Hi everyone! I'm new here. I used to read all these forums a lot, but today I realized I really need actual help. I need to talk to others who understand what I'm going through.

I'll suppose I should say a little bit about myself. I'm a college student, and this summer I'm interning at a law firm and living with two friends. No one knows I struggle with bingeing, and it would be so hard to tell from looking at me. I'm not overweight at all, but I have terrible binge eating problems that for the past few months have been getting worse and worse.

I have always strugged with food issues. I was a ballet dancer for years, and it ruined my body image for life haha. I have an horrifying fear of gaining weight, so I restrict then binge later on. Basically, I look like the stereotypical pretty outgoing sorority girl but inside I see myself as ugly, fat and absolutely out of control with my eating. I'm kind of an a-list type and my struggle to be perfect in everything is what I think got me into this mess. I binge to ease the anxiety, stress and loneliness that I feel I can't admit to. My binges also tend to go hand in hand with my pretty heavy drinking. I want to be social and go out and have fun, but when I drink I tend to end up in my room later eating entire boxes of cereal, loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter etc. etc.

This summer is the first time I'm living on my own, not eating at a cafeteria and so having food around me all the time is been hard. I also am in a new city and so I know stress and missing my family plays heavily into my overeating. It's just wearing me down inside. I can't afford a gym either, which is basically how I've kept my weight in check in the past. So the whole freaking-out about gaining weight thing is causing me to binge even more. I don't know what to do. I just want someone to talk to.

I'd love to find other college-age people here but I'd be happy to talk to anyone. Thanks so much! I admire you all in your struggles to overcome bingeing. That's why I'm here and what I want to do.

Welcome! I've also been reading this forum for awhile but realized recently I need to become much more active to actually use this site as a tool.

I also realized recently I binge. I never thought of myself that way but what else would you call it if you can eat a whole bag of chips, two popsicles and more in a sitting.

I would look into free counseling at your school. I've been out of college for four years but my school offering it and I went to a state school. It's a great resource to use, I know I couldn't have afforded any other type of counseling when I was in college!

I was also lucky enough to have a nutritionist at my school. You should check and see if there is a program at your college. They are usually willing to help you out on the side.


GOOD LUCK!!

Welcome...I'm new here too and can't wait to see what I can achieve with lots of support and inspiration. Good luck to us all!

Thanks for your responses! It's great to meet you all.

And thanks for the advice mypunkrockromance. I agree, I really need to look into that kind of stuff when I get back to school.

Good luck to you both!!

Hello Rose:
Welcome!

Good job on reaching out and looking for support. Being on your own out in the world for the first time can definitely be scary. It's so important to find people you can connect with.

Can totally relate. I'm 26 now and first started bingeing (and purging) in college and I can say from experience that those habits die hard. I don't necessarily look like a binge eater from the outside, but as they say in AA, this disease is progressive and will only get worse.

There is hope, though. Hang in there!

Hello! I'm new to this part of the forum as well. I just found this part of your first post very interesting. I have always been overweight, but when I went to college I lost quite a bit of weight my first year without really trying. I think it's because that was the first time in my life when I wasn't surrounded by food all the time, and I had to eat in the cafeteria at distinct times.

Wow, my eating really is guided by tons of factors other than hunger.

I just wanted to say I could identify with the fear of being surrounded by food. Good luck, post a lot and you'll get lots of help!

Welcome Rose!
I also joined this forum just a couple of weeks ago, but I can say that staying in touch with all the other members, reading, writing and sharing, is helping me A LOT. Sometimes it relieves me, other times it lets me understand my binge-problem from a new and fresh point of view

I can totally relate to your story. I've been a binge eater in the high school, then I moved to another city to go to the University, living with strangers who had no clue about what was going on. At first it was awful, because I was so stressed... first I was stressed because I wasn't able to binge when I wanted, I had less freedom let's say... second, I didn't want they to discover me, to find me stuffing my face with food But after the first period of struggling, it got a little better, exactly from those two points that were stressing me. I binged a little less, for the shame and the impossibility to do that.
Of course it was not a cure (even if I hoped so) but at least I was avoiding too much disaster.

hello,

Welcome to the forum. Im new as well. I dont not suffer from bingeing but I am 20 and I am here to help you through anything. If you need to talk know that i am here as well as MANY MANY MANY others. I know you will find some comfort in this website. im dieting and this website has helped me EVERYDAY through my journey.

Everyone is so supportive and willing to help each other through.

Take it day by day and like I said i am here for you if you was to talk. Just shoot me a message and Good Luck!

I'm new here also and I understand where your coming from I use to binge bcuz I was happy,sad,lonely,excited u name the feeling I always had food to confort me or just eat cuz lots of food was around lol but once you take it a day at a time I'm sure it will get much easier! I'm here if u ever need to talk girly

Welcome everyone! It's good that you found this site. I struggle with binging as well.

When I first joined this site, I was relieved to see that my behavoirs are not unique to me. I think you'll find that some of your binge behavoirs are quite common among everyone on this board.

I find that it's really helpful to confess my binges to the forum. You'll get tremendous support, and it well help you from turning one bad night into a bad week, month, year, etc. Also, if I think about having to confess before the binge starts, when I'm flirting with the idea, if you will, I'm less likely to actually eat the food, or if I do start, I'm more likely to stop before I do too much damage to my calories for the day.

Good luck!

Welcome to the forum! I've only been here for about a day but I've already had a ton of support from the members--it's a great place to be!

Hi, I'm new as well. I decided to join this evening after a particularly bad day. I started eating at midday, and continued to eat until eight in the evening...cheese, 3 bags of crisps, chocolate, biscuits, cereal and then a full dinner. I have been feeling sick since and depressed at my behaviour! I want to stop but I don't know why I do it! Good luck everyone in beating your food demons, joining this site is a step in the right direction I hope.

I'm in college, as well! And I can totally empathize with the whole "living on your own, having food around, hard to resist the temptation to eat" thing. Our dining halls are buffet style, and along with having 14 meal points to eat in the dining hall per week, we get $330.00 in credit per semester to spend at the student store where they have a convenience store (TONS of snacks and goodies), Subway, Burger King, Starbucks, pizza, etc. Along with all that, lots of social functions, club meetings, and other events usually have either pizza, hot dogs, and/or burgers. Overall, it's really easy to get ahold of food, and really easy to get fat. D:

Sometimes I'd have 2 - 4 hour breaks between classes and I'd find myself sitting in my room, watching TV shows online, and going through a whole box of cereal. It's horrible. D: But right now I'm not buying any cereal to put in my dorm anymore in order to help fight that cereal addiction. :/

Let's both work hard to overcome this. ;D