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.
