Emotional eating help?

I’m normally a pretty healthy eater, but recently, as in the past month, I’ve really struggled with binge eating. I do well during the day, but when I get home from work, I can’t stop eating. I don’t know how to stop and I’m really struggling emotionally not to go back to my former eating disorder of anorexia after these binges. Any tips?

Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Beyond my experience. Tell me if this helps.

    http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=48
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Having a history of eating disorders makes everything more difficult, and I really think you should talk to your treatment team, this is not something the general public should mess with.

    That said, "healthy eating" is often a misnomer for "restrictive and obsessive relationship with food". Food isn't just fuel, it gives us pleasure, it's social glue, mood enhancer, it can be used to set boundaries (more and less successfully), it signals personality and group identity. Eating food you really don't like, or just too little, will predictably create cravings, and when the food you have deemed off limits is available, you will devour it in no time as soon as your willpower runs out. And willpower runs out, just as predictably.

    So I would suggest, in addition to seeking professional help, to turn things around. Allow more mentally, and be more restrictive environmentally. Let yourself eat as much as you need of everything you want, but also make sure you don't fill your house with foods you have trouble moderating. If this sounds obvious (like, doh!) - good. If it sounds impossible, I really insist on talking to your treatment team again - you have not recovered.