By MONICA KELLY

mak012@latech.edu

 

Stephanie Maines, a former Tech student, mother and devoted wife from Dubach, seems like your average woman on the outside. She has the two-story house with the white picket fence and minivan parked in the two-car garage and is happy and smiling all the time. But on the inside Maines is screaming.

For seven years, Maines suffered from an eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa, which is characterized by a binging and purging of food. Now she screams from within to try and help others.

Maines said on an average day she would throw up nearly five times.

“I would wake up and promise myself that today would be different, that today I would not let the demons take over and make me throw up,” Maines said. “But it wasn’t that easy, and as soon as the flood gates were opened I went on a downward spiral throughout the day.”

Maines said she felt out of control, worthless and that the worse she felt the more she would eat and the more she would vomit.

“I kept my disease a secret for nearly three years,” Maines said. “I felt disgusting, like people wouldn’t like me if they knew and I honestly felt that I could overcome it on my own. I did this, now I’m going to get myself out of it.”

However, Maines could not.

She finally told her husband about the disorder when he questioned her odd behavior shortly after they moved in together. Maines would sneak around, stay to herself and cry frequently leading her husband to the assumption that she was not happy in the marriage or not being faithful.

“Telling him was the hardest thing I had to do,” Maines said. “I thought for sure that my marriage would be over. But he took it well and said that we would get through it together.”

Maines started to see a counselor and went to group therapy to talk with others who were battling the same disorder. The therapy worked for a while, but Maines fell into consistent relapse. She finally decided to see a hypnotist and get to the underlying cause for her battle with food.

“I was definitely skeptical about going to this measure because it did not seem like it would work,” Maines said. “However, after a few brief sessions of delving into my past, we were able to discover why I developed this disease so that I could face this fear and move forward.”

Through hypnosis, Maines discovered it was an episode of rape in her late teen years that made her turn to bulimia. Maines would turn to food to deal with the pain.

It was not until college, when she started gaining weight from the indulging, that she started to throw it up.

“I found out that two [out] of three females with an eating disorder had been raped or sexually abused at some point in their lives,” Maines said. “Recalling these memories that I had worked so hard to repress was extremely difficult, but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to get better for good.”

After several years of counseling and relapse, Maines has finally overcome her trial. Maines said there is not a day that goes by when she does not thank God for helping her through the disease and giving her the strength to beat it.

Maines said, “For anyone out there suffering, get help now, because the disease will not only bring you down, but it will ruin those you love as well.”