Diabulimia: The World's Most Dangerous Eating Disorder

there's an eating disorder more dangerous to its sufferers than anorexia or bulimia it's an eating disorder with a chronic illness so you're trying to fight both on a daily basis and that's quite difficult to do most people haven't heard of it I just never wanted to hurt my family it's name is dire bulimia it's like the perfect diet gone wrong [Music] some work means right because I'm under Section and apparently I'm not I'm at risk myself thing yeah I don't know really think that's why Floyd to the back this way like all type 1 diabetics Gemma needs to constantly monitor her blood sugar levels and inject herself with insulin several times a day in order to live [Music] I've got my test there have test strips and then put it in it doesn't actually take long but it's just more of a head mind game and then blood out just about that day 4.3 but I'm not allowed my insane because I'm not allowed to inject it myself I don't know predictive not to entertain centers I don't know you can see whatever you want just and this way it's like two birds and ones don't know dyma Lima is an umbrella term that consists of three main features the first is that it only occurs in people type 1 diabetes secondly the people chart when diabetes have a fear that insulin causes weight gain and third that this field is so strong that it leads them to omit the amount of insulin they take in order to have weight loss if the person we type 1 diabetes does not take any insulin they will die very quickly daya bulimia is extremely dangerous and in some cases fatal a lack of awareness and healthcare services means help for sufferers in the UK is very scarce psychiatrist khalida Ismael runs a diabetes and eating disorders clinic which aims to break new grounds for this life-changing condition so would you like to just give me a bit of a summary of where you are now you know I'm quite a rational person you know I know I should be taking - there know exactly what it does and I know really what will happen if I don't take it but then I've just got this other voice being like it's much more important to be skinny do you still want to just give 2 units per meal aye and try to get into a routine I think that would be sensible I don't really want to try and take anymore but maybe if I could take 2 units with as many meals as possible you can look quite well and have a normal body size and yet because you're restricting insulin inside you you are running very high blood sugars and these high blood sugars are increasing your risk of getting diabetes complications such as damaging your eyes and going blind damaging your kidneys and eating kidney transplant or damaging your your nerve endings [Music] Nabila lives at home with her extended family she struggled with die bulimia for several years but has difficulty being honest with her parents about it well today's Eid and we've got my whole family here for the past month has been round and everyone's been fasting but I've been exempt from it because of the diabetes so I don't have to fast but everyone else has been keeping they've been without food and water for about 20 hours or so every day where I'm injecting my hand tends to shake usually especially once I've got the EpiPen close to my skin me being completely recovered would be me being able to inject on a daily basis without without the big cloud of depression or the big cloud of weight gain standing over my head a reason why in different cultures it's not really spoken about is because it's not admirable to have a mental illness or an eating disorder and if it's not spoken about in families then it's kind of just ignored and blocked away like it's not that [Music] with my diet bulimia you've got the added complications of what diabetes brings my eyesight has gotten worse I've been getting enough pains in my seat and my hands and fingers because that's where it tends to affect you the most I've also noticed slight kidney pain in my lower back I get dizzy easily I get migraines it's an eating disorder with a chronic illness so you're trying to fight both on a daily basis and that's quite difficult to do [Music] [Music] so the reason I walk with crutches at the moment is because of the damage that I've done to my feet but that's all due to not taking care of my insulin and my diabetic control the surgeon at the time was like yet you're born is actually like honeycomb and mush and it's it's kind of dissolving it and it's linked disintegrating so that's kind of hard to think that that's these things are going to be with me for life Becky's on her way to the eating disorder unit where she spent 16 months as an inpatient receiving treatment for her daya bulimia months so be strange seeing some of the the actual staff this is us at the community the front door is nerve-racking this as far as I'm aware the Eden unit is one of very few units in the UK which has been able to take on and treat people who are suffering from an eating disorder with type 1 diabetes this used to be one of the old rooms that I stayed in that was the first or second night that was in that one I got trooped because I wasn't able to physically eat I was just scared too but I didn't want to pull on the way.i you know I guess it's because I I knew fight eating something then I would have to take insulin with her and that was the last thing I wanted to do they say it is it's it is upsetting seeing them but it's a good reminder of wait I don't want to be I've seen you for ages and ages take a seat a year and a half then mrs. lund is that and at the time you came to us I think you got in touch with the danger of your condition and you were properly frightened unfortunately it wasn't too late you wanted help Becky has had three inpatient admissions with us the third and final admission that she had was very nearly faithful she only really got to us just about in time to put her through the very delicate refeeding process okay so we're just about to head into the kitchen and where their tricks start preparing for new afternoon snack I ended up on a compulsory treatment order I wasn't allowed to prick my finger on my own I wasn't allowed to take my insulin on my own and no form of medication on my own I always had to be with a member of staff but then when the time comes for you to actually be handed it to take your insulin that's the scary part she's like no I don't want it [Music] Gemma has been in a diabetes ward in King's College Hospital for weeks waiting to hear if any eating disorder units can give her a bed I'm shaking I'm trying to get a place in Athens or the unit inpatient it's just finding a bed because at the moment on any beds in like England and especially ones that know about diabetes and evening sort of back in August last year I was diagnosed with anorexia binge purge subtype and so it's like you either eat everything and make yourself sick or stop injecting in your insulin or just get rid of the calories in some way my observation is that these patients are falling between the Nets and as a result they're getting worse diabetes control they're increasing their risk of getting diabetes complications and other early mortality it's so boring that I've literally picked the tiniest drawing that's in the book so I can spend as much time just not thinking so that I've just color like that I'm not just literally wasting time this Harry Potter hunt there's nothing seven here and then comic one which is awesome oh my daughter stunts online that's her artwork yet home if my mom daughter my daughter's five years old this is to protect and I've got my daughter's name eBay so basically the line is protected now I think she has some sort of idea yeah it will affect her scene and she will no but that's why I'm here now that's the only reason I'm here like let's get better and prevent her from getting one because be like the worst thing in the world currently access to information and support for died bulimia is so hard to come by but for some it's too little too late [Music] this is Lisa's diary I feel so fat everyone looked at me today Lisa was 27 year old when she died janessa yeah [Music] yeah this is dress I think this dress is a size six and even then it needed taken in I think but naturally I would say she was a size of 10 to 12 her cheeks are really really red in this he said it's a sign of not taking your insulin for she in this one that was quite a recent one I think it was after Lisa died that I first heard about daya bulimia Lisa's story was posted on social media and reading a lot of the comments were a lot of comments a more I had this I don't even know if Lisa heard of that word before there's nothing that I'd ever had a conversation with her about anyway there's a series of pictures of her in the gym on here sending them to her friends yes it happened on the 7th of September this was taking on the 6:00 at 11:45 there's one for her on her birthday here and this was this is happily been her last birthday that she was arrived December 2014 she looks better on in that picture this is just something that we've she'd have had help with earlier and maybe like happened my parents now slight things with what I'm going through with the diet believe me with the skipping injections what they know is is that I'm skipping injections but they don't know they don't understand the mental health part of it but a part of me is too scared to tell them in person face to face because of their reactions yes okay so we're doing have you injected now 9 to go up and inject but I end up washing up instead it's very hard to understand what's going on in our mind really probably that she wishes never had diabetes you know she pushes she felt probably normal like other people without diabetes and I heard I should want to eat and drink and do things that other youngsters want to do but she's limited seasonable a told me his eating disorder because I really don't know eating disorder she's got this yeah hotae why because they usually shop for money that they have when I'm by root over dataset data - I hate Anabella insulin Jelena Nutella fetish for the fat lot on insulin Anya paper we never expected to think that 16 should be diagnosed with diabetes all these years you know she's grown up and then I was just before GCSEs she's diagnosed with type 1 diabetes we just changed everything yeah [Music] what are you thinking you wish you didn't have diabetes that were you thinking then were you thinking do you think by taking insulin you put on weight does that matter it gave me an imagined is that the main matter if insulin didn't make you gain weight you would you would take it what's the maximum you don't let them miss that on the maximum would probably be not taking at all for how long a couple of weeks not taking any incident at all for a couple of weeks Wow that's naughty hmm you didn't know she missed two weeks in the truck did you know I never told you sir never never told this yes well glasha told us now Libbie babes remember that always I'm forever okay [Music] take my insulin okay take sugar in front of mochi this up okay obvious my own Shinra liquid sugar okay [Music] whose choice excuse me Gemma has been a patient of mine for nearly nine months I would say that Germany is one of the most severe cases or eating disorders in type one diabetes so I'll tell you what the situation is at the moment is that there may be some there will not at the moment will accept you because you are perceived as too complex people with type 1 diabetes nation disorders who get this ill really do fall between hospital there's different types of hospitals the medical and the psychiatric yep there is a lack of care for people who've got diable emia in the UK i have heard of patients that have died whilst waiting to get the right care we're going to keep exploring trying to persuade these units I'm going to contact the diabetes teams attached to the UT Disorders unit to see if I could force where the diabetes teams to provide you the diabetes support was there an inpatient what is difficult is that a lot of diabetes teams may not necessarily have the expertise or the skill set to carry out the assessments and know how to ask patients about this problem and even when they do that the services do not exist neither does that all the research evidence exists as to how best to support these people apparently just clinics don't handle diabetes and eating soils very well so just careful wait a little bit longer and hope that a clinic will take a diabetic so disappointed Nabila has come to a meet-up in london for people in recovery from die bulimia the meetup has been organized by the only UK charity for sufferers of the condition um nervous I've never spoken to anyone else who's got this really not in person anyways I started diabetics with eating disorders as a charity in 2009 following the death of a friend of mine who passed away on an eating disorder ward surrounded by doctors who didn't really understand what was going on with her so how is everything going oh it's going ha ha it sucks technically die bulimia doesn't exist it's not in any of the big manuals that classified diseases when you're talking about insulin dimension they're not the common eating disorder symptoms they're more like body and body and shape concerns six years I was and there was a week I was just like I try to jet myself like I can't do it and they said because I thought it was basically like stop being so stupid and so from then on was like well there's no point in talking to anyone about this yeah the the pros for me were weight loss and not having to inject I'm eating whatever I want and not bring the way on so I could say it wasn't it this is why I don't know if it's an eating don't say eating disorder exactly because I can eat whatever I want I'm not looking at what I eat I'm just not injecting different the minute you get diabetes you're different you feel so isolated I did I didn't know anybody that had diabetes once you feel out of it once you filled connected from everyone around you it's really easy go on that downward slope and start doing something to yourself the issue with daya believe me are and the issue of eating disorders being looked at in terms of weight it doesn't work in this illness the second that you stop taking your insulin you're on the clock you're in a same amount of danger regardless of what your way is if you're not taking your insulin yeah agent why not showing up on your dating profile I'm 90 percent area your personal sites in the city is great to meet you guys too that's fine it wasn't what I was expecting it was really informal and I enjoyed it a lot I'm glad I came it makes a big difference when it comes from someone who's been in your place and you can see their recovery because they can understand in a way that other people con [Music] now that Becky's in recovery she's injecting her insulin regularly and working on improving the physical disabilities that her died bulimia has left her with every time I come into the gym I have to just check my blood Sugar's to make sure that I'm in a safe place to actually carry on and with an exercise routine so what I'm doing is I've just tricks my finger all I need to do is just soak up a little bit of blood so I'm at eleven point eleven which is great for going into the gym so it's telling me I need to take two units and all my insulin is just in here and then you count for ten seconds release and out and that's it done I take every day as they come because I I don't know how I'm gonna wake up in the morning it's the minute you wake up using blood sugars you can't you don't get a day off every day is all about numbers and it's all about numbers with an eating disorder as well so there's double the amount of numbers flying around in your head I would tell recommend to anybody don't muck around with your insulin don't do it's a dangerous game to start and when she starts it you kind of get obsessed with it and there's no point risking your own life you really light you off I think to get our range of movement back in my feet so that walking is actually going to be easier so that I could actually go and do things I enjoy like going on a bike or I don't know going dancing like I used to that'll be amazing but little steps [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: BBC Three

Views: 7,729,091

Keywords: diabulimia, documentary, insulin, weight loss, eating disorder, story, bbc three, bbc3, bbc 3, diabetes, type 1, anorexia, mental health

Id: tSLjM6cZaTo

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2017