- April Longe, from Colchester, has launched a request that diabulimia be recognized as an eating disorder
- For help and support with eating disorders, you can contact DEFEAT
A diabetic woman claimed she almost died from an eating disorder after doctors mistook her insulin misuse for “laziness”.
April Longe, 19, from Colchester, developed diabulimia, an eating disorder that affects people with type 1 diabetes, as a teenager when she deliberately reduced her insulin intake to lose weight.
At first, her doctors thought she had simply forgotten to take insulin before she was finally admitted to the hospital.
She spent 11 months recovering and is now passionate about raising awareness and wants diabulimia to be officially recognized as a disorder.
April, a psychology student at the University of Essex, said: “He could have died.” I’m very grateful I didn’t. “It was sad to have to get to the point it got to.”
The teenager was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was five and began struggling with an eating disorder when she moved to the UK from the US when she was 13.
After collapsing from low blood sugar, a paramedic asked him if he was injecting insulin correctly. That’s when April realized she could cut back to lose weight.
She said: ‘I thought I could eat whatever I wanted but lose as much weight as possible. It became an addiction.”
April Longe, 19, from Colchester, almost died from the “world’s most dangerous eating disorder” after doctors mistook her insulin misuse for “laziness”.
April ate whatever she wanted to raise her blood sugar, but she stopped taking insulin.
The teen ended up in and out of the hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a life-threatening complication of diabetes when the body breaks down fat instead of using blood sugar.
But doctors attribute these complications of insulin misuse to laziness. April said, “I was credited with being lazy and a teenager.”
April got so bad that she couldn’t stand up well, she was very weak and pale and she ended up admitted to the hospital. There he admitted to doctors that he was afraid of injecting insulin.
She said: ‘I was very afraid of insulin. The thought of giving it to myself made me feel like a failure. They asked me: “Why don’t you want to get an injection?” I told him I was afraid of insulin and that I didn’t want to gain weight.
April was referred to eating disorder services and spent a month in hospital before being discharged.
However, he remained under observation as an outpatient and, over the years, was in and out of the hospital with relapses.
In May 2022, April’s CAMHS nurse became concerned about her condition and the 19-year-old was committed under the Mental Health Act. Recalling her stay in the hospital, April said she “almost died.”
April developed an eating disorder known as diabulimia when she was a teenager. This condition causes people with type 1 diabetes to deliberately reduce their insulin intake to lose weight.
April spent a total of 11 months in the hospital and returned home in April 2023.
After collapsing from low blood sugar, a paramedic asked him if he was injecting insulin correctly.
April, now recovered, is passionate about raising awareness about diabulimia, which is not currently recognized as an official disorder.
April was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in September 2022 and once she moved to the intensive care unit she began to improve.
Her nurse also had type 1 diabetes, which helped April understand what she was going through.
She said: ‘Someone finally understood what I was going through. I started to understand myself. I realized I could lose my sight, I could get very sick.’
April spent a total of 11 months in the hospital and returned home in April 2023.
Now recovered, April is passionate about raising awareness about diabulimia, which is not currently recognized as an official disorder.
April said: ‘I wish health professionals would look out for the signs. Many lose their lives because of it. “It needs more awareness.”
She is now petitioning for diabulimia to become a recognized eating disorder.
She is requesting that this change and you can sign her petition. here.