Counselling

[DJD]

I am an overeater. I'll eat almost all day, every day, and I've been this way for as long as I can remember.

Now, the way I see it, if I was bulimic, anorexic, or similar, my GP would organise for me to see a therapist. Maybe I'm wrong about that, I've never had that form of eating disorder.

But my eating disorder has put me at 22st, so my GP can't offer me anything. He tried to refer me to a clinic, but I was rejected for not being big enough, and not in need of surgical intervention. Instead, I'm now signed on to a talking service who will phone me every couple of weeks to discuss how I'm getting on. As much as I appreciate that little bit of help, how come there's nothing out there for people like me who are killing themselves with food? CBT offers ways to avoid self-harming, but it doesn't unlock the root cause. If I was cutting myself, my GP would have me in front of a therapist in no time. How is chronic over eating any different?

I'm three weeks into an Exante diet. I've lost 8lb so far, and I'm starting to feel better already. With any luck I'll be able to stick to it, and soon be at my target weight, but once I'm there what's to stop me just going back to how I was? My relationship with food is unhealthy, so losing a shed load of weight will just give me a blank canvas to start again. I lost 3st on Slimming World a couple of years back, and have gradually put it all back on.

I don't know what I hope to achieve with this thread; maybe someone can offer some advice having been there themselves. All I know is that I'm sick of being scared of food, but stuffing it all in my face anyway.

 

[Stackhead]

Forgive the pun, but I think it's a size issue. 25% of the UK population are obese, that's 15.5 million people so the chances of getting funding for that scale of counselling is quite low.

"how come there's nothing out there for people like me who are killing themselves with food?" <-- there is, you're doing one of them. The market is saturated with ways to stop yourself killing yourself with food.

Eating disorders are psychological conditions, overeating tends not to be (before i'm shot down, yes absolutely it can be a true disorder - but rarely). More often the case is that it's habit, a taught behaviour.

You're abstaining from food right now by doing Exante? Use the time wisely, identify when you would have eaten, what was going on, what were you feeling. And perhaps the more important thing you need to plan for when you stop Exante - will you follow a diet? Will you exercise? When will you shop, prepare, eat.

Unfortunately for those of us with a lot to lose, it's a fight to lose and its an even bigger fight to maintain. And people are only just starting to realise this. There's not a lot of understanding out there (even though its a massive problem!).

 

[heyhannah]

There are therapy/counselling sessions out there revolving around over eating. Of course it is not specifically for it but over eating is usually down to how someone is feeling about themselves or about a certain situation or event. This way counselling/CBT gets to the root cause and then teaches you how to deal with it.
Of course it isn't a miracle fix but I've been having CBT/Therapy for about 7 months now and i've lost 5 stone. I know without the counselling i would never have been able to do it.
Therapy and counselling are 2 completely different things though, therapy is a lot more intense than counselling is.
My therapist is brill, she gets stuff out of me i never even knew about myself.

You just have to be a bit harder on your GP i think, tell him/her exactly how you are feeling and tell him/her how much you really want more help. I hope you find something

 

[msblonde]

The lighter life people provide cbt for food issues and you can also get a good book called the beck diet solution which is cbt based.

There are also over eaters anonymous which is line the AA but for food.

Try putting OA in google and search for a class near you.

I work as a volunteer for drug and alcohol rehab and can highly recommend this approach for food issues.

If you are In devon message me.

 

[Mrs CC]

I have to disagree stackhead. I think overeating for some people is just habit, but for for others it is a condition in the same way other eating disorders are. There is a very big link between binge eating and those with anorexia and bulimia. I know for me, I do binge eat for emotional reasons.

DJD I think you've made a huge step in realising there's more going on here and now you have something to work on with your diet. I personally found the OA book helpful. If you have a look on amazon, I found a lot of helpful books for my kindle focusing purely on dealing with binge eating and not trying to lose weight.