How I Conquered Binge Eating Disorder

I developed binge eating disorder when I was 26 years old, after spending countless hours and mental energy on dieting, eating perfectly, and obsessing about my body and weight. Of course, I didn’t actually realize I had BED right away. Instead, after a while I realized it wasn’t normal that I was consuming huge portions of food whenever I was alone. I crammed so much in, and with such intensity, that I scared myself. I turned to the Internet to figure out what, exactly, I was dealing with. After realizing I had a problem, I tried to remedy it. How? By dieting even more, of course! I thought if I could just perfect my way of eating and get the “right” body, then I’d be done with binge eating. It didn’t help that a therapist (one who was not specifically trained to deal with eating disorders) insisted that if I only gave up white flour and white sugar that all of my binge eating problems would be forever solved. Sadly, she was wrong, and although she helped me in many other ways, my binge eating continued, in varying degrees, for a number of years. But instead of telling you what didn’t work, I want to tell you what did. First, I read many, many, many books on the subject of binge and emotional eating. I took Runaway Eating by Cynthia Bulik out of the library numerous times. I read oodles of books by Geneen Roth. For the first time I latched onto the idea that maybe I should be able to eat whatever I wanted. (Every time I tried it, though, I ended up eati...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Addictions Disorders Eating Disorders General Motivation and Inspiration Personal Stories Psychotherapy Self-Help Treatment Weight Loss Binge Eating Disorder Body Image dieting Food Intake Healthy Nutrition Source Type: news