Puffy Face & Jaw from Bulimia — Real Cause & How I Fixed It | Former Flight Attendant’s Story

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When I was deep in bulimia, my face changed in a way I never expected.

My cheeks got puffy. My jaw started sticking out. Every time I looked in the mirror, I thought: “That’s not my face anymore.”

I’m Mayumi — a former flight attendant who struggled with bulimia (binge-purge disorder) for 20 years, from age 18 to 38. I tried everything to fix my face. Including Botox. It did absolutely nothing.

Because the real cause wasn’t what I thought.

The Real Cause: Parotid Gland Swelling

When you vomit repeatedly, your parotid glands — the salivary glands located just below your ears — become inflamed and swollen.

This is what causes:

• A puffy, round face
• A wide, square-looking jaw (called “chipmunk cheeks” in English)
• A face that looks completely different from your natural one

I had no idea this was even a thing. No doctor ever told me. I spent years thinking it was my bone structure, or that I was just “naturally puffy.” I even paid for Botox injections into my jaw, thinking it was muscle. Complete waste of money.

The parotid glands swell in response to repeated vomiting. They go into overdrive, producing extra saliva as a protective response. Over time, they permanently enlarge — and your face shape changes.

The Second Cause: Electrolyte Imbalance and Fluid Retention

Purging causes your body to lose potassium, sodium, and other electrolytes. When these are depleted, your body holds onto water as a survival response.

The result: facial puffiness, especially around the eyes and cheeks. You wake up and your face looks swollen, bloated, unrecognizable.

This is different from normal puffiness. It doesn’t go away with drinking water or sleeping more. It’s a sign that your body is in crisis.

What Happened to My Face When I Stopped

When I finally stopped purging at 38, I didn’t see changes overnight. I won’t lie to you.

The parotid gland swelling takes time to go down — in my case, it took about 6 months to a year before I noticed a real difference. But it did go down. Slowly, consistently, the puffiness reduced. My jaw stopped looking as squared-off. My face started looking like mine again.

What helped me speed up the process was using a facial roller called ReFa CARAT RAY FACE every single day. I was skeptical at first — I’d wasted money on so many things. But this one actually made a difference. Not because it “melted” the gland swelling, but because it improved circulation and lymphatic drainage around the jaw area, which reduced the fluid retention on top of the gland swelling.

What I Actually Used: ReFa CARAT RAY FACE

I use this roller every morning and evening. It takes about 3 minutes. I roll along my jawline, under my ears (right where the parotid glands are), and down my neck.

After about 3 months of consistent use, combined with having stopped purging, I noticed my face looked noticeably slimmer in photos. People around me started saying “you look different” — in a good way.

The Most Important Thing

I want to be honest with you, because I wish someone had been honest with me.

The only real solution to a puffy, swollen face from bulimia is to stop purging. The facial roller helps with symptoms. Hot yoga helped me sweat out fluid retention. But none of it fixes the root cause.

I know that’s not easy to hear. I know “just stop” feels impossible when you’re in the middle of it. I felt that way for 20 years.

But your face can come back. Your body can recover. I’m living proof.

If you want to read my full recovery story — how I went from purging daily as a flight attendant to being completely free at 38 — it’s all written out here:

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