My earliest food memory was when I was 4 or 5 and sneaking a box of cereal to eat in the basement playroom with my sister. I didn't have access to buying candy until I was about 10 and getting 35 cents to buy a candy bar was a thrill.

I grew up thinking that everything was eaten in 2s - 2 donuts, 2 candy bars, 2 cookies, etc. But I didn't develop full blown binge eating disorder until much, much later when I was in my 30s.

When I was 20. I had an unexpected pregnancy. Before I got pregnant I weighed 135-140, never had an issue with food. I gained quite a bit of weight but the real trouble came after my son was born. He was born with a serious heart condition and passed away at 23 days old. I turned my grief to food cause nobody could help me. I was in a serious depression. Six weeks later we concieved our second child. We had prepared for this family for so long and it was stripped away from us in an instant. So young I thought having another child would "fix me". She was a blessing to us, but I still continued to comfort myself with food. So for me it was two consecutive pregnancies and a extremely tragic event. This was my "trigger" and the excuse I used to continue many years of yo-yo dieting and overeating. I have never really been able to express this to anyone, so thank you for this thread!

Probably from about the age of 8 i was always given homemade dinners , and praised for finishing it.

I never was one for sweet things or junk. But i was soon asking for seconds :o

It's kind of hard for me to tell. I remember being about 4 and crying because my thighs were fat.

When I was about 8, my parents took me to a psychiatrist because they thought I was depressed. My doctor never really knew what was going on, and I was put on and taken off about 21 different medications within 3 years. Some of the heavier duty stuff, like Seroquel and Zyprexa (which I probably shouldn't have even been taking) caused me to gain a LOT of weight. At least, I thought it was a lot of weight. I was really about 5 feet tall and 130 pounds, but I guess in the 6th grade, being a size 11 in those teeny tiny juniors clothes is the absolute end of the world. I got called a whale by stupid boys. Looking back, my current doctor believes that most of my emotional issues at that time were hormonally related rather than psychiatric and those medications caused more harm than good.

I have almost ALWAYS subconsciously considered eating and being fat as an absolutely shameful thing. I don't think I've ever NOT been on a diet. The medications made me crave sugar. I didn't want my parents to see me eating (how embarassing! plus, my mother would scold me.), so I used to sneak boxes of food into my room and eat them, then put the empty boxes back in the pantry. Eventually the shame of eating the food caused me to develop bulimia, which then evolved into anorexia, and I've been alternating back and forth ever since.

At 20, I am still really weird about eating in front of people, and eating alone is ALWAYS a huge trigger to binge and purge, as is eating in my parents' house.

Sorry for the novel. It's always interesting to dig back into my childhood and remember where this came from.

Gosh, so many heartrending stories here! Thanks, everyone, for sharing.

My mom said that she couldn't feed me fast enough when I was a baby, as opposed to my older sibling, who was a fussy, difficult baby who didn't want to eat at all.

But I was normal weight until I was about age 8-10, then I began binge-eating and overeating.

hm.. lets see, my over eating started in 7th grade.. i was really popular.. a cheerleader and then moved to a new state... i ended up becoming friends with a girl and was friends with here for a few months then she started hanging out with another group of girls...( they didnt like me because i had a spanish name and i look white ( familys from spain ) so it was a racist thing ) a couple days before my birthday she and her friends ended up jumping me.. after that i was put onto depression mediacation alot of medication!!.. and was never really the same after that... i still deal with some things depression wise but im trying to get over it.. i know its been a good couple of years but thats when it first started. i never really told anyone bout that...

:eek: Why my scary face?? because I was a cute normal size baby/toddler. Then I was the maybe not the fattest kid in middle school but the only 'plump' 'chubby' one in my class. Went on a diet in fourth grade and lost maybe under 10 pounds..was maybe a size 14 through high school, but all others were tiny and thin. And I am 49 now. yoyoma, do you like motorcycles too? :D

I remember being very interested in food and eating from around age 6. I'd see commercials and WANT whatever they showed. Like, does anyone my age remember Miracle Whip, showing young adults on the beach, enjoying..Miracle Whip sandwiches. Which were just bread with Miracle Whip! I went to my mom and asked her for one.

My mom was extremely health conscious, we did not have store cookies or bags of chips just in the house, only for very special occasions, same with soda...maybe i craved it because we hardly ever had it. Not a good excuse or reason, I know!

Was also a latchkey kid from the age of about 8 or 9. Was not very athletic or I remember watching tv alot, and looking around the kitchen for something edible.

Thanks for sharing all of your personal stories. Hugs to everyone.

Hugs to nmgirl and bama girl!

Jenny

Wow so many stories I havent even got thru them all. But they made me think. I have recently realized my life is out of control and I need to take it back!

When I was young I wasn't allowed to have a snack when I got home from school and I truly was hungry. I would sneak a piece of bread to my room because anything else my mom would notice. Then at the dinner table i could eat as MUCH as I wanted. They always made fun of me for cleaning all the food out. Yet they didn't bother stopping me. I would also love to babysit and eat their junk food. So basically I would come home from school starved and then binge eat at dinner......I eat when im happy and when im stressed....but thats going to stop!

I've always loved my food but it seriously became a problem last year after I found out that my boyfriend had cheated on me, along with other personal issues. It was a very stressful time in my life and I had never been an emotional eater until then. Food was such a comfort, it still is. It's such a hard habit to break. :(

I don't remember myself having a healthy weight
I think the last time was in first grade, I was around 7 y/o.
I've always been the fat girl in the group...

Anyway, I don't remember when I started overeating but it was probably during the summer between first and second grade. My grandmother's friend had a convenience store like 5 streets away from our home and I always had free candies... I remember stealing money in my father's wallet (1 or 2$ at a time) to go buy candies during the lunch hour before going back to school, it was a way for me to make friends, because I always had troubles making friends... well that's all related you know ;)

Eating was, and still is, my way of creating a happy place in my head. To escape what? I don't know, never knew... :?:

When I changed schools in 4th grade. I was exposed to some older kids who made fun of my name and called me fat. Looking back, I was NOT fat. I had a very athletic body. But that sealed the deal. I would go home (now empty because mom started a new job) so I would eat my bad feelings away alone in front of the TV (with sweets!). By the time she came home and asked how my day was, I'd already stuffed the negativity down and said "fine". Thus began the negative self-image, re-inforced by puberty (one of the first in my class) and a life-long battle of self-worth, self-esteem, etc.