You may be familiar with well-known eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia, yet diabulimia is equally as life-threatening.
Diabulimia is a condition where a person with Type-1 diabetes allows themselves just enough insulin to function, yet not enough to stay hydrated and of a healthy weight. Diabulimics withhold and manipulate their insulin intake in a bid to lose weight.
It is this plight to stay thin that becomes the catalyst for a whole range of damaging health ramifications, including blindness, nerve disorders and kidney failure.
Sadly, 22-year-old Natalie Holborow succumb to diabulimia three years ago, when she limited her insulin intake to drop weight after being bullied through school.
She wrote on Facebook: “I was terribly affected by the bullying I went through in school and lost a massive amount of weight by skipping not only meals but cutting back on insulin, something which is life-threatening as a Type-1 diabetic,” she says.
“I was so far into my illness it was impossible for me to think rationally. I was blue with cold a lot of the time, losing my hair, hormones didn’t work and you can see in my eyes how sad and consumed by it I was.”
Fortunately, Holborow switched to an “insulin pump treatment” and has managed to reverse all of the physical damage diabulimia caused her body.
However, some people aren’t so lucky.
Lisa Day, a Type-1 diabetic who was diagnosed with anorexia when she was 14, suffered from a myriad of diabulimic-related health issues, including kidney damage and eye disease. Her psychiatrist treated her for an eating disorder when, in fact, the real problem was her insulin intake.
Day died in September last year.
Diabulimia is not widely recognised as an eating disorder, and can often go undiagnosed.
If you, or someone you know, is struggling with any kind of eating disorder, including diabulimia, book an appointment with your local GP.
