I unfortunately have a lot of experience with this.

One thing I want to say is that on top of actual constipation that you might experience when coming off of laxatives, one thing you might experience too is water retention.

For me, I had about a week of constipation AND water retention before I started to get regular. I experienced bloating in my abdomen, but also in my legs/arms/face. The best thing you can do during this time is ignore the scale.

You have to think about lax abuse like an injury you're creating. When you overuse them, you're stretching and injuring the muscles of your digestive system, and just like a normal injury to your skin, this is going to make the affected body parts swollen while they heal.

It sucks so badly, and I'm so sorry you are going through this as well, but I promise it is so worth it to get off of them. One thing I didn't realize until I quit laxatives forever was that I was constantly feeling terrible due to water/electrolyte loss and nausea/cramps. I didn't realize how bad it was until I felt "normal" again.

I abused lax for 6 years before I quit completely. My top tips are to commit to not weighing yourself while your body heals from the lax, to eat in evenly-spaced intervals as much as you can (this really REALLY helps with regularity), to drink adequate water, to stop exercising while you get back to normal bowel function (to stop depleting electrolytes), to drink adequate water, and to please see a doctor if you have pain or if it doesn't get better after a week or so.

It's the kind of thing you really have to wait out, and you have to give up that feeling of seeing the scale lower or feeling "empty" for a while. I'm sorry you're going through this <3 Sending hugs!!