# Hiding Bulimia **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2006, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488 "2006-12-17T08:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/21 "2006-12-20T02:11:10Z")
I sure have- he can wake the dead when he’s sick. He just grinned sheepishly and said he was trying to see if his shoes could come up! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/22 "2006-12-20T02:57:07Z")
Gawd, I could never be a bulimic. I hate throwing up so very much. I don’t even do it very well, and I have to take a long hot shower afterwards, and I usually cry from the trauma. Not to mention the red eyes and the horrid mouth-stench that brushing your teeth five times doesn’t seem to cure. What an awful thing to feel compelled to inflict upon oneself. Although I’d love to be thin, I wouldn’t want that. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@TheBoneyKingofNowhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoneyKingofNowhere)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/23 "2006-12-20T15:34:11Z")
[QUOTE=myskepticsight] **CatfishFillet** - have you tried treatment? Bulimia can be extremely dangerous - vomiting regularly upsets a lot of body systems. It’s very serious and I recommend getting help. [/QUOTE] Yeah, wow. Reading that made me cringe. Sounded like my ex-girlfriend. Needless to say, that didn’t work out. She wouldn’t address it. Eventually, her posture even changed (became hunched over in her early 20’s). There’s no real way to hide it “forever” (which might not be a very long time). ---
**Author:** ![ywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/49beb7/32.png) [@ywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ywine)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/24 "2006-12-21T00:45:30Z")
I had a bulemic girlfriend once. She was very appealing, both sexually and to my fatherly side (you know, appealingly vulnerable). One time we went to a restaurant and, on the way back to the car I noticed she was quietly dropping food out of her mouth while walking beside me, down the street. I said ‘Hey, you’re throwing up.’ She stopped and said, ‘Oh yes, so I was. I hadn’t noticed.’ ---
**Author:** ![ywine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/49beb7/32.png) [@ywine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ywine)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/25 "2006-12-21T00:49:30Z")
[QUOTE=ywine] I had a bulemic girlfriend once. She was very appealing, both sexually and to my fatherly side (you know, appealingly vulnerable). One time we went to a restaurant and, on the way back to the car I noticed she was quietly dropping food out of her mouth while walking beside me, down the street. I said ‘Hey, you’re throwing up.’ She stopped and said, ‘Oh yes, so I was. I hadn’t noticed.’ [/QUOTE] BTW I knew she was bulemic. We were living with it. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/26 "2006-12-22T13:00:08Z")
[QUOTE=myskepticsight] **CatfishFillet** - have you tried treatment? Bulimia can be extremely dangerous - vomiting regularly upsets a lot of body systems. It’s very serious and I recommend getting help. [/QUOTE] I too am very concerned by your post, CatfishFillet. Forcing yourself to vomit can cause electrolyte imbalances or nasty esophagus hemorrhages that could end up killing you. I hope that you will consider getting treatment before your boyfriend finds out about your condition because something bad happens to you. There is a website here with some suggestions that may be helpful on what the first steps to recovery are: [http://www.something-fishy.org/reach/reachingin.php](http://www.something-fishy.org/reach/reachingin.php) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/27 "2006-12-22T13:30:16Z")
My younger sister (I have no contact with her) has been very bulemic most of her life. I first realized it when she would excuse herself twice to go to the ladies room whenever we ate out. Then she complained that her teeth were eroding. She use to go out, stuff her face, then go back to her car, down a lot of vodka, lean out and throw up. One day when she was doing this a car hit her and she almost lost her arm. I don’t know if she is still bulimic. She had tons of other problems, and I finally had to cut off all contact with her. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/28 "2006-12-22T14:45:04Z")
I am not bulimic, but also throw-up pretty neatly. If it’s realted to something like food poisoning then yes, it hurts a little more than if it was morning sickness, but you usually can’t tell that I have puked. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_Schmeese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Marconi\_Schmeese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_Schmeese)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/29 "2006-12-23T19:51:11Z")
I was bulimic for years and yes, it’s easy to hide. I knew things were going awry when I started throwing up in public places and one time I threw up blood. Yay me! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/30 "2006-12-23T23:24:20Z")
I find it interesting that the two sufferers of bulimia both have food-related user names (even if \*\*Marconi and Schmeese \*\* is a pun). I hope you both are getting the help you need. ---
**Author:** ![Cartigan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Cartigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartigan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488/31 "2006-12-25T03:29:26Z")
My friend has HIV and he is on the cocktail drugs, and we went thru yoga classes to help him control his nausea and he actually can vomit on command now. Vomiting is not 100% automatic, you have some slight control over it, especially after you’ve done it enough. He has learned when and how to eat and not to throw up till he is home and in the right place. So it’s possible to control it "somewhat’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiding-bulimia/384488.md?page=1)