"love your laxative" commerical...REALLY!?!

 




it is almost 1am and i should be sound asleep as i have a busy day tomorrow with two of my favorite kids at work. Instead insomnia decides to strike once again. so i decide to take the time to be productive and pick back up on my book i am writing.

I leave the TV on for background noise when i am pulled out of a strong focus by a miraLAX
commercial. I  loudly hear the deadly words "love your laxative." I instantly want to scream and yell at the TV, and the company of miraLAX. Love my my laxative? LOVE MY LAXATIVE? you mean those drugs that destroyed my digestive system? you mean those drugs that depleted me of so much potassium i was thrown into cardiac arrest? you mean those drugs that caused me to NEVER be able to have another bowel movement on my own? OH you're talking about those drugs that caused me such excruciating stomach pain that i felt like my stomach was being ripped out of my own body. hmm, OK i guess i could love them. NOT!

i am aware that many people, companies, and organizations are unaware of how common and damaging eating disorders are. although they should be considering they have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. and yes, myself has struggled with severe Anorexia Nervosa for over half of my life.  The fact that this commercial has me completely enraged is because of how ignorant and blind these people are to the damaging effects of laxatives and that fact that they are heavily abused by most people who struggle with eating disorders. this commercial made it seem like a safe and side-effect free way of having a normal system. this is all lies. lies lies and more lies a company wants you to believe so that you buy THEIR product. yes i would agree that miraLAX is the lesser damaging laxative due to the kind of laxative it is. but this laxative can still be abused. and if abused, can have fatalities.

At the young age of 16 i discovered laxatives. i didn't use laxatives just because i was constipated (which i was) but i used laxatives to lose weight. a common eating disordered behavior is abusing laxatives to lower your weight. Over the years it has been proven that laxatives don't cause you to lose legitimate weight, it is all fluid weight. despite knowing that, i continued to take sickly amounts of them. i didn't care what caused that number on the scale to go down, just as long as it went down and i could feel that high from seeing the number decrease.

as my obsession with taking laxatives increased. so did the amount i needed to take in order for them to have an effect. my body started to build up a tolerance. i guess kind of like the body builds  up a tolerance to the amount of drugs or alcohol someone can take. there where nights where i had to consume more than a package of laxatives to have any kind of effect. sure i would have a bowel movement, or a few. but you know what else occurred with this abuse? terrifying side effects. stomach pain so bad i would have rather been dead. blood in my stools caused from internal bleeding/ulcers. fainting causing injury from dehydration caused by the laxative abuse. low potassium, magnesium, sodium, and other electrolytes caused from the dehydration from laxatives, and when these electrolytes get low enough, you can have a heart attack at ANY moment. heart arrhythmia's. muscle aches and pains. my biggest annoyance.....not being able to live a normal life. i would leave each class in high school three or more times to go to the bathroom. teach others questioned me, peers stared at me.  i should have just worn a diaper. oh, and i cant forget the times i actually crapped my pants.

i am pleased to say that now i no longer abuse laxatives. it took me a long 7 years to stop this habit, and 7 years too late. my body has already suffered the consequences from this addicting behavior. i am only 22 years old and i  will NEVER be able to have a bowel movement on my own. i will always need some aid, so i can never fully cut laxatives out of my life. i have constant bloating and abdominal pain from not being able to go. the reason i cannot go is because my muscles are now too weak, and don't know how to function without getting stimulated by a laxative.  i was threatened with a colostomy bag at the age of 18, EIGHTEEN! and that threat is still not completely gone and probably never will be.

so no miraLAX, i do not agree with you. i do not agree that it is OK to "love your laxative." because laxatives can cause many damaging physical and mental effects. i think its OK to "love to go to the bathroom" because ultimately that is all that we want. No one wants to be bond to a laxative, nor should one romanticize about one. so i am greatly hurt by your commercial is more ways than one and i do plan on writing a letter to the company about the damaging effects of this commercial.

My views on the diet industry and new craze "it works"

Now I know I have many followers who sell these products and I want you to know this is NOT I repeat NOT to bash you. I am simply sharing my views in my blog. If you really do not like what i post than feel free to unfollow me. 

Body wraps may work. But coming from a woman who has struggled with Anorexia and body dysmorphic disorder for over half her life, they also work to promote body anxiety, body hate, and unreal Ideals of what a woman's body should look like.

 Instead of us uniting with women as more than bodies to be looked at, fixed and judged, why are so many of us preying on each others' insecurities by selling objectifying, unrealistic ideals to our social media contacts? Ladies, we need to me more kind and compassionate to each other. In this current day and age, unattainable and degrading beauty ideals are engulfing social media from women in multi-level marketing companies selling beauty and diet products to their friends, family, co-workers, and even acquaintances online. The marketing of "skinny wraps" is an especially dangerous trend because these messages penetrate our social networking feeds informing us about our "flaws" by our own peers. 

If you are selling body wraps, skin contouring creams, fat burning pills, or anything in these realms so you can "eat what you want!" Or hosting "wrap parties" and persuading people to magically melt away inches, PLEASE consider the influence you may be having.

Please consider the enormous number of girls and women fighting or recovering from all types of debilitating eating disorders, who are VERY likely some of your facebook friends, blog followers, instagram or twitter followers. Eating disorders are very secretive, you may not even be aware of the vast number that flood our population. 

please consider the girls and women genuinely looking to improve their health. (and not just the "appearance" of health for 72 hours) and instead pushing hard earned money on products you push that will not decrease their chance of getting diabetes, heart disease, or any other chronic disease related to lifestyle.

Please consider the girls and women who have been raised to believe their worth is based on the appearance of their body. especially in the thinness, firmness, cellulite-free-ness of their bodies. and that many of those women's bodies look like the undesirable "before" photos you're promoting all over their feeds.

please consider the shame you may be instilling in girls, women, and men who are being told from every angle that their bodies are flawed and need to be repaired in order to be happy, loved, and successful. Shame is an extremely dangerous motivator 

Please consider the objectification of women that you are selling to your audiences. pictures of women in underwear reinforces the false idea that women's bodies are to be looked at, judged, and fixed at all times. 

Many of you know I struggle with anorexia and to me, these wraps and diet products is just a more acceptable way to do what i do to my body- trying to perfect it, make it beautiful, desirable, loved, wanted. so both of us are wrong in my eyes. instead, why cant we do some of the following:

set a true fitness goal - if you held yourself back from running, biking, swimming, etc. because of feeling self-conscious about what to wear, how red your face gets, sweating, or not being the thinnest one at the gym(the list goes on) why not try to set a goal and fight to achieve it! Make the goal about your abilities and not your appearance. Run a certain distance without stopping, swim ten laps faster than ever before. Do a certain number of crunches, push ups, pull-ups, new dance moves-any fitness achievement measured in action and not numbers on the scale, measuring tape, or clothing tag. Research shows that a lot of women do not exercise because they feel "too fat" to get out and move. Lets break through that shame !

forget your number (one i greatly struggle with) if you tend to fixate on your weight, measurements, and clothing sizes, deciding to leave those numbers behind is a key to freedom. make a goal to stop or limit the number of times you step on a scale or measure yourself in any other way. When we focus on these numbers, it can get in the way of our health because we than strive to perfect the numbers by using unhealthy means to achieve them.  start evaluating your health based on your activity. For example i have a BMI of less than 16---severely underweight category. but this doesn't make me healthy, a number doesn't prove anything. i am probably more unhealthy than many overweight people and average weight people. i know many higher weight people that can withstand much more physical activity than i can.

stop negative self talk too many girls and women having a constant tape recorder in their head of mean thoughts about themselves. Studies have even shown that girls who don't like their bodies become less active over time and pay less attention to having a healthy diet. If you think you're gross and worthless, why would you take care of yourself? Set a goal to stop saying negative comments about yourself. 

Think nice thoughts instead on the opposite side of the last study, research has shown that girls who respect their bodies are more likely to be physically active and eat healthy. they are less likely to gain unnecessary weight and they make healthy lifestyle choices. since what we THINK about our bodies has a strong connection to how we TREAT our bodies, set a goal to shut out negative self talk.