can anyone who has been in treatment answer me please :D

[Becky]

hello, i've been wanting to recover for a while now and i'm starting to scare myself in regards to my health. the only thing that is really holding me back is that i'm doing to do mental health nursing in september and im worried that having bulimia in a doctors file will stop me from doing this course. in the application process i had to fill out a form about my past health and it asked if i had ever suffered from ana or mia and i answered no. surely the fact that they ask means that they take that into consideration when deciding if i can do that course?
does anyone know what affect having an eating disorder on file will do for things like uni, or future employment and things like that.
also, my doctor is rubish i would not feel in anyway comfortable talking to him. and there isn't anywhere else in my area to go for help. does anyone else know of a type of place i could go for help?

[Jacklinger]

Hopefully someone can help you Becky. I really hope you can become a mental health nurse.

[amazon2]

Sorry I can't answer your question but I would personally think that having suffered from things would make you a BETTER nurse since you would be able to empathize more with the patients.

What I would do though is search around for a place that treats without an official diagnosis. I know this must sound odd but there are places that do this. Basically they don't write anything down in official files but they do try to help you on their own. This is how the psych doc at my school worked. She shied away from diagnosing anything "officially" because she saw a lot of people who DID want to be doctors or lawyers or wanted to go into the military and such and she felt that no one should be penalized because they needed and sought help.

[madeofstars]

Are you under 18? If yes, a lot of places offer free counselling to teenagers- places like Connexions etc. It would mean you could talk to someone about your ED without anything being on a medical file. Try searching for youth services in your area in google and see if any of that would be any good.

In terms of mental health affecting careers/uni etc, it shouldnt. You may have to show that you can cope with the demands of the course etc- just to check that it wont have any negative impact on you and you may have to have check ups with occupational health just to monitor you. I think thats the case for most jobs/uni courses etc- and also you can get support if you need it.

Good luck with it, I bet you'll make a great nurse :)

[emilynervosa]

Unfortunately, yes I suppose it could affect some of this but I think that would only be on the terms of you showing to be unwell. So you would have to show them you were getting better and that would give you real motivation.
My dad said many counsellors have been through mental health problems themselves in the past, so if you recover I'm sure there will be no problem.
However, if you refuse to stop being underweight (if you were, i dont know of course) and show no signs of getting better you might seem a risk working with other people, and you might have to wait a certain time before working.
I have heard of anorexics wanting to be teachers being turned down because their low-weight could affect the children's ideas.

[Sapphire]

personally i would not admit to anything on an application.

any application for that matter.

my ED, depression, anxiety or parinoia... there are too many competing for things (jobs,classes,etc) that dont have these problems or dont admit to them... so i would not put down anything that can be seen as negative.

the other thing is, if you put it down or admit to it... then they are going to probably want to see some kind of proof and period of time that you have been in recovery.

if they ever did find out later... then tell them the truth, you didnt say anything becuase you were afraid it would been seen negatively.

thats my two cents.

good luck