Took the 1st step towards therapy for Binge Eating Disorder. Anyone had success in therapy?

amyk0202

So today I asked my son's therapist if she could recommend anyone who specialized in eating disorders. She didn't know anyone off-hand so she said that she would ask the other therapists in the office on Monday.

Has anyone been successful with therapy for Binge Eating Disorder--hiding food, eating secretly, massively overeating when you weren't hungry & it wasn't even good anyway.

If you were successful, what kind of therapy did you do & did you also take any medications--Vyvanse or Topiramate?

I have not been binging & I'm back to 2.5 lbs from my goal weight & I just want to do what I can to never start again. I feel like it's always looming.

Mersie1

I will be successful! I am so close! I will be a success story. I read brain over binge- very good book!

mweckler

Hello I recently was diagnosed with B.E.D, I then started a group on here for other dealing with it as well. I had been dealing with it for about 3 years and thought I was going out of my mind. I finally sought professional help and got a diagnosis and treatment, I was put on Vyvanse and it changed my life. I felt like after years I was finally back in control of food. I have written a couple blog posts detailing what things were like before and after I took the medication, but in short I would hide food, eat in secret shame, lie to my wife and kids about what and how much I was eating, I would "diet" and cheat on the diet every day. I gained a lot of weight and had a slew of health problems and no motivation or energy as well. The medication is a great tool to have and it has helped to eliminate the binges and the urges almost completely. Although when things get really crazy and I am overly stressed I still feel the urge to binge, but when I do it is nowhere near how bad it was before.

1stplace4health

Read Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth. It's life changing. She did an interesting radio show on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FJcEdxTCvc&nohtml5=False
Best wishes

gnarlykickflip

Wow I didn't know there were even medications you could take for BED. I sought treatment when I was in college, but my counselor didn't help me much other than encourage self-reflection. I already knew why I did it! I just needed help stopping!

I think I just had a bad counselor who didn't have any tools beyond "Have you tried not hating yourself?" which was unhelpful. I ended up trying to pull myself out of BED (haha bed) on my own and actually did alright I think? I believe I would have had a much better time getting a grip on the disorder if I had actual guidance, however. I guess I thought that I had to do it alone?

The way I started making progress with the disorder was to stop looking at nutrition facts entirely. I wouldn't let myself feel guilty about anything I ate. This was probably not the best idea, I gained about 15 pounds in a year. But I think it helped me get over the initial shame that was making it hard for me to recover.

Now I am trying to lose weight, and it's hard not to trigger a relapse. I log all my food to make sure that I am eating a minimum amount of calories at least, and I've found this to be the biggest help. I also don't let myself "make up" for any extra calories I take in from the occasional overeating.

That's my story anyway. I'm really interested to see what everyone else says here about therapy and medication. I might bring it up to my therapist and see if there's something else we can do to make it easier for me. Thanks for starting this thread OP!

gnarlykickflip

Also - congratulations on taking the first step and seeking help! That's a good achievement that should be celebrated. Well done!

mweckler

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/112095-binge-eating-disorder

In case you were interested in the group I started here is the link to it.