I have binge eating disorder, AMA.

[PuzzledObserver]

I think it started as a bit of comfort eating when I was quite young (infants school). I was put on a diet at 11. By the time I was in my mid teens, I would have met the criteria for Binge Eating Disorder.

I have been obese virtually all my adult life, with massive weight swings - BMI has ranged from 23 (very briefly) to 48.5. Most of the time over 40.

I’m now focussing on improving my relationship with food through intuitive eating, rather than weight loss per se.

Ask me anything.

www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/types/binge-eating-disorder

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK338301/table/introduction.t1/

@Tehmina23 Black and white thinking is a common characteristic of people with eating disorders, along with perfectionism and a tendency to be obsessive. So I get what you're saying.

You're either ON (and you have to be perfectly ON, to the nth degree) or you're OFF.

If you're ON and you do something even a tiny bit different from what you planned, it's a total failure, so you might as well be OFF.

What's more, the plan for ON has to be the perfect plan. All the new research, all the new ideas. Anyone who follows a different path is the enemy and must be destroyed. Anyone who stands between you and perfection obviously hates you.

Steering the middle path is difficult. It can be done. But it means letting go of the idea that there is a perfect way to eat. Easier said than done.