge eater since age 11, started throwing up at 16. I'm 35 now. I want those who have a partner with an eating order to know this. We wish someone would say: I accept you. Instead of, I understand, just run, eat that, do this. We want help and help isn't advice. Help is keeping an eye and helping us not be stressed, saying things to boost our low self-esteem. Takes a lot of tactical thought and consideration but that's what is best. You might not mean to trigger your partner by losing weight or gaining weight yourself, let them know you love them the way they are and they need you to love you the way you are. Encouragement, checking in, acceptance is best.

Thank you ❤ Im struggling with Bulimia right now and this really hit home.

This video saved me today. I watched a lot and I’m struggling bad with bulimia and I hide it. I was in an abusive relationship and all my friends left me and I turned to food for my comfort and funny as it sounds my friend. I’m trying so hard to stop.

I watched a bunch (as much as I could find) of videos about eating disorders but this one.. I cried a lot. The thing about telling the truth to mom? I would also say that it was the scariest thing I have done in my life. The salad that is impossible to digest - so true and I thought I am the crazy one for saying I cannot eat certain food bc my stomach can't digest it. Everything what was said in this video is relatable. Really amazing job. Plus after watching it I decided to go to a therapy (for the second time).. Thank you.

The “putting on a performance” and “not truly being yourself” resonates so much!

I thank you Susannah Laing for motivating my daughter when thing went really had for her. It was really so bad that she attempted committing murder until you invited Mrs Lyra Holt Dean for your TED show program. Am really so grateful for her finical assistance in my daughters life thank you so much once again.

Wow, thank you for this. I have been struggling with bulimia for a year now- and I can relate to every single one of your stories. The fake phone calls at the supermarket- I did that too many times. Feels kind of good to not be the only one, so thank you for sharing these intimate details about your illness, it gives a lot of hope to a lot of us.

this literally was the most amazing thing, you're so brave. Thank you for sharing, you've impacted my life so postively

Thanks for the guidance to help my bulimic friends.

"It hasn't taken years from me. It has given me years. Years that now I look forward to". Very powerful.

You’re an amazing person, thanks for sharing your story ❤️

Thank you for being so honest and open. It was very brave. x

Thank you for sharing this and so well shared. Turning your pain into beauty for others. You’re a gift 🌹

This is such a powerful talk. Thank you so much for sharing. 👏🙏♥️

Thank you so much for sharing! This gives me so much hope that i can get out of this- even after 15 years

Wonderful TEDx talk Susannah, thank you for your honesty about your recovery from bulimia. This will help you but so many others too xx

Absolutely the most truthful Ted talk or shared post... u r just great n I wished u would explain more about the healing method, as I'm suffering the same and in my location, there r not eating disorder therapies and so on

thank you so much. I felt your emotions and strength throughout the video.

I was crying while listening to you ... thank you ❤

Sending you so much love. Thanks for sharing

Well done susie it was raw, vulnerable but courageous and brave ur light shines from your soul 🌸🌺🦋

I loved it. Everything you said. Word for word. Down to the phone call at the checkout counter to the binging and purging in the parking lot. I haven’t talked about this for years. Thank you for sharing something so painful and so personal. I didn’t understand it at all. I thought it was about vanity but that wasn’t it. One of the most painful periods of my life.

I am so shook. I don't know what to say right now because of what all it has brought up but thank you. You made this girl feel less alone,more understood and gave her hope.

Thank you for sharing your story. 💕😭

you are amazing.... so much love!!!!

Thank you for sharing xoxo

As someone who struggled w/ both Anorexia & Bulimia you are incredibly brave to share your story. My eating disorder taught me how to lie too. I became a cunning mastermind to keep the cycle going & to keep it a secret. You are a beautiful person and everything you are saying is so dead on it all hit's home girl thank you for sharing this

I respect your bravery in telling your story , I know that it is one of the most difficult things to do. Keep strong, Choose life, don't give up hope.

Courageous woman. I loved listening to this woman. 110% honest. Super super talk.

Thanks for sharing. That took alot of courage.

This helped me so much struggling too

So grateful that I found this video. I had a very similar experience growing up in intensive sport and have recently awakened to the connection between those early life experiences and my experience with bulimia. The shame and manipulation is so real and opening up this discourse is saving so many lives. Thank you

What a beautiful video. Thank you for your heartfelt transparency, and for sharing your experience. I appreciate the wise words, sincere honesty. This was a true blessing to me, today. May God bless you, and I hope you’re doing well.

So emotional, yet inspiring. Thank you so much.

Finding your video Susannah has been a very important piece of my journey. You're saying those things for me that I am not quite ready to say yet (I've been sending you around to my closest friends and family). Thank you so much. One day I hope to be where you are. Getting there one day at a time thanks to people like you xxx

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope I can live to share mine in the future too. Finding educational content or personal stories on Bulimia compared to anorexia is so hard. It's the shameful feeling that comes along with it. I promise to share my story at some point for others that might be in the same situation as me..

Thank you

I can’t believe that my first search for ‘bulimia’ on RU-vid gave me a Cumbernauld result ... 1 mile from where I live. This is such a similar experience for me. I wonder if geography affects EDs thank you for your bravery x

such an important topic

Amazing, Susannah, amazing! Best regards, Brandon in Sherman Oaks.

This video inspires me!

Incredible. Thank you SO much for sharing your journey!

Truth is there's so much we don't know going with people around us. Am 34 this year and honestly, didn't know till earlier this year about Bulimia. I thought it was just people making bad choices. Many thanks Suzanah for voicing out and teaching us how to reach out and help people in the struggle. Much love ❤ ❤

I must say though - I would NEVER use a trolley I’d have small baskets multiple times from multiple shops . Just shows you how damaging this disease is

Much love to everyone

I relate so much to the shopping centre thing. I suffer from anorexia binge purge subtype. I'll go days, sometimes weeks restricting hard and then spend several days just binging and purging. I remember one time the shopping cashier is self serve said "wow, shopping for healthy food hey". That moment destroyed me. It was so humiliating. I blamed it on my brother, saying I was buying it for him. I will never forget that moment

Oh my GOD thank you so much for mentioning that salads are hard to digest! Veges took the longest time for my body to be able to eat without serious discomfort!

Very honest. I was bullimic in my 20's and combined with bingeing and throwing up I did large amounts of exercise to keep my weight down. Now i'm almost 70 and I must say the benefit of bulimia is when its over you develop such disinterest in food and I'm still superfit and very healthy.

I first struggled with anorexia and was hospitalized and during weight restoration I developed bullimia . I binged and was horrified at what I just ate and how much and was determined to restore control and bought a whole box of laxatives and took half a box and threw up once a whole lot. I was in the bathroom all night until I was completely empty then next day even though I was very weak I decided that I had to exercise hard for 3 hours during the next day and only eat like 1000 calories. This happened several times a day and became more frequent during times of stress. Two really bad things that happened too me because my eating disorders is iam now wearing dentures cause my teeth were too damaged, I have bone loss, chronic iron deficiency, possible thyroid issues in that my thyroid is running really high. My eating disorders caused me permanent damage and ofcourse I regret it but staying in that negative space will not benefit me in any way. I chose to be grateful that those same eating disorders did not kill me. Thank you for sharing ur story , I hope it helps someone not go down the path we have taken with ur eating disorders. I wish u recovery and good health.

My mom thought I was going through this because I was losing weight so fast from intense exercising so I had to see what bulimia was.

I’m always high and always thinking about food and purging. I told my boyfriend of 2 years the truth today about what’s happening to me and I’m looking for help.

ty for sharing ur story ive been fighting this for yr seens i was a young teen till today im 54 i eat and then feel sick cause what i eat n had to go get rid of it. i do good for a month or 2 but it keeps coming back

I don’t know if I’m the only one who felt this way, but a lot of times I would want to throw up in a stressful situation. I don’t have bulimia and never did but I have had concerning signs of it. A lot of times when I have so much anxiety I want to throw up because I get nauseous and then if something goes wrong and I feel worthless I feel like going to the bathroom and vomiting. I also get so unappetizing when I think of food sometimes and I would wanna throw up. I liked this guy I knew somewhere and because of the rejection i felt from him it made me get these thoughts of throwing up and punishing myself because I felt I wasn’t good enough. Don’t know if anyone can relate to that, but that’s what I thought. Or I would hear sounds of throwing up in my head because of it

I'm on this cycle for 5 years now, im 28 years old, and how can someone so grown struggles with this?? And i especially feel that this thought sinks me even more... I'm soo so tired of this, i'm binging and purging 3 to 4 times a week now. I feel so trapped, so lost, i dont know what to do!! What should i do?? I'm feel so lost in myself.

I hate this life so much 😓

You made me remember that I was told to watch my weight also when I was very young and it became my focus for life tragically I’m sorry to say because it’s a sad story really sad that our pool that was happening when I was thinking about was watching my weight in actuality I had developed eating disorders and had all three varieties bulimia anorexia and compulsive overeating nouns I am 67 I am suffering in my body the ways that these disorders took a toll on my physical body they have very real effects that are very serious I have heart disease no teeth my left hip is seared and feels as though it’s broken all the time but it’s really a fact that I was focused and could not take the focus off watching my weight when you’re with so many other really interesting things going on in life

I'm struggling with the same. I've stop now for 2 weeeks with just one set back.

I want someone to help each other to be recovered from bullimia 😭 😭 😭 😭. Im struggling

I don't know if i'm bulimic. I feel none of what she has gone through. I have no psychological dilemma about it. I have neither guilt nor shame. I never had the need to kill myself either. It's just that when i eat, i eat a big portion and then feel uncomfortable afterwards. So i throw it up. It has become a habit. I don't binge eat. I eat once a day. But i eat a big portion..and then throw it up. Am i bulimic?

I ruined my teeth and now I am stressed on how to get it treated. Please help if someone knows how to get dental treatment at low cost.

💖💖💖💖💖

Im surprised, how does someone purge so many times a day? and in a car? this is the first time ive heard of it like this. i wouldnt be able to purge in a car, and would probably die if I did it even 6 times a day.

I thought I was just weird...

I need help the struggles are REAL! This is a spiritual WARFARE

You wouldn’t give a baby a salad. …I’ve never thought about that.

I also have bulmmia

Sensodyne Repair and Protect with Whitening is the treatment of Bulimia.

this needed a trigger warning plz thx 😓😖💀

Just my simple opinion but I would say this "eating disorder" thing is sure a first-world problem. I'm sorry, but personally I think it's just selfish, gluttonous and wasteful... I grew up poor so food wasn't something you played with.

Thank you so much for your vulnerability and for sharing your story. Eating disorders cause so much shame and it’s so helpful to hear how other people found their way to recovery. The pandemic made me realize I’m not recovered like I thought which is frustrating but your story gives me hope ❤️‍🩹

Iya ya Allah.