I was bulimic for over ten years & the answer to your question changed every day, maybe even every meal. I would binge&purge when I felt...Fat sad angry lonely happy bored excited hungry full jealous scared safe...Any emotion, or even just emotionless depression, was an excuse. After a few years I didn't even know how to eat a normal meal anymore, I would just automatically throw up anything I ate. The bad news is that this wasted so much of my young life (along with lots of money) & landed me in the hospital on a feeding tube. The good news is that I am no longer bulimic ~ not only do I no longer binge and purge, but I don't even want to or wish I could. Sure, I still have those emotions, but now I know that food is not the solution. You can recover too. It takes time & patience & lots of work, but you don't have to stay in that hell. Please try to get help & help yourself as soon a s you can. Believe me, life is so much better without bingeing!!!


Oh, & feel free to email me if you want more support privately.Good luck!!!!

Hey well the reasons I binge and purge change too but there r some consistent triggers for me.
-feeling lonely
-feeling insecure
-inadequate
-horny
-alone
-bored
-seeing someone eat less than me
-not being the best

For me im still not 100% sure what the reason is. I know what the most of it is and that is the feeling of being not good enough...Etc.

For me it's because I feel fat, or i've binged because I was depressed, or stressed, or both, or because I feel like i'm not good enough and that's my way of self punishment..

I started to binge/purge when I had overeaten, so that would be my number one reason - overeating or eating things that I didn't want to.
Then, because of that, i'd feel fat, sad, angry with myself, stressed, depressed and felt like I was the worst person in the whole world. Those became reasons for me to do that.
But, then again, it just became a parte of my routine, either I felt bored, excited, if I missed the gym, if I could fit in a small size, etc.
It'd would be a way, as some of you referred, of self-punishment.

I have had an eating disorder for as long as I can remember. I was an elite level gymnast when I was younger, and as you all probably know, the coaches encouraged us to be as skinny and unhealthy as possible (in not so many words of course). I used to just barely eat anything, but it was hard. I thought about it 24 hours a day, I was always tired, and always hungry. I knew I couldn't keep up that way of life for long. One day my roommate mentioned that she would throw up on purpose when she drank too much alcohol. One thing led to the next, and I thought how cool it would be if I could eat something and then throw it up. Pretty soon I was eating on purpose and throwing up on purpose. I think the whole reason I started binging and purging resulted from a lifetime of literally starving. By the time the novelty of the whole thing had worn off, my new way of life had become habit. I tried to quit, but it's like smoking or taking a drug...It's near to impossible to just up and quit. So my long-winded answer to the question would be: first out of habit, and second from any emotion whatsoever (happy, sad, lonely, excited, bored, tired, you name it). Glad to know i'm not alone in the quest to be healthy!!!

Nope, you are not alone.
But quitting is possible, this is my 16th zero-day in a row again if I make it! \o/ the best i've done was a 17, but then I threw it away. But i'm confident that i'll make it again or maybe more days!

Ashgracie, you can also do it :) **