Binge trigger foods not always a problem, why?

1stplace4health

I have been binging since I was a child,I used to secret away food in to my room until had a good stash and then eat the lot. Sometimes I would even eat sugar by the spoonful right out of pack. The older I got the worse it got. My binges were always a combination of psychological distress and physiological addiction. When my binges were triggered by something in my mind I found I would binge on any food. I can relate to binges of veg, salad and fruit. If there was nothing else in house often the veg and salad was all I had so I would eat the lot but sugary high carb stuff was what I craved. On the physical side eating any sort of high carb food would trigger insatiable cravings in me whatever mood I was in before. I tried moderation many many times and it never worked for me. I have had years of therapy to help with emotional issues, I have been on medication at times to try and help with depression etc. The therapy helped me but did not help with the eating disorder. For me I only get peace from that when I illuminate high carb food from my normal day to day eating. Maybe in time I will be able to eat high carb in moderation but for now at least I am loving the peace not having it brings me. I do not feel deprived at all and have no cravings. I have not had a binge for over 6 weeks and I have not been fighting any desire to binge, the need to binge is just not there. That is huge for me because the longest I ever made it alone without bingeing before was 2 weeks and I was fighting the urge most of those two weeks.

Years ago in a 12 step program called food addicts in recovery anonymous I stayed binge free for 8 months solid with a lot of support from my sponsor in group and going to meetings etc. I did manage to not binge with a lot of help but it was still very hard. I was still having to fight the urges very often and I was an emotional wreck near the end. My sponsor refused to work with me any longer because it was upsetting her to hear me crying and struggling so much so often. The thing is that although i followed the food plan perfectly my cravings were being triggered every day by the breakfast that was on my plan. It was oats, natural plain yogurt and a piece of fruit. Sounds so healthy but for me it was triggering because I am so super sensitive to sugars. Others in group found peace but not me. My plan I was given also had an item of fruit with my lunch which again triggered cravings. I am doing better now on my own than I did in group. I can't say for certain if those foods and others will always be a problem for me if ineat them. I can say for certain I have never had so much peace around food as I do now without those foods in my daily life. Maybe after a cooling off period I might find I am ok with fruits and even other things but for now I feel good without them.

You have to be honest with yourself and find what works for you. What works for me is just what works for me, it might be useless for someone else. I do not think there is necessarily one perfect way of eating for everyone. The best way of eating is the one that meats your health needs and enables you to enjoy food in a healthy way. It has taken me decades of experimenting to find what works for me but a lot of that time was wasted by doing same things over and over again that did not work ( the definition of insanity). Try moderation, try therapy, try support groups, try limiting certain foods, try illuminating certain foods, just keep trying things until you find what works for you.

great advice!

onmyown70

I have received some great advice to have a week of no bingeing.

I'm finding today hard, I find after a day of bingeing I am MORE hungry the next day and my husband is at home today, and I find it hard to cope without having a plan. I also imagine I are more kcal on one day than I thought, it's like the child in me came back, and I can be quite a logical person, not when it comes to food. I feel utterly ashamed, the excitement I got from eating packets of millionaire's short bread! I feel angry that it seems I just can't have this kind of food around. I hadn't even thought about it all week, then, being very tired, I just looked at it, and the urge to eat it was overwhelming but I didn't want one, if someone had said "ok you can have one" I wouldn't have had any, it was all of it, I knew I would feel ill and sick and be seeking more foood but I did it anyway!

I remember being ill a while ago, it was almost a relief to not care about food. I would eat a but of jam tart and cake, sonething to settle my stomach but I would quickly feel full - I had no urge to keep eating, or go into a crazy frantic mode seeking more food. I wonder if this is how "normal eaters" feel all the time, hence they can just have small portions of things.

Thanks for reading, I just feel let down with myself, I have to live with others so unless I can sort this out this will happen every weekend and soon I will have to work wih others too, so will be around all their foods...

onmyown70

Ps what does anyone else do to relieve stress/tiredness (when sleep isn't always accessible!).. Or to help them feel that hmmm calm feeling that food gives?

persistentsoul

I think you might find it helpful to speak with a councillor about your self sabotage. You need to increase your self respect enough not to go down a path you know leads to pain.

I have found the longer I go without binging the more respect I have for myself and the easier it is to resist binge. I was cat sitting for a friend past few days staying at her place. I took my own food with me but I had a bit of cheese from her fridge and I found I wanted to eat the whole block, I had another bit and ate more cheese than I intended but I did not eat the whole block and was able to catch myself and say, ok I am still not ok with cheese, I won't eat any more. The cheese craving stayed for 24 hours or so but is gone now. I feel ok.

I find being nice to myself in other ways helps. I wear nice perfume, burn scented candles, play music I like. If bored I play a game online or come on here and see what's going on, join in on threads. Sometimes if very angelic I even do some housework to boost my feel good factor. It feels good to get jobs out of the way. Going for a walk can help. If stressed I find writing can help. I write letters to people venting my frustrations and then sometimes I edit them enough to actually send them and sometimes I find just writing it was enough and I never send them. Speaking about things with someone I trust helps too. Sometimes just letting myself have a good cry helps. Getting lost in a good book can be good too.

WhatMeRunning

I suspect a lot of great advice has been given, I saw great advice in the first reply.

There is not "one thing to tackle" in order to solve binge eating. At it's root binge eating most commonly is caused by emotions meaning it is (brace yourself) an "emotional disorder". That may sound like a bad thing that you don't want to face (who would) but if you want to face this head on and solve it, you need to work it from the emotional and mental health angles as well.

If you are not already seeing a psychiatrist, by all means do so. It can not hurt. It can only help.

Hope I do not sound lecturing in any way. Binge eating is something I have lived through, struggled with, all of that. I did not seek help for binge eating, but it only ever truly went away once I started working on myself seriously with the help of medical professionals (regular doctor and a psychiatrist for that mental angle).

I'm not crazy though.

Seriously.

I'm just freaking stressed out.

Who isn't?

onmyown70

I suspect a lot of great advice has been given, I saw great advice in the first reply.

There is not "one thing to tackle" in order to solve binge eating. At it's root binge eating most commonly is caused by emotions meaning it is (brace yourself) an "emotional disorder". That may sound like a bad thing that you don't want to face (who would) but if you want to face this head on and solve it, you need to work it from the emotional and mental health angles as well.

If you are not already seeing a psychiatrist, by all means do so. It can not hurt. It can only help.

Hope I do not sound lecturing in any way. Binge eating is something I have lived through, struggled with, all of that. I did not seek help for binge eating, but it only ever truly went away once I started working on myself seriously with the help of medical professionals (regular doctor and a psychiatrist for that mental angle).

I'm not crazy though.

Seriously.

I'm just freaking stressed out.

Who isn't?

Hi,

Thank you for replying. From your post I don't think you're crazy, or no more so than anyone else ;-)

It's really kind that people have taken such time to reply and put such thought into those replies too. I can swell on things and my bingeing tends to be repetitive, so lots on these mfp boards have had more patience with me than I have for myself!

I can't get my head around this being entirely an emotional disorder, maybe it is, I'm open to all suggestions (I'm obviously not too knowledgable on my reasons why I do it so always keeping an open mind). I can remember, my grandma buying us all sugared popcorn. I got brought a hue bucket, and I was this skinny tiny thing, my friends got brought some too. Everyone else felt full... But I kept eating, and eating... Until I was sick! I can recall numerous occasions whereby I ate until I felt I'll. I was a slim child (and teenager) and I was always give a dessert. Perhaps the psychological mistakes parents made was I was often given food as a reward but other rewards didn't work with me.

So again, entirely psychological? I don't know. I'm sure anyone does anything bad for them there must be a reason behind it. Gluttony? I'm not sure. I just don't know. I do know I make cakes with my son and I want to eat all of them, not just one, all. The. All I can think about (if I do eat some) is how to get more.

I appreciate I need some help, but it's not accessible at the moment.

I know basic strategies like ensuring to eat breakfast (I was bingeing my most when I was having breakfast every day), I was also bingeing when I was ensuring I had regular meals, including oil in my diet (I actively ensured I had extra fat in my diet, I can't help but think this will be a weakness I will always have. However, I'm hopeful. I do get low moods (whether that's the chicken and egg scenario with my bingeing) and ofcourse stress and tiredness make it loads worse bit stress and tiredness are part of life (maybe this is the argument about seeing a psychologist comes into play ;-) ).

I don't knew, I know I have had stages in my life I have not binged for a while but I have been doing this for so long.. Sigh.

onmyown70

Ps I can also say not bingeing my diet and eating reasonably healthy made me look and feel hundred percent better, but after a night of little sleep and being "caught in the moment" (we had demanding kids, guests and food about" I just impulsively gobbled it all up and went into a. Feeding frenzy. I can be a normal functioning mum, then boom I'm a nutcase!

WhatMeRunning

It can be different from person to person, I imagine, I am not claiming to be an expert on the mental aspect of binge eating. I only know from my own experience.

There can be physical reasons for overeating. some people have no off-switch when it comes to hunger, for example.

One thing that made me rethink, or think harder perhaps about some of the reasons for binge eating was how many of us have been trained, in a Pavlovian sense really, to want food to feel better emotionally, or just to help us through from one distraction to the next. The way it was explained to me that I recall was how parents can tend sometimes to get their kids to "shut up" (pardon the expression) by distracting them with some yummy treat. When you are sad, or hurt, or whatever, it is pretty common to "treat" someone. Hell, we have the term "comfort food". Does that comfort food make you feel good? Is that an emotion?

Again, for me, while I found it hard to see (really in the end it was that I found it hard to "accept") that perhaps emotions/stress were at the root of it, once I took steps to address the stress, and in my case depression, I found myself in those moments where I would be pacing around the kitchen while talking on the phone and grabbing the bag of chips from the top of the fridge...but this time I NOTICED that I took them, and put them back. I began noticing when my legs would bounce around in a nervous manner due to stress that for some reason I was in a snacky mood. I started to see some correlations that I had never made before.

Each person is different. They have different triggers, and react in different ways. But one thing I do know from my psychiatrist is that binge eating is indeed a known emotional disorder. That doesn't have to sit well with everyone, but it is listed as an emotional disorder no matter how anyone feels about it.

That does not mean that YOU may not have an underlying physical cause. But you should start trying to weed out the options by addressing things to find out what can definitely be eliminated as an option.

Hope this helps. It might not, for one or more of many possible reasons. Just offering my insight from my experience is all.

onmyown70

persistentsoul wrote: »

I have been binging since I was a child,I used to secret away food in to my room until had a good stash and then eat the lot. Sometimes I would even eat sugar by the spoonful right out of pack. The older I got the worse it got. My binges were always a combination of psychological distress and physiological addiction. When my binges were triggered by something in my mind I found I would binge on any food. I can relate to binges of veg, salad and fruit. If there was nothing else in house often the veg and salad was all I had so I would eat the lot but sugary high carb stuff was what I craved. On the physical side eating any sort of high carb food would trigger insatiable cravings in me whatever mood I was in before. I tried moderation many many times and it never worked for me. I have had years of therapy to help with emotional issues, I have been on medication at times to try and help with depression etc. The therapy helped me but did not help with the eating disorder. For me I only get peace from that when I illuminate high carb food from my normal day to day eating. Maybe in time I will be able to eat high carb in moderation but for now at least I am loving the peace not having it brings me. I do not feel deprived at all and have no cravings. I have not had a binge for over 6 weeks and I have not been fighting any desire to binge, the need to binge is just not there. That is huge for me because the longest I ever made it alone without bingeing before was 2 weeks and I was fighting the urge most of those two weeks.

Years ago in a 12 step program called food addicts in recovery anonymous I stayed binge free for 8 months solid with a lot of support from my sponsor in group and going to meetings etc. I did manage to not binge with a lot of help but it was still very hard. I was still having to fight the urges very often and I was an emotional wreck near the end. My sponsor refused to work with me any longer because it was upsetting her to hear me crying and struggling so much so often. The thing is that although i followed the food plan perfectly my cravings were being triggered every day by the breakfast that was on my plan. It was oats, natural plain yogurt and a piece of fruit. Sounds so healthy but for me it was triggering because I am so super sensitive to sugars. Others in group found peace but not me. My plan I was given also had an item of fruit with my lunch which again triggered cravings. I am doing better now on my own than I did in group. I can't say for certain if those foods and others will always be a problem for me if ineat them. I can say for certain I have never had so much peace around food as I do now without those foods in my daily life. Maybe after a cooling off period I might find I am ok with fruits and even other things but for now I feel good without them.

You have to be honest with yourself and find what works for you. What works for me is just what works for me, it might be useless for someone else. I do not think there is necessarily one perfect way of eating for everyone. The best way of eating is the one that meats your health needs and enables you to enjoy food in a healthy way. It has taken me decades of experimenting to find what works for me but a lot of that time was wasted by doing same things over and over again that did not work ( the definition of insanity). Try moderation, try therapy, try support groups, try limiting certain foods, try illuminating certain foods, just keep trying things until you find what works for you.

so helpful. I'm always trying to be like others, to be normal, I've always been the "if I have one slice, I want the lot" type and I really don't think this will ever change. Whenever I deviate from my own plan, to be like my professional friends or follow the advice of my medical friends it all goes wrong!