Key Takeaways
Laxative abuse, the regular overuse of laxatives to relieve constipation or suppress weight, is more common than most people realize, affecting over half of those with eating disorders. Here’s what you need to know:
- It doesn’t work for weight loss: Any change is temporary water loss, and laxatives don’t stop calorie absorption.
- The risks are serious: Overuse can cause dependence, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, organ damage, and rectal prolapse, and it has been fatal.
- Know the warning signs: Needing higher doses, hiding or hoarding laxatives, and taking them around meals are common red flags.
- Recovery is possible: Stay hydrated, eat enough fiber, and seek medical care for severe symptoms. An eating disorder professional can help you taper safely and avoid shifting to other behaviors.
At some point in your life, you have probably struggled to go to the bathroom — it happens to everyone. You might have taken a laxative once or twice to deal with the discomfort and get things moving down there, so to speak. However, there are serious dangers of laxative abuse, and you might not even notice when you’ve crossed the line from use to abuse.
Laxative abuse is something that no one really talks about. But over half of people struggling with an eating disorder have abused laxatives. You’re not alone. And you don’t have to feel ashamed to admit that you’re struggling.
What is a laxative and what do they do?
A laxative is any substance used to relieve the symptoms of constipation by helping to stimulate or facilitate bowel movements.
Symptoms of constipation include not being able to pass more than three stools per week, having lumpy or hard stools, straining to have a bowel movement, feeling as though you can’t get all the waste out of your body, and needing help to remove the waste from your body (pushing on your abdomen, using your fingers to remove stool from inside you, etc.)
Constipation is often confused with bloating and trapped gas, so consider whether your discomfort might be caused by these before you take a laxative.
Types of Laxatives
There are four types of nonprescription laxatives, which all help with constipation in different ways:
- Bulking Agents (Fiber): These absorb water to form soft, bulky stools, prompting normal contraction of intestinal muscles.
- Oral Osmotics: These draw water into the colon, making a “slippery” path in the intestines to allow easier passage of stool.
- Emollient Laxatives (Stool Softeners): These add moisture to stools, which makes them less hard to move through your body.
- Stimulant Laxatives: These trigger rhythmic contractions of intestinal muscles to eliminate stool, essentially speeding up bowel movements to quickly relieve symptoms of constipation.
You might encounter laxatives in the form of a pill, powder, liquid, suppository, or enema.
They may be marketed to you as a “quick fix” or “detox” product — even as a “skinny tea” or teatox — by diet companies or “health and fitness” influencers. Pretty much anything that claims to “flush out the toxins” or “cleanse your system” is a laxative, even if it’s in pretty packaging or is backed by your favorite Instagrammer.
What is Laxative Abuse?
Laxative products (and diet pills) are so easily accessible. Anyone, including children and teenagers, can find unregulated substances online or at their local pharmacy. Many people assume that some laxatives are safer than others — especially since you can find them right next to things like Advil and Allegra.
Laxative abuse is the consistent overuse of laxatives to either relieve symptoms of constipation or as a form of weight suppression. Ironically, the longer you use laxatives, the more your body relies on laxatives to make bowel movements, for a few reasons:
- Laxatives artificially stimulate the nerves in the large intestine to start up bowel movements. If you overuse laxatives, though, you risk damaging those nerves to the point where they can’t make bowel movements without that artificial stimulation.
- Your colon might also become “weak” or “lazy” over time due to laxative overuse, since laxatives keep your colon so empty that the colon muscles don’t have to “work” to move any waste through.
- One of the side effects of laxative use is trapped gas and bloating. Many people mistake these symptoms for constipation, and use more laxatives to try to get rid of the discomfort.
There’s also a psychological component of laxative abuse. Many people abuse laxatives because they enjoy the feeling of “emptiness” they get when using laxatives (especially stimulant laxatives). They may also get hooked on the appearance of weight loss after using laxatives, or use laxatives to “counteract” food consumption.
This “emptiness” is just a temporary loss of water weight — no one actually loses weight in the long term with laxatives. Laxatives also do not keep your body from absorbing the nutrients and calories in food.
Signs and Symptoms of Laxative Abuse
Laxative abuse can be hard to spot, in yourself or in someone you care about, because it often happens in secret and can start out looking like a simple attempt to relieve constipation. The signs tend to fall into three groups: changes in behavior, emotional and social effects, and physical symptoms. If several of these sound familiar, it may be time to reach out for support.
- Behavioral signs:
- Needing higher doses over time to get the same effect
- Lying about, hiding, or hoarding laxatives
- Overspending on or stealing laxatives, or visiting several stores to buy them
- Taking laxatives right before or after eating
- Emotional and social signs:
- Feeling euphoric after using laxatives, or anxious when you don’t have any
- Planning your day around bathroom breaks
- Missing events or isolating yourself out of fear of having an accident away from home
- Physical symptoms:
- Chronic dehydration, dizziness, weakness, headaches, nausea, or fainting
- Ongoing gas, diarrhea, or abdominal discomfort
- Blood in stools or rectal bleeding
- Heart palpitations
Several of these physical symptoms, especially fainting, rectal bleeding, and heart palpitations, can be serious. Seek medical care promptly if you experience them.
What Are the Dangers of Abusing Laxatives?
Overusing over-the-counter laxatives may not seem like a big deal, but the effects add up over time and can reach nearly every system in the body. People have died due to laxative abuse. The risks fall into four main areas:
Digestive system damage
- Laxative dependence, where your bowels can no longer work without them
- Intestinal paralysis
- Fecal impaction, a blockage that can be fatal if untreated
- Rectal prolapse, where part of the intestine protrudes outside the anus (surgery is typically required to fix this)
- Increased vulnerability to intestinal irritation and infections
- Increased risk for colon cancer
Fluid and nutrient imbalances
- Chronic dehydration
- Electrolyte imbalances
- Malnutrition
- An inability to absorb medications
Organ damage
- Kidney failure
- Liver damage
- Heart attack
Many of these conditions can become life-threatening. If you or someone you know is experiencing severe symptoms, seek medical care right away.
Emotional side effects of laxative overuse
Unlike other eating disorder behaviors that have been normalized by diet culture, the chronic overuse of laxatives can cause a sense of embarrassment, shame, and loneliness. Many sufferers of laxative abuse share stories of embarrassment over buying laxatives, shame when others find out about it, and loneliness because the disorder is not often represented in the media.
Laxative use may be the catalyst for another form of eating disorder, or it may be something someone with an eating disorder starts to suppress their natural weight.
Often, people with eating disorders use it to “negate” the effects of a binge. It may give you a temporary feeling of relief, since you feel like you’re “fixing” something. However, laxatives don’t actually stop your body from absorbing the calories and nutrients of food you have consumed, so it is not an effective mode of weight loss.
Treatment for Laxative Abuse: How to Stop the Cycle
If you are experiencing dehydration, drink water as soon as possible. Dehydration has so many adverse physical side effects, and it’s hard to think rationally when dehydrated. If you are chronically dehydrated, though, you may need to be rehydrated in a medical setting.
If you are experiencing any other severe or chronic physical side effects of laxative abuse, see a medical professional as soon as possible. Otherwise, you have to stop taking laxatives as soon as possible — even if it will make you extremely uncomfortable. Do not use them again unless instructed by a physician to do so.
Make sure to drink enough water. You also have to eat enough food and eat enough fiber to ensure regular bowel movements. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains are excellent sources of fiber.
Finally, get the help of an eating disorder treatment professional to help you with regular eating, drinking, movement, and weaning off laxatives. A lot of people who want to stop abusing laxatives struggle to eat normally. Others who stop abusing laxatives may turn towards other eating disorder behaviors, such as overexercise or vomiting, as a form of purging caloric intake.
Formal eating disorder treatment can save you from falling into other eating disorder behaviors and help you stop abusing laxatives for good.
If you or someone you know is struggling with laxative abuse, or any eating disorder behaviors, take the first step today and talk to someone about recovery or simply learn more about the holistic eating disorder recovery programs we offer.
