How bad is it to purge once or twice a month

[Anonymous]

i used to have anorexia about 5 years ago and now I go though periods where I purge. its never more than 1000 calories once or twice a month.

i sort of don't think its a big deal to throw up once a month, can't be doing that much damage to your teeth, be that harmful to your health can it?

most people my age throw up was more than once a month from drinking ...

is there anyone with a medical background who has any advice?

[Anonymous]

Making yourself throw up is worse than throwing up from drinking as your body isn't prepared for it, meaning you don't have extra saliva etc to coat your teeth/oesphagus to protect them. Eventually it WILL have an effect on your teeth etc. Believe me I thought it wouldn't happen to me but after a while I had stripped most of my enamal off and had tons of cavities. Enamel never comes back and trust me you'll miss it because you'll get cavities etc like there's no tomorrow and which hurt like hell. I sometimes want to cry when I look at my teeth in the mirror.. they're a mixture of yellow and clear bits and in between the top and bottom front two is a cavity. Not pretty. I know you probably won't listen but please take my word for it and stop now before you wreck your teeth or worse.

[Asker]

how often how long did you purge for?

[Opinion Owner]

It started off just every once in a while and then it progressed to a few times a day over a maybe two week period then it stopped and started again in between periods of restricting. I think most of my damage came within a year of doing it because before that it was really sporadic eg a few times a year maybe

[beastman88]

well your stomach contains hydro chloric acid. every time you throw up your doing damage to your teeth, esophagus. even people who get really drunk and throw up are damaging these. I wouldn't ever purposefully throw up. its just down right silly to me. don't try to justify your behavior . that's like an alcoholic saying iam just going to have a beer. then the habit starts all over again. that's the truth no matter how harsh it seems.

[Anonymous]

It's not the health issues cause by the puking that's the problem. It's that you're trying to justify your purging by comparing it to people who drink and get wasted. By purging even once or twice, you're not really breaking the cycle of your eating disorder. You're basically just toning it down. Please don't :(