Bulimia Help

your face is beautiful. Don't worry. I have a naturally chubby face (see pic) plus I just got my wisdom teeth out, so I'm just a balloon with a face drawn on now. Be thankful for what you have.

When I stopped b/p'ing for a month, it took about 3 weeks for al swelling to go down. Some people takes longer or shorter time than others. Give it some more time. If it's really bad and is a concern, go to your doctor.

as we all no chipmunk cheeks are a sign of being bulimic... but i have learned that some people have faces that are more angular which makes their face seem slimmer then others. If your face bothers you a lot theirs ways to do your makeup using bronzer that can make it look more angular. I'm sure your beautiful the way you are though. Everyone is different :)

dont worry, this happens all the time, try to not to eat food that has a lot of sodium, sodioum retains a lot of water so drink water n work out. it'll go away. i dont think its that bad, make up will help :D

I can relate! Sometimes my cheeks look swollen and are sore, but I assume that is normal, seeing everyone elses' responses. Thank you for posting this because I have also had concerns about this. Hang in there!

thank you for encouraging, but will this EVER get back to normal if I just stop vomiting? and how long do I have to wait? :(

i will be honest with you. I had bulimia for a LONG time, and i have not been sick for 15 months. Swelling comes and goes for me, but my face has never been normal in these 15 months, also eating makes mine worse

I too have a swollen face right now, it makes me feel like I'm a pudgy twelve-year-old all over again :( but don't worry, if you had a less chubby looking face before you began binging and purging, it should return to that form again! as far as I know there is no way for b/ping to cause your face to permanently swell. hang in there!

my face is not so swollen as it used to be, but I've noticed when I eat solid food it swells again...what does this mean??:(

P.S. Sorry for asking so much questions about this problem but this really worries me and I need to know if this ever ends.

According to articles that I read online, people who go through the binge-purge cycle forces a lot of saliva production. Saliva glands are located mostly at the cheeks area so it gets swollen if you are constantly producing saliva, which is common for people who purge since they need alot more saliva than regular normal people.

Also, a lot of minerals are "wasted" while you binge/purge especially potassium, vitamin K, and sodium. That will contribute to bloating in almost all parts of the body. It takes time to recover, some people just weeks, but others may be years. I did notice that my cheeks are more swollen than it used to be about 8 years ago. Just give it time and accept for who you are physically at the moment. Focus all your energy not on how you look, but what you are doing to your body e.g. regular eating patterns, feeling full, and getting full recovery.

I hope that helped....

I have had a swollen neck area as well as my face. It just makes you look terrible, disproportional, and bloated. This is one of the main reasons I really wanted to discontinue the whole cycle.

Swelling in my face and neck/gland area started to decrease after about 1 week of not purging. It decreased significantly more after about 3-4 weeks. However - after even one purge, I would notice that the swelling would return. It was kind of superficial, but this was a motivator for me NOT to purge :)

This is probably different from person to person, but I thought I'd share my experience. Hope this helps :)

I had bit of a shock today when i saw a definite decrease in the amount of swelling in my neck and cheeks...its been 5 weeks or so since the last time I purged and i do notice that they swell up pretty quickly when I drink hot drinks. But this is so motivating for me ..its the 1st kind of visable sign of recovery! hang in there ..the swelling will go down.

I have the same problem as you. When i eat the swelling returns, some days worse than others. Though I have noticed that after 16 months of FULL recovery, not being sick once, that this is not as bad as it used to be. This is because your glands are so used to being overactive that when you eat again, they are stimulated once more. This just takes times to correct, depending on the duration and how much you purged.

I must have done some serious damage you know. But I do have good and bad days, i will have a couple of days of no swelling and then the swelling will return again. For no reason. Sometimes i think that even if i accidently regurgitate, this must cause the swollen glands. Anyone have any insight to this? I have read in many places that this can take anywhere from a few weeks to 2 years to correct. It looks like i pulled the short straw for that one!

What is important that you have now stopped and your body can have some time to heal and your glands should too

add me to msn for a chat

davehasamonkey@hotmail.co.uk

Hi there,

I've had a problem with swollen and infected parotid (salivary) glands for years now. If seems that if I've had a period of b+p, it takes a few days for my glands to show the swelling, and sometimes it seems like the swell up unprovoked (so frustrating!!!). I've had an ultrasound, and basically my salivary ducts are narrowed, probably from years of damage by bulimia, so the saliva has difficulty draining properly, remains in the gland too long, and can then become infected. I don't want to promote antibiotics, but if you notice signs of infection (feel drained, warm to touch, fever, gross taste in mouth) you may need them to get rid of the infection. I've been amazed by how different my face looks after a course of antibiotics. Unfortunately, if you are going to continue purging, it can become a cycle of killing the infection, seeing it occur again, and needing more antibiotics. Siggghhhh. At least it is a reminder that bulimia is so hard on every part of our body and is not ever going to be easy to live with.

Stay strong, we can do this, one day at a time. xoxo
Erin

Hi everyone,

I know exactly how self conscious we can be when our faces are all bloated from this. I think mine looks kind of like the Grinch - they are that bad! My parotid glands (the ones below your ears) are the ones that swell for me and it has tormented me. I couldn't even wear my hair up in a cute hairclip or anything because my glands would be oh-so visible to the world (I thought, anyway)!

This has become THE reason for me not to binge and purge. It's kind of like, I'm working on not making my glands swollen and as a side effect, my bulimia is getting better! Ha ha. So, one day I noticed my swelling had gone down and I VOWED to kick this thing's ASS. I have cut back my bp'ing to 1 time a day (hopefully I can reduce even more over time) and I massage my glands.

Seriously - massage them firmly, pressing in on them, making like a "grimace-face" and simultaneously pressing in them for 10-15 seconds at a time several times throughout the day has helped (not completely, but the improvement is significant). But I do know that cutting back or eliminating purging is the ONLY way to cure the swelling for me. Eating doesn't make them swell, really. It's the purging that does it.

It's a HUGE motivator to quit this thing- a vanity thing, really. I hope this helps others who might try this technique!!!!

newfoundpower i can relate! i have been struggling with this for just over two years, and i look at photos from back then and my face has completely changed. call it vanity - because it is - but hell, it's an absolute shock to see that it does actually take its toll. it puts your feet back on the ground and gets your head out of this fantasy world that lets you believe you can binge then magically get it out of your system with no consequences. i think i will use this as my main motivator from now on as i am beginning to get scared

I have the same problem. I recently bought a program online called the face fitness formula to get rid of your chubby cheeks. It has helped a bit. But just like everyone else, I know the real solution is stopping the bping.

Sometimes my feet get so swollen my shoes dont fit, my calves feel so tight and my face swells up so much that my eyes look like Ive cried for days on end. Some mornings I can barely open my eyes. I went to the docs about it once (it started about 5yrs ago) and he did absolutely nothing. I am on potassium supplements anyway but so far, I have found that certain foods aggrevate it. foods im addicted to as it goes, so its not easy to give up.

my face always tends to 'go down' (the swelling) at the weekends but my Monday the cycle starts again and by friday my whole body feels puffy and enormous....kinda kills my weekends as it makes me not want to go out and socialise if I feel huge and fat and uncomfortable. i wish it would go too.

hey guys, new to the site, wish i would've found it sooner.
i just went to the doctor for swollen/infected paratoid glands..

nobody outside the b/p world has even heard of the paratoid glands really, unless they've gone to medical school.
it's very comforting to know that other people out there know my struggle and what i'm going through, and that this is a real disease..
i need help, ive tried everything and i dont know what to do.
i need a friend :/

anyways, my swelling was so bad, it looked like a softball on the side of my face, with fever and the whole thing was red..
so embarrassing.

good luck to you all, i need some motivation :)