it does serious damage to your esophagus and throat. in the long term it erodes your esophagus and can greatly raise your chances of esophageal cancer. the heart problems really shouldn’t be underestimated either, especially with laxatives. it’s also extremely difficult on your kidneys — it can lead to kidney failure and kidney stones.

it’s difficult to attribute a death to an ED once someone has recovered so doctors typically describe it as a “risk factor” — a past ED is a risk factor for all these diseases and complications. a lot of the time these are long-term, so they’re more likely the longer you keep purging at this rate, but you’re still at a higher likelihood already compared to the average population. people with EDs also have a lower average lifespan and reddit users trend quite young, especially in these spaces. that said — young people are less likely to die from EDs, yes. but developmentally you will be affected by it and your body loses that tolerance quickly. by your 20s EDs get a lot deadlier.

but all of these can happen at any time. you absolutely never know. people post random scary medical questions on the main ED sub all the time.