Binge Eating Disorder success stories?

Lyra89

Are there any out there? I'm at a very low point at the moment and think I need to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Two years of this and I'm bloody fed up of it, nothing I do works. I just want to eat like a normal person again!

x

_VoV

Bump

graelwyn

Binge eating/bulimia here, I have been in the same place the last week, hitting my lowest point last night/this morning.
Add me if you want some mutual support.
I too am so wanting to just relate to food like a normal person.

Lyra89

^ Thanks Can never have enough support on here. This site is fantastic.

Abigaillee15

I'd like to hear success stories as well! I so badly want to be binge free!

lorro

Hi Lyra, here are those resource:
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=48
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=49

They are links to two free courses for eating disorders, the courses are based on treatment methods that have been shown to be effective in clinical trials. I hope you find them helpful.

So glad you posted, everyone has bad days. It takes courage to admit it and seek support, please give yourself credit for that and for all the good days over the last two years too! :flowerforyou:

anastasiawildflower

I can never say that my story is a success story.
I definitely do not have a solution either.

I can say that my binges were extreme. I would eat anything and everything. Until I was painfully full. Most of the time I would get rid of it and continue on my way. I would take the trash out before my husband got home so he wouldn't realize just how much I ate. I can only imagine that I was eating around 4000 calories within a couple hours time.

It wasn't until I hit my lowest low that some blunt words were put forth and I decided to work on it. I finally opened up to my husband about all of my problems. He didn't seem phased. He just said, "Well you weren't fooling anyone." It hit hard. While he didn't know what to do about it, he knew it was going on.

It was after that, we took bike rides and long walks when there was free time. Just getting out of the apartment was like leaving my loneliness and feeling more free. Also, striving to be a strict vegetarian (cutting out most dairy and by products) helped me feel proud of my eating, which is something I was so unaccustomed to. I'm still very new to logging my food consistently, but it really does help me see what my day has been like and trying to adjust it for the best.

Right now the number one thing keeping me sane with my eating is knowing that I am eating for someone else (19 weeks pregnant), which I wouldn't anticipate being a solution for most of you. The biggest thing was getting out of the apartment. Going to a coffee shop, I knew I was much less likely to dump a bunch of money on food. I also started writing avidly in a journal. Looking through it now, it makes very little sense, but I occupied myself. It was also after reading "Wasted" by Marya Hornbacher (caution: possible trigger) that I saw what I was potentially doing to my body. I couldn't bear to put myself through that.

Light recommendations:
- have a hobby to keep your hands and mind busy
- strive for a healthy diet which you can log
- get out of your binge-zone

anastasiawildflower

As normal as you want to feel, this disorder will always be in the back of your mind. Some days you will fight the thoughts more than others. Here are 3 excerpts from "Wasted" which are always bookmarked.

"It is not a sudden leap from sick to well. It is a slow, strange meander from sick to mostly well. The misconception that eating disorders are a medical disease in the traditional sense is not helpful here. There is no 'cure.' A pill will not fix it, though it may help. Ditto therapy, ditto food, ditto endless support from family and friends. You fix it yourself. It is the hardest thing I have ever done, and I found myself stronger for doing it. Much stronger.
Never, never underestimate the power of desire. If you want to live badly enough, you can live. The greater question, at least for me, was: How do I decide I want to live?"


"You never come back, not all the way. Always, there is an odd distance between you and the people you love and the people you meet, a barrier, thin as the glass of a mirror. You never come all the way out of the mirror; you stand, for the rest of your life, with one foot in this world and one in another, where everything is upside down and backward and sad."


"This is the weird aftermath, when it is not exactly over, and yet you have given it up. You go back and forth in your head, often, about giving it up. It's hard to understand, when you are sitting there in your chair, having breakfast or whatever, that giving it up is stronger than holding on, that "letting yourself go" could mean you have succeeded rather than failed. You eat your godd**n Cheerios and bicker with the b*tch in your head who keeps telling you you're fat and week: Shut up, you say, I'm busy, leave me alone. When she leaves you alone, there's a silence and a solitude that will take some getting used to. You will miss her sometimes.
Bear in mind she's trying to kill you. Bear in mind you have a life to live.
There is an incredible loss. There is profound grief. And there is, in the end, after a long time and more work than you ever thought possible, a time when it gets easier."



*Sorry this became so long. I don't want to take over the thread, rather just share some simple words.

steamlita

I've dealt with binge eating my whole life. Even when I was a little kid, I had no food meter. I ate as much as I could until it hurt because it tasted good and I went from chubby toddler to fat child to obese pre-teen-- and then I started calorie counting/restricting, and in the last few years with symptoms of anorexia (extended fasting) and bulimia laced with binges.

Anapai's right-- there's no real advice to give, it's all individual because it's disordered eating... I can give tips on how to make it less harmful or how to avoid gaining weight.

For me, what helps is stocking the house only with healthy food. Then at least it's less calories for the volume of food you binge on. Canned food is also good, because during a binge episode usually I'm too lazy to actually open or prepare something-- I just go for snack foods I can grab by the handful, like anything in a bag-- popcorn, nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate or carob chips... but I also binge on peanut butter, haha.

That being said, avoid buying these foods in large amounts. Seriously. Avoid it, because binging episodes are unpredictable, and if you're in a dark place you need to take precautions ahead of time.

Pamelanicole715

So this is my first time reaching out to anyone on here .. mys sister got me started on this site .. im trying but i find myself binge eating as well .. i doo sooo good out at work and with my family then i get alone and i just eat .. last night i sat down and ate a whole sitting of little ceasers cheese bread as a meal! it was 1300 cals. and yet i still ate it!