# Binge eating?



## rb27 (Jul 17, 2005)

I guess this is in the right place...

Does anyone else have trouble with binge eating? I've struggled with my weight for most of my life, so I'm capable of overeating. Currently I'm 165-170, which is still about ten pounds too much, but I won't pick nits. However, in the past few weeks I've been gorging myself for no apparent reason. It starts so innocently, one day I'll just get some ice cream, but then it balloons from there. Does anybody have suggestions on how to avoid this, other than just getting a stronger will? It's annoying because I'm constantly taking ten pounds off and then putting back on.


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## katie82 (Mar 5, 2006)

oh, yes. i've had problems with compulsive eating since i was very young. ever since i can remember, i've used eating as a way to cope with my emotions and for 'something to do' when i'm bored or stressed out (which is most of the time). i pretty much snack all day long at work, and then come home and eat a lot of junk food in my room every night. i eat way too much sugar, which doesn't help my acne any, and i'm afraid i'm going to get diabetes. a couple of times i've gone through a diet phase where i try to eat really well and excercise (last summer i lost about 25 lbs), but i always go back to the bad habits - i've gained the 25lbs back + more. 

i definitely learned this behavior from my mother - isn't it great that she passed her unhealthy relationship with food on to me? :| 

i really want to stop - i feel horrible all the time physically and emotionally and know that i don't look good either. i have my first appointment with a therapist that specializes in eating disorders this week, and i hope she can help me. if not... back to the drawing board, i guess. maybe an e.d. therapist could help you to find out why you feel the need to go through compulse eating phases? whatever you decide to do, good luck!


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## Melusine (Jun 19, 2004)

Yeah, i'm about 10 pounds over-weight (or at least the weight i want to be) i really hope to lose at least 15 by Summer. I have bouts of depression where i do reach for food for comfort if it doesn't totally sabotage my appetite, i usually eat healthy stuff though, but i have weaknesses all right. 
I think drinking hot herbal tea is a great way to help this.


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## estrella (Jan 7, 2006)

You need some serious motivation. That's the only thing that helped me. Pick a goal and stick with it. Don't say you'll stop eating after this, or at a certain time... just say that to acheive your goal you have to stop what you're doing now and get it over with.

The only thing I can say that will help other than "just getting a stronger will" is to use a will other than your own... perhaps a friend. Tell someone about it (even someone here will do). That way, you're not doing it just for yourself. 

I know that with social anxiety it's very hard to tell someone else about it. But for me, my own motivation was never enough. Well... it would be for a little while, and then I'd end up going back to my old habits-- maybe that's what's happening with you? 

I hope this helps.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

Binge eating is a pretty big problem for me, especially in the past four months or so. I hate it so much. Sometimes it feels like I have absolutely no control and I HAVE to eat until I feel full enough to throw up. I don't know how to help it becuase even when I split up my meals so that I was always full, I still binged. These past two weeks have been abnormal because I haven't been bingeing (well, yesterday I did for the first time in a while) but instead I've been eating much below the amount I should be (around 600 calories). I know I shouldn't but sometimes by totally avoiding food I don't feel compulsed to eat as much as I possibly can. Anyway, I'd much rather feel hungry and a bit weak than feel horrible and guilty (not to mention the physical pains of it) from bingeing.


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

Yes. And nothing has really helped it. I have had a bit of relief from Topamax, a Rx anticonvulsant, but that's it. Nothing else has worked yet for me (not therapy or weird diet tricks or whatever). It's an eating disorder so it tends to run for years or be chronic, esp. if untreated.

I can't remember the last time I was just 10 lbs overweight...

I'm not sure if what you have is the clinical severity or not. Usually when people truly binge eat they will sit down to 2000+ calories and eat it quickly. It's basically non-purging bulimia. Usually on a daily or semi-daily basis. Welcome to my world!


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## rb27 (Jul 17, 2005)

Caedmon said:


> I'm not sure if what you have is the clinical severity or not. Usually when people truly binge eat they will sit down to 2000+ calories and eat it quickly. It's basically non-purging bulimia. Usually on a daily or semi-daily basis. Welcome to my world!


Well, I'm sure I don't endanger myself, but binge eating was the best way I could think of phrasing it. Perhaps it was a bit extreme. However, there was a time in my life where I was more likely to be eating something than not if I wasn't sleeping. My problem is I get on these rolls where I pick up the habit and have a hard time stopping. If I don't watch myself I will gain forty pounds in no time.


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## yellow53 (May 10, 2006)

--


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## archaic (Jan 16, 2006)

I've been doing that a lot recently. In the last two months, I gained back all the weight I'd lost in the last two years (mostly thanks to Topamax) and I'm so worried the scale will keep climbing. And yet, I still eat. 
Luckily, now that school ended (as of one hour and four minutes ago), I'll have more time to go for walks and exercise. 

I generally eat well, but I've been under a lot of stress recently.


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## Bon (Dec 24, 2005)

Yes, I am horrendous with food, terrible, I eat a large volume, I have no idea where I put it, other than my butt. Then I feel bad that I over ate, then, I eat more cause I feel bad about eating. 

You can quit smoking, you just don't smoke.

You can quit drinking, you just don't drink.

But you can't just quit eating. I've done that, seen the other side, it seems like it's never ending. 

My binging has gotten worse in the last year, someone pointed out this is when I went on effexor, I don't know, I did this with paxile too, just not the same degree I guess (weight gain).

Food, my drug of choice.


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## whiteclouds (Mar 18, 2004)

One time I went to a Mexican buffet and the food was so good I didn't stop. I was so full that my stomach hurt really bad and I felt like I was going to puke. I was in such discomfort that I debated going to the bathroom and forcing myself to vomit to ease the pain. I decided to wait it out instead. Luckily, this was just a one-time deal for me. After that, I thought, "Never again!"


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

whiteclouds said:


> One time I went to a Mexican buffet and the food was so good I didn't stop. I was so full that my stomach hurt really bad and I felt like I was going to puke. I was in such discomfort that I debated going to the bathroom and forcing myself to vomit to ease the pain. I decided to wait it out instead. Luckily, this was just a one-time deal for me. After that, I thought, "Never again!"


This happens to me way too often.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

For me, it was that I probably need the food since I exercised so much. I ate what I wanted and still lost 25lbs. But then Paxil came into my life, and even though I still run 20mi/week, the weight came back and them some. I now struggle with weight maintenance - and I run 20mi/week.

I have started eating soups and salads more often, though. It does help. I wonder if that water trick works.


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## omgnoudidnt (Jan 8, 2005)

millenniumman75 said:


> For me, it was that I probably need the food since I exercised so much. I ate what I wanted and still lost 25lbs. But then Paxil came into my life, and even though I still run 20mi/week, the weight came back and them some. I now struggle with weight maintenance - and I run 20mi/week.
> 
> I have started eating soups and salads more often, though. It does help. I wonder if that water trick works.


Water is the best thing for you! I try to drink nothing _but_ water, but if I ever need a "treat" I get silk or a can of diet coke.


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## Paaroska (Mar 16, 2006)

Topamax is used alot for eating disorders, particularly binge eating and compulsive overeating.


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## hallucifuge (Jun 4, 2006)

This problem comes and goes for me.

Some months I'll eat till I'm sick about 5 times a day.

Other months I hardly eat.

All months I feel like crap.

Every time it happens I resent myself.


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## umbrellagirl1980 (Dec 28, 2005)

ianthe said:


> I used to have a problem binge eating, but that was because I was trying to starve myself. So it would be like, eat nothing, eat everything.


i'm like this too. i go through days, weeks, months, however long, eating very very little. and then of course i'm so starved for food that i spend the next few days, weeks, etc eating too much to compensate. this goes round and round again, i can never seem to be normal, to do the in-between. sometimes i will starve one day, and overeat the next. and keep going that way, alternating. other times the cycles last longer, weeks of eating little followed by weeks of eating too much. i just can't seem to ever find the middleground, it's always all or nothing with me. i've struggled with this for a while now. it makes me so unhappy. i deal with it in one way or another every day. food is part of life and i have to face this struggle every single day, multiple times. sometimes i wish i could just take a pill with total nutrition in it and never have to worry about eating at all. i just can't seem to face eating in a remotely normal way. sigh. strangely, my weight stays about the same overall, since i think the starvation periods are balanced out by the overeating ones. i'm a mess really.


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## korey (Apr 25, 2006)

I have a problem with binge eating, especially since I started taking antidepressants. Which is strange because I think the antidepressants I've taken (Lexapro and currently Zoloft) are both supposed to help with eating disorders. I think since I've become less afraid to socialize, I don't have a problem leaving my room to go to the kitchen more often than I should :b I've gained about 25 pounds since I began treatment, which was back in March. Hopefully I'll find a drug or a drug combination soon that will give me relief without making me eat a ton.


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## nothing to fear (Mar 23, 2005)

hallucifuge said:


> This problem comes and goes for me.
> 
> Some months I'll eat till I'm sick about 5 times a day.
> 
> ...


It's like that for myself as well, although I don't go months with hardly eating anything, usually just a few weeks.

Bingeing is weird like that...I just can't seem to control it, even if I try all those little tips that people suggest, but then one day I'd just wake up and not feel like eating, and I"ll eat very little (days, weeks) untill one day I will suddenly feel like bingeing. I'm going through that now actually and even though I think I feel even more depressed than usual, I prefer it because I am eating less.


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## hockeybabe (Nov 10, 2003)

Ah yeah, I remember my "binge" days. I could eat a bag of chips, complete with salsa and cheese, half a cake or whatever else I had a huge craving for and still be starving! Gotta love steroids.

I'm not sure to what else to suggest than what has already been suggested, but but if this does need to be addressed by a professional, as it's not good in the long run (I'm the master of the obvious).


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