To beg you for help on stopping binging

[Reallyfatandmiserable]

I’ve tried it all. Dieting, not dieting, hypnotherapy, not having food in the house, eating well. Last night after I ate FOUR cadburys chocolate yoghurts in a row I wondered if I could burn off the sweet taste buds in my tongue so that I just fucking stop. I’m addicted to sugar. It’s disgusting. I eat an obscene amount of it every day, I waste money on it, I’m ashamed every time I go into one of my local shops and wonder what they think of me. I have had blood tests and all of fine. I take magnesium tablets and it doesn’t change. I try adding cinnamon and it doesn’t work. I have a good diet most of the time, but I binge on chocolate every single day. I have told my GP and nothing. I contacted BEAT and they were useless. I told my counsellor and she mostly dismisses it.

I can’t do this any more. It’s ruining my life. I have ADHD and I presume this might be a response to that. I’ve been doing it since I was a child but it is out of control.

And PLEASE don’t just say things like ‘yo just stop eating it’. If you’ve never had a severe addiction then you don’t understand. And this is like an addiction. Smokers don’t quit smoking after being told to just stop, it doesn’t work like that, I wish to god it did. It’s an eating disorder I guess. I can’t cope.

Please, if you quit sugar, how did you do it? I can’t carry on like this.

I am the same, for the past 50 years! Ever since school made a big thing of me being overweight, "banning" me from the school tuck shop, etc., which just forced my eating underground (well in my case, getting friends to buy it and I ate in the school loos!). On my drive to/from work, I'd stop at petrol stations to buy crap and eat it on the move. I'd find "reasons" (excuses) to go out, say to the post office, to buy crap and eat it back at home. It was always "hidden" eating, I ate perfectly normally when family were around, i.e. usual meals, no binging etc.

First thing I did was to get a job closer to home so I wasn't on the road so much and didn't have any petrol stations between home and work. What a result! Broke the habit! Then I concentrated on not finding excuses to go out shopping on my own - I'd get "someone" to go with me, i.e. either OH or DS as I knew if I wasn't on my own, I wouldn't buy a load of crap to binge on.

I know it doesn't work for everyone, but for me, it was changing lifestyle so I had less opportunity to buy the crap in the first place. I've lost around 8 stones, but it's taken a long time, close to 20 years, so very slow. I still binge, but now it's maybe once a month rather than daily. I don't think you can fully cure yourself and stop yourself doing it, but, for me at least, removing the opportunity was the key.

But as other posters have said, help/support from the NHS was useless. I've got high blood pressure and Type 2 Diabetes, but a succession of GPs, diabetic nurses, dieticians, etc., can't come up with anything better than "eat more beans and pulses" or "try to use a bit of willpower and not eat so much" - doh! As for mental health support/counselling, I've asked and asked, but GPs have constantly told me that they won't refer for binge eating! Having said that, I did once have a diabetic nurse who actually seemed to try to be helpful, telling me binge eating was my "crutch" in the same way that others would drink or smoke or take drugs, and that virtually everyone had some kind of "crutch" - that really helped me put things into perspective and helped to stop me hating myself when I started to think of it as similar to smoking or boozing!

There is a self help book for binge eating by Dr Chris Fairburn. He suggests that you eat 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks per day. Well, read it and see what you think.

I would suggest that you are being very hard on yourself. You seem to expect an instant cure when you have had this behaviour for a lifetime. It will take you a while to heal. You need to be patient with yourself.

Have you tried Slimpod?

Who do you live with? You need to build a support network like all people battling addiction. People who are supportive. And I would try cold Turkey. Book a few days off work and lock yourself in your house so you can't go and get it. People go cold Turkey from drugs and it takes a few days but eventually gets easier.

I suffered from bulimia when I was younger. What worked (within a few days) was 60mg fluoxetine, the usual dose for depression is 20mg.

This is the book that changed things for me, never did another fad/ yo yo diet and although I still sometimes comfort eat I don't sit and eat a whole packet of biscuits till I feel sick (sympathise and know the feeling so well)
It's not an easy read but it really did change my mindset!
Overcoming Overeating: Conquer Your Obsession With Food: Conquer Your Obsession with Food Forever by Jane Hirschmann & Carol Munter (2000-01-06) https://amzn.eu/d/dKH5s40

Do you really think this is a helpful thing to say to someone who is clearly in the grips of a serious eating disorder? When you typed that out did you actually think it was going to help?

It's clearly not as easy as 'stick to 3 meals and no snacks' because if it was then op wouldn't be desperate and asking for help

I agree, she sounds like a stereotypical NHS doctor/nurse as that's exactly the kind of crap they like to spout.

It was depressing but it worked - I stuck the most awful photo of myself on the fridge. I could barely look at it, it was so unattractive.

it did make me feel like shit but it worked and I lost weight.

on top of that, the ONLY way I can stop myself binging sugar is steer clear completely. The second I have a biscuit…. It turns to ten.

i really hope you find something that works for you OP 💖

I completely agree with you.
I've tried every possible method possible (I'm 47) for years and the only thing that worked was to treat it like a drug addiction or acholism.
Once you've got over the horrible period, you honestly don't need it anymore.

Sorry that was in response to an earlier poster!

I've been suffering with this for years

I had a chat with my counsellor about it. She explained that sometimes your habits get stuck in a groove which feels natural to you but is well trodden. My mum used to do this, I see it as a form of control over situations I can't control

Each time I head to the cupboard it helps to see it as a habit, though it feels like a compulsion, which is a groove but something I want to get out of. That's stopped me doing it for about a week now

Also keeping a food diary & recognising my emotional state seems to dictate this has helped

Not a doctor but do have ADHD, you should not be on Sertraline or any SSRIs if you have ADHD. It makes it worse, way worse. Speaking from experience. I was prescribed it post birth with my lo in 2022, I also have BP2. Never have I been so mentally unwell, I nearly lost my job and relationship. Plus Stertraline is incredibly hard to come off of. I missed a dose on holiday and ended up in hospital and a few more times after that from withdrawals. Anyway, sidenote I’m also struggling with sugar, managed to quit for a month until I got pregnant now the battle is back. Will easily go through a large bar in one go. Dark chocolate was my go to with cravings but that only makes me want the sugar version more now. Cravings are unbearable afternoon/evening, it’s like I cannot focus at all until I have my fix. . I’ve been following the glucose revolution and putting cider vinegar in water has helped ease the craving in the day. I don’t have sugar in anything, at all otherwise. Not even coffee. I think it’s down to my ADHD needing a reward. Even terrifying myself with diabetes isn’t working. I’m already 5 kg off my last pregnancy full term weight and it’s not healthy. Got to the stage now I’m considering hypnotherapy. Seriously, quitting booze, nicotine and caffeine for me previously was way easier than quitting sugar. I managed to do coffee very easily because I found a great decaf. Good luck, keep trying, there’ll be a solution.

I know this is a really old thread (I found it while searching for binge eating advice and sugar addiction), but @Reallyfatandmiserable and others who were struggling, did you find anything to help? I'm in this situation now and really struggling. Would love to hear if anything was useful.

@CrawlingFromShitshowToAfterglow

there were two things in combination that worked for me, the idea from Gillian Riley https://www.eatinglessonline.com/ that I should eat according to how I would feel after eating plus a really radical ‘cold turkey’ on sugar and starchy carbs.

I filled up with lots of protein and leafy green veg, with fat in the form of delicious ( oil / apple cider vinegar - not balsamic dressing ). I didn’t touch starchy carbs or any form of sugar.

For a good few days it was as if a voice was screaming in my head eat ….

every kind of sugar and starchy carbs that I had decided to not eat. Brain switching from one to the next as if my very life depended on it.

then on day I woke up and that noise was just gone. I could eat good food, meat and leafy green veg and butter, creme and oil, feel satisfied and just not over eat. It’s quite hard to overeat those kind of food, for me it’s the processed junk that makes me over eat

drink plenty of water

only when I’m sad or bored do I feel tempted to go and get something to eat and it’s relatively easy to work out what’s wrong and fix that rather than bury my emotions in overindulging in junk food.

The think that mostly keeps me on track is how I value this level of peace around food. I really don’t want to go back to the lethargy I felt in my overeating days.

happy for you or anyone to DM if they would like more details. Hope you find what works for you.

I control sugar cravings by swapping to natural sugar alternatives where I can. Still sweet and nutritious but less addictive. So instead of a chocolate bar I'll have a sesame snap. Instead of ice cream I'll have natural yoghurt with a swirl of honey and some nuts. Instead of haribo I'll have dried mango. Instead of a fizzy drink I'll have sparking water with a slice of lemon or a dash of something or an appetizer which is just fizzy apple juice. So my suggestion would be stop buying the things you don't want to be eating and explore healthier alternatives that you'll still enjoy.

Options

1. ketogenic diet
2. hypnotherapy
3. weight loss injections eg wegovy or Mournjaro