I grew up in a large family with 6 of us kids. I can remember hiding food once when I was about 8 yrs. old. We had a big treehouse that we played in. I snuck some sausage, biscuits and gravy up there to save for later. Imagine my disappointment when I went to eat my stash and found that ants were all over it. Yuck. I never did it again.

I was never overweight as a child or teen. I don't remember bingeing . It was after I moved to college that I realized I could eat 1/2 a large pizza in one sitting and a couple hrs. later eat the entire other half and did this often.

I dont really remember my first time but i do remember skipping breakfast and lunch and then after school cramming sweets into my mouth. I remember eating frozen meals, fluffernutters, candy bars, bowls of cereal, and bagels every single day. Oh yah, i also used to drop a cup of chocolate chips into the Jif PB and eat it until i got them all out. My mom started hiding it from me after a huge jar vanished after three or four days... how horrible.

Thank goodness i'm not doing that anymore. No wonder i'm such a fattie... lol

I dont know why it started or when exactly. But I know several times while growing up I had two dinners - one with my the family that had been baby sitting me since I was a baby and then one with my family, who always got home late. I guess i did it - because it was the social situation? I dont know. But then I remember when I was finally allowed to stay home by myself I would go to the nasty corner store, with the change I collected from the house and buy a big bag of wise potato chips - ride my bike home and precede to eat the entire bag while watching my tv before my parents came home. I remember I would like get salt burns from the chips - but I didn't care.

Also - I remember I used to eat way more than I can eat now - I used to eat like a 20 piece chicken nugget and large fries from mcdonalds - and I never really ate lunch at school - and would come home and eat a HUGE bowl of pasta with parm cheese and olive oil after field hockey practice, and then most likely eat dinner with my parents later.

My mom wasn't much help - sometimes when my father was away on business we would eat a half a pie of pizza with double sausage and onions each.

ok - can't talk about food anymore.

I don't remember when it started either. As a kid I was a picky eater of normal weight. I do remember my mom getting on me all the time about cleaning my plate...I would always get the "people are starving" and "money doesn't grow on trees" speeches about wasting food.

I do remember when I first realized I had a problem. I lived alone in an apartment. It was Saturday morning and I was in the grocery store lane with a bakery pound cake, and tub of cream cheese icing, a pint of ice cream, and a container of strawberry quick...and nothing else. I remember thinking as the cashier rung me up what she must be thinking...I was a little ashamed, but not enough to stop me from going home and eating all that crap.

I wasn't heavy as a child. But came from a large family of nine. I remember when we had something sweet in the house it disappeared right away. Of course none of us ever claimed we ate it. I'm the only one of the nine that has a weight problem.
Sharon

I was 13 or 14 and it was the school holidays and I had my first job doing some cleaning for a family friends' business so I had lots of spare money. At that age you don't really have much to spend money on so every day I'd go down to the dairy and buy two family size bags of chips and one or two ice creams and a bottle of strawberry milk. I had no problem with weight or eating, all my family ate really well and so did I. Except for this, I knew that my mum would be ashamed or angry so I hid the wrappers at the back of my bed. And I remember wondering what the cashier was thinking.

The thing is, although I ate so much crap on a regular basis, I never gained any weight. It lead me to believe I could eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. And for a while I didn't. It wasn't until I started to have a problem with my pretty much perfect body that I started to gain weight.

Ironic.

i was 13, turning 14.
my mom had a gastric bypass surgery and was losing a ton of weight.
i was also trying to lose weight to "keep up with her"
i was on a 600-800 calorie a day diet that i put myself on at that age and walked at least 6-7 miles everyday (i was homeschooled and had the ability to do so)
i tripped up one day and stopped at a 7-11 got doritos and then to an ice cream store and got a 4 scoop shake while i was on one of my walks.
i felt terrible. i came home and tried to throw up and for some reason could not. i knew my dad had pills in the cabinet to make him poop and i ended up purging on laxatives.

that cycle has been extremely present in my life ever since.

i cant remember my first binge eating experience, but i do remember this one. my grandma died when i was in 2nd grade and i remember always seeing my mom eat when she was stressed or sad. i vividly remember saying in my mind, "this is what you do when things dont go right. you eat." yeah, look where that's taken me.

I remember the first time I tried to purge. Someone's birthday party. I ate cake and stuff then tried to purge later, and I think I got one heave of food up before I quit. About two months later I tried purging again and this time I did it until everything was up. My parents took us out to eat at a restaurant that serves mostly fish. I got grilled chicken fillet and vegetables but I just felt bad, so I went into the bathroom and purged until nothing would come up.

And from there it all just became like "Eat whatever and purge!!" I knew it was wrong but I didn't care.

I know this is REALLY sad, but isn't it great to finally realize there are others "like us" out there in the world?

When I was a little girl, my family was poor, but since we were on a farm, we always had our own beef, pork, veggies and fruit, etc. We just ate a lot --
Unfortunately, later on in my life, food really became my comfort -- my friend -- I have always turned to it FIRST in a good day/bad day/whatever day. I am much older than most of you -- and have been battling this my entire life. I struggle every day with not binging -- and most days am not very successful -- cannot imagine how it would feel to go an entire month! THAT is my goal -- to live like a "normal" person for the first time in my life.