...to ask has anyone overcome binge eating disorder?

[Sadsoul18]

Hi,

I know this is such a personal question but I wondered if any of you have had binge eating disorder and overcame it.

I’ve had it for many, many years and my weight had yo-yo’d as a result. I want to stop, I want to not hate myself anymore...but I have no clue where to start.

Many thanks.

.

Thank you all for your advice.

What help might the doctor be? (Is it worth going?) I’m overweight, unhealthy and I really need to address this once and for all. Most importantly because I’m so fed up of hating myself for failing every diet going.

My GP referred me to eating disorder service at local hospital where I had quite intensive cbt.

An American friend was treated for bulimia with Provigil (aka modafinil). It's used off-label for eating disorders in the US and is meant to stop you from obsessing about food.

She said it was the first time she'd ever felt like a 'normal person' around food.

I have somewhat overcome BED. I was Bulimic for years and years until it changed to binge eating disorder. I was binging massively 4-5 times a week. The way I got over it was restricting the food I brought into my house. I made a meal plan and tried my hardest to stick to it. It took years as binges still happened but I manged to slowly whittle down the number of binges per week and now I only binge when I'm particularly stressed, tired or hungover and when I do it's much less food than previously.

I found that if i didn't have easy access to food when the urge to binge started I would get upset and struggle but because I couldn't physically binge the urge would eventually subside, which taught me I could wait it out. I wasn't always successful and I'm still not, but it's much better than before.

Another thing is, when you do binge DO NOT restrict food the following day(s). Just pick up where you left off and go back to your regular eating plan. Diets and restriction are huge triggers for binge eating behaviour.

You can also get help from your GP. There are medications that can help with the urge to binge, you could ask to be referred to a dietitian and also counselling or therapy would be helpful to get to the bottom of why you are binging. A good idea is to keep a diary and try to pinpoint what triggers your binges, that way you can devise coping mechanisms to over come them.

Also, for me, getting into exercise and fitness was a huge help. I had to force myself at first to go to the gym but now I love it and whenever I go in the morning I am much less likely to binge and "ruin" my hard work, plus the good feeling I get from working out often curbs the need for comfort that comes from binging.

You can do it OP. It's hard and there will be relapses (don't beat yourself up about these) but it's possible

The Chris Fairburn book Overcoming Binge Eating is really good

For all who may read this, for clarification, this was September 1988 in a letter sent to me from Denmark to London from Ditte.

Depending on Comments I can add later. Thank you all!

760 Days to Freedom

BULIMIA NERVOSA/BULIMARREXIA/BULIMIA

BULIMIA - Psycho-Social Aspects

Little attention is paid in medical circles in Denmark to the problem of Bulimia. All observations indicate that it has become increasingly common, both in Denmark in other countries. The majority of such patients are “normal” women, who handled their social situation well. Problematic family circumstances are frequently described in connection with bulimia. By and large medical establishment today fails in its due to this group of patients.
BULIMIA DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA.

A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating (rapid consumption of a large amount of food with a discrete period of time, usually less than 2 hours.)
B. Least three of the following:
(1) consumption of high calorie, easily ingested food during a binge.
(2) inconspicuous eating during a binge.
(3) termination of such eating episodes by abdominal pain, sleep, social interruption or self-induced vomiting.
(4) repeated attempts to lose weight by several restrictive diets, self-induced vomiting and use of cataracts’/or diuretics
(5) frequent weight fluctuations greater than ten pounds due to alternating binges and fasts.
C. Awareness that the eating pattern is abnormal and fear of not being able to stop eating voluntarily.
D. Depressed mood and self-deprecating thoughts following eating binges.
E. Bulimic episodes are not due to an anorexia nervosa any known physical disorder.

In an article, I have read... Among other things it said “ in most cases the women are living a ‘normal’ life, having a husband/ boyfriend. Often these women are very perfectionist and they appear very clever and well-adjusted. They are regarded as healthy and managed to hide their problems to their surroundings. However, the women are suffering from mental problems due to their binge-eating. In most cases the mental problems are depression, followed by self- blaming, guilt and feeling of shame.

They often isolate themselves. The women are often normal of weight, but they find themselves fat/overweight. Family problems are often described in cases with women suffering from bulimia, “closed” family patterns, where the family members often communicate by using a lot of ‘double’ messages. There exists a wish of behaving/seeming as a perfect family... a Happy family”.

The last thing from the article I would like to mention to you; “However the eating problem itself often starts in connection with a certain incident... In most cases being separation from family, friends or husband.”

Darling, please think about this and what we talked about on the phone... As you know, you are the only person whom I have “revealed” my problem too. Please, keep my “secret”...?! I haven't talked to a Doctor, yet ( perhaps I never will?!) I don't know if I'm ill or “just” unhappy…?! Besides “it” doesn't happen that often... It's just that it continues happening “now and then”, as it has done for years... And it is what worries me!! Ditte

THIS WAS 1988 & WE ARE STILL VERY GOOD FRIENDS

March 1989