Has anyone overcome binge eating disorder?

[EscapeRoomToTheSun]

Getting so frustrated with myself recently-have lost a bit of weight and my impulse to eat everything in sight is going to undo all my progress.

I was wondering if anyone has managed to stop, or has any resources they could point me to?

I know some of my triggers are stress and emotional upset. But sometimes it's more like i just see sweet/fatty food and Its happening.

Posters with no experience of this phenomenon are encouraged not to reply with "have some self control" etc. Thanks all.

God thats not very hopeful is it 😂😭

Bump

I came on Looking for the same advice, its so hard.

Bump again. I also need help. I can't be around food without picking at it. I can't cook food without eating it as I'm making it. If the DC are eating then I'm hovering over them waiting for leftovers. I pick at any left overs regardless, even cold food.
I'm OK if I don't have any food of my own. I won't buy crap/junk for myself but do it inadvertently as I will eat the DC food then replace. I cannot be around any food without eating it/wanting it

I suffer(ed) from binge eating disorder and the two most valuable resources I've found are Rebelfit (look up on Facebook) and a book called why we eat (too much) by Dr Andrew Jenkins.

It's taken a long time to get where I am now but the most important thing is to not diet. Your body sees a diet the same way as a famine and will slow down your metabolism and ramp up your hunger hormones in order to get more calories in you. That's why there's a diet cycle - restrict/binge. It lifted a lot of shame when I realised my binges were not due to me being weak but were a natural biological consequence of dieting.

I certainly haven't overcome it completely, but I am making progress towards it. I've been reading the book 'brain over binge'. It really does make you think about what you're doing to yourself, but also take it with a pinch of salt as she is sort of just saying well I told myself I didn't want to binge so I just didn't binge kind of thing

I've also recently started taking Saxenda, and that has made a big difference. For the first time in a long time, I don't have any urges to binge. I can eat a normal meal and not feel like I want snacks after, and I can manage to not eat everything in sight. It does work out slightly expensive, but I've been on the lower dose to make it last longer. And when I tot up how much I would normally spend on takeaways and bingeing each month, it's probably actually cheaper

I had to give up sugar,it was really easy after that. The hardest but was deciding to do it.

I've been stopped since June . I did 12 weeks on Saxenda and it seems it has broken the habit for me. It's still early days I know but I've not binged since June

I lost 2 stone on Saxenda, I've been off it 10 weeks now and not put the weight back on or binged. It's like the habit has been broken for me.

Actually I have now for around eleven years. What worked for me is meeting my partner and having my children. I just refused to do anything that made me feel sick and sluggish and binge eating crap food made me feel awful.

I think if all that fell away I might revert back to old ways. I’m not sure. I know if I get bad news my natural reaction is to eat something ‘naughty’ but now I just eat a tiny bit of chocolate or similar. I don’t keep going.

The only time I feel in control is when I low carb. As soon as I eat simple carbs, I just go mad again.
When I'm low carbing, I feel amazed that I don't have food cravings and wonder why I even ever found it difficult. But, as soon as I have 'oh just this little bit of cake/chips/bread won't make a difference' moment, it all unravels again.
I can eat brown rice, lentils and fruit ok.
Weirdest thing and I think it's all linked to insulin levels and hormones etc.
To lose weight and keep it off, I should never eat simple carbs again.

It's very hard. I started bingeing at a very young age - I think 11 - in relation to bullying - so it's such an ingrained behaviour. The only thing I have ever had success with is giving up refined sugar altogether, cold turkey. I've done this several times and it has stopped me bingeing, sometimes for months at a time. I just don't find I can binge so much on non-sugary foods. However, my emotional relationship with food is very strong and as soon as I hit a rough patch in life I can't seem to stop going back to bingeing. I had a big bereavement a couple of years ago and it was the most out of control my bingeing has ever been. I'm back on track now thankfully.

I look at it now as a mental health condition or addiction, something that will not be cured but that I can learn to manage better. My goal is no longer to never binge again because I don't think that's realistic, sadly. Instead I try to feel proud every day I don't binge and don't beat myself up if I do, I try to think, okay this was a bad day but tomorrow is a fresh start. Reframing it in this way has helped somewhat. I don't know if there is a miracle out there though.

Completely agree. We become the equivalent of squirrels storing nuts and hamsters shoving snacks in their cheeks when it comes to refined carbs.

Yes me. I was in my late twenties and I realised that I had been like this for almost a decade, and, as I headed towards being 30, I realised I wasn't going to 'grow out of it' but had to take action to stop it myself, or I was going to be like this when I was 30, 40, 50, 60... and I didn't want that.

I decided my goal was to normalise my eating behaviour. I realised that I was never hungry as I always ate preemptively. So my goal was to get back in touch with knowing when I was hungry and when I was sated. My goal was not to lose weight.

I always overate, which led to binging. So I decided to buy a smaller plate, sort of side plate size, and that was what my meals were on. I also started noticing how much other people ate, as a guide to how much I should eat. I got rid of all trigger foods from the house. I ate at set times. If I snacked it was on nuts, oatcakes and fruit. Though I limited snacks to one in morning and afternoon max, and only if hungry.

I accepted that falling off the wagon was part of the process to succeeding, so I didn't beat myself up if I did, just accepted this was part of the process and kept on.

I accepted this was a long term project and reckoned it would take about a year to normalise my eating behaviour.

And it did. But it worked. It was really hard to ignore the cravings, but I realised they were only feelings that I could accept and have but did not have to act on. Nothing bad was going to happen if I did not act on them. They were just feelings I could experience and accept.

After a year I had normalised my eating, ate when hungry and stopped when sated, and have a normal, happy, relaxed attitude to food. I eat what I want, when I want. No foods are banned. I can sweet foods in the house and not binge. And I'm over 20 years on now, its great.

Yes, I had psychotherapy for a year within a specialist eating disorders service.

You need to read up on the binge:restrict cycle. What ever you did to lose the weight - some form of restriction, is what then feeds your urge to binge. That’s a very simplified explanation.

To heal from BED and stay healed you can never diet again, you must unlearn everything about good foods/bad foods, etc. It’s all just food.

I eat intuitively now, whatever I want, whenever I want it, trust in my body to ask for whatever it needs, even when the trust takes a huge leap of faith. By doing this consistently, you remove all power from the “bad foods” and they’re no longer hold the same power over you. If I can have a Mars Bar or a cheeseburger whenever/wherever without caveat, then they’re no more desirable than vegetables or chicken. I also pay huge attention to my fullness/satiety cues and I stop as soon as a feel satisfied. I don’t feel the need to clear my plate or make the most of it (i.e. eating all of the pub meal on a “cheat day”), because I can always just eat the same meal again tomorrow if I still fancy it - but I almost never do.

I’m not gonna pretend this was easy, it was the hardest and most destabilising year of my life, and I thought I was going to end up absolutely huge having to put all this trust into my body and my subconscious, but it did really work. And I’ll be grateful for it, forever.

Someone spoke about the emotional relationship with food - yes I had that. I ate in response to almost every emotion! That has been broken by regulating my eating too.

This is essentially what I did. Yes, it worked.

OP, please beware of anyone recommending cutting out carbs or other food groups. This is a form of restriction which feeds directly back into the underlying pathological process which sustains your ED. It is the exact opposite of what the evidence base says about treating BED.

Once I stopped binging I really began to notice the horrible anxious feelings that I’d been using food to squash down. I then had to learn to sit with those feelings, acknowledge them and make a plan to deal with whatever was causing the anxiety, it’s a massive process, but all ED recovery is.

The only way I manage is to have a very structured routine of food. No surprises and no unknown time. I have everything including snacks planned. I also go to he weighed. The first part helps me to notbhave any leeway to binge. The second helps ne to be accountable.
However it is an aaddiction which I never feel free from. I just have it more under control

This is not appropriate advice for a thread about ED. Your recommendation (some form of restriction, demonised food groups, etc) is what drives the underlying eating disorder.

She didn’t ask for dieting advice, which is what you’ve given, she asked for advice on how to treat an eating disorder.

”The only time I feel in control…” - treatment for BED /any other ED is about relinquishing control from the brain, and giving it back to the body, so that food intake and appetite is regulated subconsciously.

I found Brain Over Binge (book and podcast) massively helpful.

I also, like a previous poster, read a lot about diet culture, the binge-restriction cycle and intuitive eating.

It took time and effort but I'm managed to have a fairly straightforward relationship to food for about 6 years now. I can eat chocolate, biscuits, crisps if I fancy them and stop when I've had enough. Something I never thought would be possible for decades.

This is the answer. You need to take the power that food has over you and neutralise it. You will never get over binge eating disorder with diets, food restrictions or cutting out food groups.

To me in sounds like you are in the depths of an eating disorder. I don't think this is helpful for the op.

I've had this for so long, and it's honestly making me hate myself.

I'm a secret binger, so it's only got bad since I moved in with DP 5 years ago, as when I was at home with my parents I didn't have enough time on my own to binge enough to cause too much of a problem.

Now, if DP is out at his hobby or at a friend's, or even upstairs on the computer, I grab whatever I can find. 4 bags of crisps followed by 4 chocolate bars and an ice cream, finishing with some sweets.. that was last night. And I'd already been out for a 3 course meal at lunch time and had an extra slice of cake in the afternoon.

I'm hovering around 15 stone which isn't the biggest I've ever been (by far, actually) but I still hate myself and the way I look.

The only thing that really helped me keep my weight low (10st) was going to the gym/swimming but I can't afford a membership at the moment.

My weight has crept up by 5 stone since the start of lockdown.

If I haven't mentioned this, I HATE myself.

I can't have snacks in the house, so what I've done today is buy DP snacks but making sure they're snacks I don't like. I know I'm too lazy to go out looking for snacks. Also deleted delivery food apps off my phone.

I have to do this because I'm so tired, I'm so fat, I'm unmotivated.

People never talk about this side of eating disorders, and it's exhausting.

@ZealAndArdour That's a really interesting post that speaks to me and makes me wonder if I am approaching it wrongly. Can I ask did you have to go private for the eating disorder psychotherapy? I have heard it is nigh on impossible to get eating disorder treatment for binge eating disorder, especially if your weight is not extreme.

@LindaEllen I can sympathise with you. I also hate myself. I hate how I cannot stop binging. I hate how I am ruining my figure. I hate how I fail and let myself down every single day. Its 11am and I am at work. I am on count down until 1pm when I can have my lunch. I've had breakfast, I'm not hungry. But I just want food. I have to bring food into the office for lunch as I cannot trust myself to go to a supermarket for lunch as I will buy so much, then hate myself and spend the rest of the day regretting what I brought/ate. I hate being like this. I've put on 2 stone.

I also cannot afford swimming and gym memberships at the moment.
I eat all DC snacks, I am considering getting the DC a lockable snack box each for their food and I wont be able to access the box.