Laxative dependency

[szczepak]

I have been taking from 12-30 laxatives a day for about a week now, and I saw recently that you can become addicted to laxatives.
How is this?  Is it like a nicotine addiction, or does your colon stop working without laxatives?

[Patricia Pitts, PhD]

Dear szczepak,

Laxative abuse is extremely difficult to treat.  Taking such extreme doses of laxatives can easily set you up for continual use.  It’s better to stay as far away from laxatives as you can.

Laxative abuse can cause permanent damage to your kidneys, liver and colon function.  Because laxatives work on the colon and not the stomach all but 12% of the calories ingested are excreted with laxative use.  In addition, laxative abuse can cause dehydration, electrolyte imbalances (causing arrhythmias and heart attack), bloating, gas, severe abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea, vomiting and nausea.  

For more information on eating disorders, visit the bella vita website.

Best,

Dr. Patricia Pitts
The Bella Vita
Los Angeles, CA
Woodland Hills, CA

[kerryberry17]

All i gotta say is STOP THAT THIS INSTANCE!!!! It is not good for you at all!

If you abuse laxatives, your rectal muscles become lax and you may not be capaple of having a bowel movement on your own lacking help. You can also hold electrolyte imbalance from pulling too much fluid out of our system. If you keep taking laxitives, you will train your body to depend on them. Also, laxatives can cause very bad dehydration because pretty much all fluids you take in leave your body when you use laxatives.
Also, are you just taking them to loose weight? If you are, then chances are you have an eating disorder and need to seek help.
As for being addicted to laxatives, i don't know if you can get addicted. Who wants to poop all the time?

[pink2385]

You can definitely become addicted to laxatives, just like bulimics become addicted to purging. When becoming addicted, most people tell themselves oh ill only use it once..., or just a few more times..., or this will be the very last time...
So it's not like a nicotine addiction, which is a physical element. It's more like an emotional addiction.

[shlee1016]

It's true that there is a mental addiction, but there can most definitely be a physical addiction. Yes, your body can become dependent on laxatives and you will have to have them in order for things to "work" you know? I definitely suggest you stop using them asap, at least wean yourself off, but do it fast. It's not good. I knew a girl who got so caught up in all of this that she had serious problems and almost had to have a "poop bag" for the rest of her life. How sad would that be? She was only 19.

[szczepak]

So would it be healthier to wean myself off of the laxatives, or to go cold turkey?

[pink2385]

idk what u mean about cold turkey, but it would Definitely b healthier 2 wean off the laxatives.

[kerryberry17]

Cold turkey means smoking

[pink2385]

o. well both r unhealthy, but smoking would b less harmful short term than laxatives. ru asking bc u want 2 become addicted 2 something?

[shlee1016]

No, cold turkey means stop completely. Like instead of slowly backing off of them just suddenly stopping them altogether.

I don't feel real comfortable saying which you should do. If you think you can stop completely, my advice would be to go for it though definitely. You know your body and your situation better than any of us, so it's kind of up to you. What do you think you can do?