You still don't get it. Binge eating disorder is a psychological illness. Of course I take my health seriously, everyone takes their health seriously even if they suffer from a condition that causes them to over eat. You really think it's as simple as changing the foods you eat? That's just one side of it, if you don't address the psychological and emotional issues of eating it will never get better.

Drugs are addictive. Cocaine is addictive. All you have to do is stop doing cocaine to get better. But what led someone to try the drug in the first place? That issue needs to be addressed otherwise that person will continue to go back to harmful substances.

Also, the jury is still out about "organic" vegetables. There are many people who cannot afford to buy organic produce. They shouldn't be made to feel that the vegetables they eat don't provide them with the nutrients they need. There is way too much controversy about this for it even to factor into a discussion about binge eating.

Here is what worked for me after 30+ years of BED (before they even had a name for it):

I separated controlling the binge behavior from dieting. My trigger food was candy, and I averaged about a pound of it per day. The only time I would try to stop eating candy was when I wanted to try to diet, and I failed every time. In fact felt like every week of my adult life was another failed attempt at dieting. Finally at age 45 I decided just to break the candy cycle. I was not going to eat any more no matter what (I told myself I could start eating candy again in my eighties so I wasn't saying "never again").

So to avoid eating candy, I stuffed myself with other food. Not necessarily good for me food or low calorie (at one point I remember eating entire coconut cakes to avoid jelly beans). I know some people report when they stop eating a certain food, they stop craving it after only a few days or weeks. Not me. I struggled with that candy monster for years. The first year it was on my mind multiple times every day.

But I won. Four years after breaking the candy binge cycle, I was able to diet off 100 lbs and keep it off for more than 2 years now. You may not want to read that it was 5+ years to conquer binging AND get to weight I wanted, but it was achievable.

I envy you caryesings. A lot. I have BED as well and it is so hard to even fight some times because I don't have one particular food that I will binge on. If it is edible, I will shove it into my face. When I finally realized I had a problem, was when I was stressed out in my car and I was eating uncooked spaghetti to calm my nerves.

Its a hard disorder to bread because unlike drugs, you have to eat to live. I still have not found out how to get around my binges and fight them off, but it will happen. I want to start going to Over Eaters Anonymous meetings but they are to far away from my house.

One day at a time.

Everyone here has been so inspiring to me. I have often sat and thought "I will never be able to conquer this" but as each day passes, even with the binges/less serious but still detrimental overeating, I have been practicing yoga and meditation while, when I'm under control of myself, eating plenty of veggies and nutritious foods. I'm using yoga to relieve my stress. Every morning it's difficult to get out of bed to do even 20 minutes of yoga. I either feel bad about overeating the day before or just tired from fighting myself.

But I get on that mat and I focus on my breathing. Afterwards I've been meditating. I don't consider myself religious, but I do believe it's important to find that thing in the world you believe is greater than yourself, even if it's simply the wonderful way nature works to balance itself, or how neverending our universe seems from our little planet. It calms me to think that I am a part of something so much bigger than the small things that stress me out everyday, and then it becomes easier later to adjust to small inconveniences and stresses.

Not that I've totally fixed everything. Not even close. I've decided I have no idea what to do, but that it's time I surrender to something that isn't food or shopping.(because I also have a slight issue with compulsively purchasing things to make myself feel better, especially when I feel like overeating/binging.)

The past two weeks I've separted exercise and yoga from my urge to lose weight, and I've separated eating from my urge to lose weight. I've reconnected these things to my urge for health and happiness. While I consider weight loss to be something that will lead me closer to happiness, it's only one small bit of the journey I'm going to take to get there.

For now I'm trying to find calm in my everday life, become more aware of myself and the way I react to things, so that I can eventually conquer the urge to overeat and binge. I'm going to continue searching for something that might help. Previously I've read many books on dieting but they were all the same. Debunking fad diets and crash diets, giving me all the advice I already know. Eating the calories right for your body while avoiding junk food and getting consistent exercise. It's sounds simple because those actions are, up until that moment when I can't stop myself from doing the thing I know is holding my weight loss back.

I'm looking for books that cover binge eating disorder and compulsive overeating. Books that realize if it were a matter of willpower we'd all be slim and fit. Books with some advice on getting to the root of the problem, which is where I need to start.

Thank you all! Sorry for that very long post, but each day I find I am putting aside the thought that "I can't beat this" and replacing it with the thought that "I deserve to beat this, and I can beat this."

:)

You can and will beat this :)

I highly recommend the book, "Brain Over Binge," -- it helped me to see bingeing in a whole different context: neurological. I have read a LOT of self-help books and also saw an ED therapist for a while and although some of the methods and theories I learned from the books and in therapy helped (to varying degrees) they never *stopped* my urges to binge. I was either white-knuckling it or I was bingeing. This book was completely different and something clicked -- this coming from a binge eater of nearly 25 years. If other things aren't working for you, I would give this a shot. Good luck; I truly know how tough this is.

BTW, you're totally right about the advice on dieting/nutrition/exercising/etc. Most people with eating disorders know WAY more than the general public about all of these things. It's about stopping the compulsion to binge; it's an irrational and illogical thing to do. What I have come to understand and embrace is that we are truly not in our "right minds" when we are doing this, so we need to quiet that irrational part of our brains.

Thanks for the advice! I will definitely look into that book. The more I learn about it the more I feel like I'm understanding why.

Before I would just cry and wonder why I couldn't stop myself from doing the one thing that was keeping me from weight loss. Now I'm learning about it everyday and it's helping me break down my feelings and compulsions each time I binge or overeat.

I also struggle with binge eating and I think that charting and monitoring emotional state/triggers for binges makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

Just today, I had a binging episode and basically ate a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting. I was in a group kitchen and there were rice krispies treats, candy and granola bars... and no one else around. Looking back on it, this particular scenario seems to play out for me over and over again (eat everything in my path when no one is around to see it). It seems childish and I always feel like crap afterward. I think it started as a habit and now has become a compulsion.

I don't know if anyone out there has access to a similar environment (room full of food and no one else around), but I think that I'm going to try to stop exposing myself to that environment and start cataloging my emotional state when I feel these binges coming on.

Thanks for the post and the inspiration! I'm new to this forum, but I really appreciate you all sharing your stories/advice. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one struggling with this =)

Hi, I have been reviewing this author's website since I read your post here a few days ago. Indeed I'm reading a lot of sense. I have saught therapy, and I in many ways I feel like I have looked for those emotional barriers that drive my compulsion such as using eating as a coping mechanism to deal with stress/anxiety, having a turbulent emotional past, dealing with my perfectionisms etc. But even facing all these issues they make me hyper aware of all my faults and triggers and spiral me further into depression and bingeing. Because no matter how much I face my past, face my depression, face my problems, address them, seek therapy etc nothing cures my bingeing. Every aha moment doesn't stop me from bingeing. So this makes sense that it's a compulsory habit that I need to "turn off" for lack of a better word.

Anyway, I'll be ordering the book shortly but I am most frightened of learning how to disengage from my urge to binge and consequently not acting on my binge. What do you do to help you do that?