I am a binge eater (I would class myself as certifiably having binge eating disorder) and have been for the better part of 5-6 years now. My problem is, I often have difficult finding the motivation to really recover and stop binge eating from any aspect other than purely because of weight gain.
I would venture to guess that I am kind of an anomaly amongst binge eaters, being a bit thinner (around 5'6" and 120 lb on average), which I credit almost completely to genetics and a high metabolism, combined with being raised to love vegetables and regularly getting plenty of exercise. But still, my binges must be devastating health-wise-- usually between 3000 and 5000 calories, sometimes more, several times a week, and almost always including insane large quantities of unhealthy foods. Eating that much at one time cannot be good! And of course I can literally feel my body trying its best to cope with the overload for hours afterwards, as my body temperature and pulse rate just skyrocket. But even so, the bad effects always wear off eventually, and like I mentioned, considering that the rest of the time I eat healthily and exercise, I feel pretty healthy, even though I know I must not be, considering that I binge basically 2-3 times a week.
I know that I can't continue this lifestyle indefinitely. I can't imagine being 30, 40, 50 and still binge eating like this. But yet, now as it is, I tend to fall into thinking of binge eating as just a hobby, something that I actually enjoy doing. It's only when I (inevitably) start getting more out of control with it and gaining weight that I start becoming desperate to quit. Then I'll get serious, find new coping methods, do everything I can to avoid binging....for a time, until I again start feeling as if I can afford to keep on binging as long as I do it "moderately" enough.
Does anyone else feel like this? Like binge eating is basically OK? Any suggestions how I can find motivation to fully stop doing it aside from gaining weight, when that isn't always necessarily a consequence for me personally?
Thanks so much for any ideas!! I'm really getting to my last frustration with myself for sticking in this cycle.
not sure how old you are but I was that way when I was a young person. (I am 48 now). I usually binged before the period. (terrible week).
anyway, I suggest you find a good Endocrinologist and do some testing of hormones. this could be physical hormonal issue as my case turned out to be.
it took me at least 12 years to find out and try to deal but the doctors nowadays are have much more information available than a decade ago.
Partly my own binges were due to habit: they had became such a "part" of my life that cutting them out would have felt like cutting part of my life out. Kind of like rituals: binge on Friday nights while watching a few episodes of this or that TV series after a stressful week at work... binge everytime I'd read comics... binge on weekends because that's what I'd always do on weekends... etc. So it wasn't easy, in spite of the potential health problems. To get out of it, I tried to find new "rituals" to replace the old, unhealthy ones. One thing I still do, for instance, is having a shower or bath right after dinner—to cut "going on eating out of habit/because I haven't finished my comics issue yet/and so on". It's something that feels pleasant for me, too, because my apartment is quite cold, and so the bath warms me up and has positive outcomes. In other words, if you have "ritualized" your binges, you could try to "ritualize" another behaviour, a pleasant one, to replace them.
Well, that's just one suggestion, and I don't know if it'd work for you. But since you asked... ^^
I've never felt that binge eating is okay but I understand where you are coming from. My motivation comes from just getting up every day knowing that I am getting older and I owe this to myself, I owe myself to have a healthy body and mind, I owe it to myself to be happier and healthier than I was at 21.
I started replacing bingeing with something else. Every time I got the urge to binge I would exercise, go to the bookstore, watch a favorite show, do my nails, read a magazine, basically anything that would keep me from overdoing it. Also I would get a big glass of ice water, and I started stocking up on cheese sticks, so when the mood strikes I will eat that and have a glass or two of water and that feeling eventually passes.
I suppose that, considering that binge eating is very ritualized and habitual, it makes sense to replace it with new habits. The problem is, nothing else seems as good! lol. I am very, very much a "creature of habit" and find great comfort in doing the same things over and over, so I think that's a big part of why I have trouble wanting to give up binge eating. It causes me so much anxiety to let go of such an entrenched habit that it's easier to keep doing it, even considering the bad parts that come along with it.
Well, I'm currently reading Kessler's "The End of Overeating", and am at the very part where he discusses how habits, once formed, are very hard to break. At some point, he mentions a study done with rats who were made to feed on high-sugar, high-fat foods for a week, and then made ill, so that they'd associate the food with being ill, and the next time, they didn't rush back to said food. *But* if they were fed that specific food for 3-4 weeks before being made ill, then the habit was already ingrained, and they'd go back to it, illness or no illness. That's quite interesting: no matter how bloated/sick-feeling binges make us, it seems we do go back to them all the same, right!
It's really a matter of reward, so we need to find better rewards (that also give us a feeling of immediacy) to top the old, bingeing habits... And that's, IMHO, the hard part: the fact that it must be *better* than what we get out of binges. All those talks of "thinner feels better" are crap as far as bingeing is concerned. Sure, being thinner/healthier in the long run IS way better... but there's no immediacy in it. And even when we keep thin in spite of the binges, it just seems normal, and we derive no reward out of it per se. (If this makes sense.)
I'm 5'8 and 132 pounds and I'm a binger, no doubt. I can eat and eat and eat. I'm just not technically overweight. When I quit bingeing and binge drinking I lost a lot of weight and my family accused me of having anorexia and tried to shovel food at me (ugh)
Binge eating, and difficulty wanting to quit?
