Freed From the Bondage of Bulemia

I have a very dear friend that has been published in Living Stones.com.

The article begins with....

Gum-line cavities along the teeth, swollen salivary glands resembling the mumps, osteoporosis, either excessive hair growth or thinning hair, constant susceptibility to sickness, and the fear — the terrible fear often displayed as defensiveness — are just a few of the indicators that someone may be suffering from the eating disorder bulimia nervosa.

The remainder of the article may be found at: http://archive.livingstonesnews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=979 You will enjoy reading about her DELIVERANCE ... she suffered with this for about 33 years. It's a miracle of God that she's even alive. LOL Thank God. In 1999 Vicki and her husband came to the Lord and she found out what God could do for her. Isn't that wonderful?

You'll enjoy the article.

God Bless You!!!

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In the event that this link is not always made available, I'm bringing the article to this page.

For 33 years Vicki Surges was a slave to bulimia. But when Christ came into her life, she was freed, and the need to binge and purge was miraculously gone.
By Naomi Musch ,Living Stones News Writer

Gum-line cavities along the teeth, swollen salivary glands resembling the mumps, osteoporosis, either excessive hair growth or thinning hair, constant susceptibility to sickness, and the fear — the terrible fear often displayed as defensiveness — are just a few of the indicators that someone may be suffering from the eating disorder bulimia nervosa.


Vicki Surges of Duluth, Minn., battled the sickening cycles of bulimia for more than 30 years before turning her life over to Jesus Christ, who helped her break free from the addiction.
Vicki Surges of Duluth, Minn., is well acquainted with the symptoms. She was in bondage to bulimia for 33 years, trapped in a secret life of isolation that wobbled precariously between the euphoria of being told how good she looked and the absolute terror of being discovered.

Her fight began in 1966, shortly after the death of her mother.

Growing up in the Southern California movie star culture, Surges said she felt a constant pressure to be thin. Her family moved in circles with movie stars where Surges was often present, but it was her sister who was considered to be the beauty queen. Surges remembers being told often, “If only you were thin, you’d look pretty.”

“I remember being told that so many times ... ‘If only you were thin, if only. ...’” Surges said, realizing now that she wasn’t overly heavy at the time.

Surges was only 16 years old when she took her first nightmarish steps into the darkness of bulimia. After overeating one evening, she accidentally threw up and thought, “This is cool. I can eat as much as I want and throw up.”

Following her own advice, she proceeded to drop 30 pounds while going through an elaborate routine of binging and purging to lose the weight. She even stopped eating for a while as people told her, “You look great,” thus feeding her dangerous habit.

“This is better than I thought,” she said at the time.

Eventually, she tried going on the original Atkins diet, but got very sick. She also learned during a urine lab test in school that she was in a state of ketosis, “But no one noticed I was starving,” she said.

However, Surges discovered that she enjoyed food too much to remain anorexic, and so her secret life grew into a decades-long pattern of binging and purging to the tune of many thousands of calories a day. What started out as something she thought she could control quickly took control of her.

“I was throwing up 40 to 50 times a day, without exaggeration,” she said, “sometimes every three or four minutes.”

Even while married, she managed to hide her bulimia.

“I ate tremendous amounts of food, enough for 10 people,” she said.

Every day she ate a huge steak dinner. She also would stop by different restaurants on alternating days to buy herself five orders of onion rings and 10 tacos for lunch, pretending to be buying food for a group.

Her biggest fear, she said, was not being able to be near a bathroom or convenient place to purge after binge eating. During a period of time in the 1980s when she performed in a number of movie roles, Surges remembers being at a star’s home and stopping up the toilet with food. Despite the embarrassment, she had to be near a bathroom constantly. “It was my biggest fear not to be,” she said.

Surges and her husband adopted two children, and she continued to live the lie. She pretended to live a normal life, but in her bondage couldn’t even bear to have friends over.

“I was terrified of people coming over unannounced,” she said. “I might have eaten something which I’d have to keep down.”

She was not a believer in Jesus Christ at the time, so she decided to try therapy. Two Christian psychiatrists tried to offer her spiritual help, but she said, “I wasn’t in a place to listen to the spiritual side yet.”

After divorcing her first husband, she came down with giardiasis, an illness of the intestine, and lost another 20 pounds.

“I went into the hospital and was dangerously low on electrolytes, close to a heart attack,” Surges said. She was given fluids and put some of the weight back on. She was amazed that she was still alive.

Surges married again and confessed to her new husband that she had an eating disorder. Still, whenever he asked her how she was doing, she continued to lie and told him things were “fine.”

“I was better,” she said. “I was only throwing up five to 10 times a day.”

But Surges said that things are never “fine” for a bulimic.

During her pregnancies, Surges discovered that if she worked very hard at it, she could keep the bulimia somewhat under control.

“It was the same when I was nursing,” she said, noting that it was probably a sense of protection for the baby that helped her try harder then.

Then, in 1999 at age 46, she found that another baby was...

...on the way, and about that time she and her husband both became Christians.
Suddenly Surges found that God was doing amazing things in her life. Her marriage had been close to breaking apart, but after she and her husband turned to Jesus, “Our marriage was strengthened.”

And that wasn’t all. For the first time since her battle with bulimia began, Surges found that she no longer had to fight to hold the bulimia at bay.

“There’s no other explanation,” she said. “God took the desire (for binging and purging) away.”

Joy echoed from Surges’ voice as she said, “The biggest difference is that I’m never afraid. I don’t feel like I started living life until I was saved.”

God rescued Surges from bulimia after a wretched 33-year struggle.

She’s had 27 root canals, has osteoporosis and occasionally needs checkups on her esophagus. Yet, she’s thankful that she’s alive.

“I have no idea why God healed me, other than He wasn’t finished with me,” she said.

She once struggled with guilt over the many thousands of grocery dollars she spent on wasted food, but reminds herself that God has told her, “That’s all behind you.”

Surges said that the signs are there if someone is bulimic. She notes that besides some of the outward physical characteristics, it’s a huge clue if someone is excusing themselves often during dinner or going to the bathroom or outside. And, she warns of bulimics, “everybody will deny it,” so defensiveness is another clue.

Strangely, alcoholics can most easily relate to bulimics because the cravings and lifestyles are similar. Both share a secret life — a double life. Yet, quitting bulimia is different, Surges pointed out.

“You can live without alcohol, but you can’t live without food,” she said. “You can’t just not be around it. You have to learn how to eat again.”

For Surges, that meant changing her eating patterns and using caution, even though she hasn’t been tempted to binge or purge since 1999.

She says that a cure for bulimia is pretty rare. Therefore, she urges people who have an eating disorder to turn to God.

“He puts people there to help us, too,” she said. “Talk to someone who’s been there. Don’t deny it. Get help.”

Surges said that when she talks to others about bulimia, they often want to hear her say that she took a pill and it all went away.

“But that isn’t the case,” she said. “God did it, and for some people that’s scary.”

As for herself, she said, “It’s all about God and what He has done.”