Extra Easy Severe BED - Any suggestions????

Shangri-la

Full Member
I have a severe form of BED. The only way that I have kept some element of control is by restricting my binges to once per week. It just means that I am not losing weight at all!. It could be a lot worse because with what I am doing, technically, I could be so much heavier. I have had BED all my life but it was exacerbated after doing several cycles of total food replacement diets between 2008-2010. I did every TFR diet going!!

Yesterday, everything started off as a normal healthy slimming world day and I had my allocated syns with Breakfast, Dinner and supper. Then it all went wrong after 7pm - 12am as usual.

My blowout consisted of - 2weetabix with milk and sugar, 4 slices of white toast with full butter and jam, 2 cadbury caramel bars, 4 packets of variety flavour crisps, 1/2 box of jaffa cakes, one big bag of microwavebale popcorn and other things that I just cannot remember consuming but know that i ate more!!. I feel so humiliated.

How is that for what is called a real blowout!!. I am mortified but have been doing it for years to the extent that the kids start shouting " Oh no, mum is on a binge", hide all the food as we'll have no goodies left in the house"!!!. I get so angry with them. My hubby is away for two weeks otherwise, if he seen me, he would go mad.

After theses binges, I am always so ill the next day, not sick but offensive wind, gas, feeling sick etc. Sometimes they run on for about 3 days!!. I am so depressed and at the end of my tether. The urge to binge is so overwhelming that I never care about anyone else in the house but myself when i need a binge!!

Does anyone have any suggestions for binge eating disorder??. Please and thank you in advance!. I know that this is not a site for disordered eating but everyone is just so friendly on here. I just dont want to end up on meds for my type 2 diabetes but if i cannot stop, this is where i am headed. weight is the least of my issues. Thank you so much again.xx
 
Hello, I would suggest going to the drs and get a referal for therapy. This is what I did for my binge eating and bulimia. Like you, my binges were increased after doing TFR. Never again will I do them. I came to the end of my therapy in Feb. I never in a million years thought it'd work but doing that coupled with sw has made me 'better'

I truly believe its an addiction, one I wish to kick for good xx
 
I mentioned this elsewhere but I had hypnotherapy and it changed my life. I no longer binge, having done it in cycles of daily awfulness. I'm always in recovery, it's an addiction like any other but one that is harder to shake because you can't exactly go cold turkey on food. Id recommend the hypnotherapy if you can find a good therapist. Doctors habitually prescribe anti-depressants for BED and I refused that route. That stems from a lack of understanding of the underlying cause.
 
I don't suffer with it myself but I know what works for me is not having any goodies in the house or if I buy chocolate for my husband I buy snickers or other chocolate I wouldn't eat so even if I fancied something naughty there is nothing to eat except fruit or a muller light :)
 
I have no experience of BED, but I would second seeing your doctor and asking for a referral to a therapist. Some years ago I had CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) for other issues (via the NHS) and it quite literally saved my life. I know it doesn't suit everybody but it worked wonders for me, and is widely used to treat a range of both emotional and physical conditions.
 
I've been diagnosed with BED and honestly the first thing the nurse told me was I couldn't ever try to lose weight again, plus this is mentioned in every single book I've read on BED. Any form of restricting your food will make your urges to binge worse because you know you 'can't' have the chocolate or cake.

I know I'm doing slimming world so obviously I've ignored that advice, but if your BED is very severe then I'm afraid to say you may not get on with SW because it could make it worse.

Look into Intuitive Eating- it's a whole new way of looking at food that will stop your binges and you will naturally lose weight though it's not a 'diet plan' and if you start it with intentions to lose weight you will probably fail and binge. The principle is that we binge because we're denying ourselves of food. If you knew you could eat chocolate any time you wanted you'd actually get bored of it after a while. So with IE you allow yourself free reign of food eating whatever you fancy and not limiting yourself. But the point is you ONLY eat when you are physically hungry and you STOP when you are full. Not when you are so stuffed you can't move, and you don't eat if you are emotionally hungry.

I tried it for a while and actually I didn't binge at all. Search Amazon and there's a good book about it.
 
Have you looked back over the years & discovered what first started the binges? I did this a few months ago & realised it started about 12 yrs ago when I lived alone with my baby daughter & I was lonely & in control of the food shopping for the first time,im not cured by any means there is still a binge around the corner but Its def helped me have some sort of control.You are already doing well with restricting binges to once a week as it could be a lot worse so be proud of that.Ive never really looked into therapy or sought help myself but maybe writing feelings down before you binge & after could help with the emotional side of it? The main thing to focus on is that you are not to blame & you most def aren't the only one going through this so please don't feel humiliated xx Im actually too scared to write down what ive eaten on a binge before it would shock most people! xx
 
Also there's a great book on binge eating disorder by christopher fairburn I really recommend it :)

What helps me not to binge is to deal with my emotions without using food. It can feel pretty awful to sit with strong emotions but after about 15 minutes it subsides by itself. I binge to stuff the emotions down, but in the end it makes it worse because after a binge I feel 10x worse! Urges to binge do come in waves so if you ride it out it will go by itself.

You could think of things to do to distract you from the urge- paint your nails, brush your teeth, go for a walk, clean the house, mow the lawn, play games, watch TV etc.
 
OMG, thank you so much for all your help and fantastic replies. You are such a great bunch of ladies on here.

Firstly, I was refered to a psychologist and I did not find it helped. Other than that, there are no options here in Ireland to treat BED. They just palm you off with anti-depressants which i also tried many times in an effort to get better and start recovering. They did not work either. In relation to hynotherapy, which is a fantastic option, I am not financially solvent whatsoever at the moment as I am a student and hubby was laid off at xmas. We have four kids so really struggling financially.

I get humiliated in the sense that my Husband gets so angry and disgusted with me so I try to do it in secret but the kids have seen me many times and they get aggravated too as I get really ill the following day. This is added to the fact that I am trying to study for my degree which I have to travel away from home every week for. I am either on the road, staying away in accommodation or at home. I really am physically and mentally all over the place.

I think bingeing started about the age of 7 from as far as I can remember. I remember asking for extra cake every time at parties etc. This was during a time which i suffered sexual abuse by an in-law which was ongoing for some years before I told my parents at ten years of age. I am not using this as an excuse for my bingeing. Its just that this is the first episode of bingeing that I can remember. TFR diets made it so much worse though.

I love the idea also of intuitive eating as I have been obssessed with diets, lifestyle changes, calorie counting of all kinds. Its the diabetes and wellness that I should try more to consider rather than my wish to be very slim.

Luckily or not as the case may be, today I am so green with the feeling of sickness that I do not want to binge. You have all given me so much food for thought (excuse the pun) that i need to at least try to start limiting my binges. I dont know whether depression causes binge eating or binge eating is caused by depression?!!. However, I firmly believe that low levels of serotonin in the brain are related to both.

So sorry for the long and tedious post and I really want to thank you all for the help and advice you have all offered me. I will definetely read back over the posts and work on a plan for myself with all the advice you have given me. Thank you.x
 
I am glad you started this thread as I have been doing this a lot lately and it is absolutely horrible. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted x

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MiniMins.com mobile app
 
So very sorry to hear about what you went through,it is painful to look back sometimes but hope it helps to find the root cause.Sometimes I binge just so I can have a really good sleep,sounds daft but eating junk makes me so tired & knocks me out which sometimes I need to switch off.You sound like you have a lot going on at the moment :( In order to heal you do have to be kind to yourself,maybe you could change your user name to something more positive?The way we refer to ourselves can have a very negative impact on our lives.I got diagnosed with bipolar in 2007 so know a bit about depression,feel free to message me if you need a chat x
 
I am glad you started this thread as I have been doing this a lot lately and it is absolutely horrible. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted x

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MiniMins.com mobile app

I genuinely thought that I was one of very few people that suffered from this. Thank you Missa. x
 
So very sorry to hear about what you went through,it is painful to look back sometimes but hope it helps to find the root cause.Sometimes I binge just so I can have a really good sleep,sounds daft but eating junk makes me so tired & knocks me out which sometimes I need to switch off.You sound like you have a lot going on at the moment :( In order to heal you do have to be kind to yourself,maybe you could change your user name to something more positive?The way we refer to ourselves can have a very negative impact on our lives.I got diagnosed with bipolar in 2007 so know a bit about depression,feel free to message me if you need a chat x

Changing my profile name is a great idea, tamkat, if i can just figure out how to do it, lol. Definetely making little things more positive with make me feel more positive. Sorry to hear about the bipolar too but you are so lucky to have got a diagnosis on a positive note.

I am positive I have it and my daughter has it but over here, nobody wants to diagnose it as they dont want to put a 'label' on us. Its more like all they want to do is cover their 'a++++'. They just do not want to be accountable at all. They just fling anti depressants at people who they 'feel' are depressed. I cannot explain or go through the life I have had re impulsivity, promiscuity etc etc before I embarked on trying to 'heal' myself. All that I am left with now is BED which is not so bad considering the years of depression, impulsivity, wreckless behaviours, postnatal depression, etc etc. Without trying to bore you, my daughter is exhibiting all my characteristics now but a hundred times worse and all the medical profession here can to is send her to child and adolescent mental health services who refuse to diagnose but continue to counsel for an undiagnosed or understood illness!!. She just laughs at them and says she finds the service personally very patronising and completely ridiculous(she is a teenager).

Anyway the bottom line is - Mental illness, depression, BED etc etc is so under represented over here. They have the fundraisers, the tokenism ie talking about it on TV etc but at the end of the day, Doctors over here will never put their neck on the line and give a proper diagnosis. All i or my daughter get is - "Well, you definetely have some depression"!!!!!!. So where can you go with that??. Emigrate??, lol.
 
Back
Top