My opinion is if you have this, you need to seek help a.S.A.P! I do know that if you are a diabetic and if you do not eat that you can end up in a coma, in a hospital with tubes and i.V's., to me you would be playing with fire and totally messing with your health and could possibly end up brain dead. I am no Dr., but I work around diabetics and I have seen this happen, if you or someone you know is doing this get help!
Sincerely,
sandy

Thanks for the advice, i've only done it twice and it makes my heart race like crazy and makes me sleepy and thirsty and so on...I don't think I have diabulima because i'm not planning to ever doing it again. Ps. I have an eating disorder too.

Hi,

i have had diabulimia for 12 years. Please if you are thinking of continuing the behavior, dont! Easier said than done I know because I can't break the habit myself. I am only 30 years old an starting to really suffer the consequences.

Please tell me - what consequences are there? I've been omitting my insulin for days. I can lose up to 7 pounds in 2 days which is crazy. I want to lose about 20 more and then i'm plannning to stop. I am also very afraid of what could happen to me. I am only 17, still young and stupid but obsessed with losing weight. Can you please tell me more of your experience, how many days would u skip insulin and how much did u lose and how did u feel afterwards? Thanks alot

Some of the consequences that I have started to experience are decreased vision, neuropathy in my legs and feet, dka, abnormal heart beat, and chronic infections, the last one that I had in august spread so quickly that I had blood poisioning in a matter of hours and spent 9 days in icu. I had to have a port put into my chest with a tube that went into my heart so that after I left the hospital I could have iv antibiotics 3 times a day for 6 weeks. It was not fun. Telling you this in writing may not seem like a big deal, but it is! No one as young as you and I should have a port sticking out of them and a visiting nurse coming to see them everyday after work. Also, think of the costs. I have insurance but if I had not, I would be in the hole for $180,000 for the cost of that hospital stay.

I am not preaching because I still practice the behavior daily, I just don't want to se others go through the same thing. It starts out exciting because you lose weight so quickly, it feels like a high, but as the years go on it becomes an addiction. Sometimes you don't even want to do it but you feel almost obligated.

As far as how long I have gone without insulin, years at a time, it is a miracle that I am still alive. I have been in in-patient treatment for this eating disorder along with bulimia 3 times. I have been told that if I continue this behavior, there is no doubt that I will die a very early death, and it will be long, and painful with lots of suffering. Maybe you should think about that.

hi ive just heard about this disorder i would like to try this as im grosly over weight and had diabeatis for about 7 years im 37 years and male
being over weight kills you so would it matter and i take metformin if just taking metformin and a diat till you reach your weight target would this cause any complications then resume with insulin has any one tried this or any been on metformin and tried this what complications so please let us know
cheers dave

hi
am just wondering.... iv never not taken my insulin before an iv been a diabetic for 5 years but iv recently put on weight an i wanna lose it before i go on holiday, do u rekon if i dont take my insulin just once that il be alrite an will i even lose any weight? aswel do u put the weight straight back on agen wen u start takin the insulin?
thanks

You can research this on the internet. There are a few good sites and support groups. Here is one link
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art .asp?articlekey=81960
Take care!

I have been suffering with diabulima for years.I only heard of this disorder a few months ago.I've been lucky but can't stop doing it.Just yesterday I had a 1/2 cup of soup and did not take any insulin for 2 days.When you start to feel like crap you start taking your insulin again and gain some of the weight back.It's a vicious cycle and consumes your life.If you haven't started yet please don't put your energy into something else.

it's okay for everyone to say that a diabulimic needs help a.s.a.p but has anyone thought bout how hard it is to get help? i myself am i diabulimic and i have tried for 3 years to get help but there actually is no cure for it. Yes, you go to councilling and doctors give advice. but if you have a fear of weight gain no one can help you but yourself. You can't just go to family or friends and say "well, im just missing insulin shots to loose weight, help!!!" it's not that easy.

Oh gosh all you precious people, please don't ruin your lives over this deadly disease. My aunt had diabulimia and she was blind by the time she was 30, had both her legs amputated by the time she was 40, and dead of heart failure at 42. She was alone and living in assisted living because she couldn't care for herself. Nobody is going to care if you are thin if you are locked away and alone and having a government assisted care taker watch over you. I just found out my daughter is diabulimic so I have scheduled appointments with the Endocrinologist, a Nutritionist, and a Psychiatrist. I have changed my work hours and contacted other family members to make sure she is monitored 24 hours per day. She is 17 years old but I will dispense her insulin myself if I have to. And, yes, Mikki18, you can go to family and friends and say "well, I'm just missing insulin shots to lose weight, help!!!" Learn to respect the disease and you can live with diabetes.

Hi, just read everyones opinions -i myself concider myself to have diabulimia and its not a nice thing to have! i sometimes go a week without takin insulin, i feel soo ill sometimes but cannot help myself when i stand on the scales and im half a stone lighter, it even supresses my appitite so i hardly eat. it does come with the faults tho as my eyesight is starting to go, and im surprised nothing worse has happened. But the worst thing to me is when you do start taking it again and the weight thats took a few weeks to loose comes right back on within days sometimes with more weight so thats me back to square 1 with the insulin diet as i call it

Heys guys, I'm 29 years old and have had type 1 diabetes since I was 12. A few years ago I got into being diabulimic and put myself in the hospital twice with diabetic keytone acidosis. Diabulimia is when you don't take your insulin and continue to eat (or intake carbs or sugar). With no insulin your body has no way to use sugar for energy, so it gets energy from fat cells instead. This burns fat, and also screws your whole life up in the process. Losing weight for doing nothing is cool untill you end up in the hospital because your blood sugar is so high that your body starts to shut down (basically you go into a state of self attack through acidity) I lost vision in my left eye, have neuropathy, and MANY other screwed up repercussions from my diabulimia. You will not lose any weight if you skip one injection. I didn't take insulin for months and drank boose and ate what I wanted. PASSIVE SUICIDE! I lost 100 pounds and ended up semi-coma style! Basically you should eighther stop being diabulimic or quit pussyfooting around and just kill yourself today instead of drawing it out and suffering the effects of diabulimia. Sorry to sound so harsh, but if it sounds to good to be true than it probably is......duh!

I'm Clare, I'm 24yrs old am a type 1 diabetic and I spent all of my teenage yrs and up until 2 yrs ago struggling with eating disorders. When I was 18 my my ED developed into diabulimia and I rapidly became extremely unwell. I would often completely omit my insulin for 5 days at a time until I was on the verge of collapse and at that point I would inject just enough insulin to allow me to survive another few days.

Yes I lost lots of weight but it definately wasn't worth it. I was in constant pain, I was terrified to go to sleep incase I didn't wake up. I knew I needed to start taking my insulin again but I was so out of control that I couldn't, rather than lifesaving I began to regard insulin as the enemy and equated it to injecting fat straight into me. I had to drop out of university and spent months having intensive day patient and then inpatient treatment.

I was fully aware of all the potential complications but that didn't stop me. I was told that if I continued with that behaviour I probably wouldn't survive the year. But far worse than all of that is knowing that I've caused long term damage to my body and the ironic thing is that it's now that I am healthy and my diabetes well controlled that diabulimia is having repurcussions such as my worsened eyes sight, neuropathy in my feet, kidney pain whenever I am even slightly unwell.

I can however use my experience to do what I can to raise awareness and to support other people who have diabulimia and their family and friends. And I'd like to encourage people currently struggling by confirming that recovery is possible. It takes a lot of hard work and you will probably come across many obstacles along the way including professionals who have no idea how to treat diabulimia. One of the things I found most helpful was to take little steps forward rather than try to make big leaps and also breaking my day up intp hours rather than looking at a whole day at a time helped me to stay on track as each new hour was a new oppertunity to put things right.


Take care everyone.