Binge eating help!

After years of struggling, the only thing that has helped me is starting on prozac. I still struggle with overeating, but I don't fixate on food *as much* and rarely binge.

i don't have any advice on the mental aspect but to control my binges i drink a lot of water, a lot, sometimes twice the recommeneded amount...i carry a big water bottle with wherever i go and anytime i start getting cravings,start thinking about food etc i drink the water. since i think about food a lot i drink a lot of water. that's just about controling the binges i don't really have any advice for the mental health aspect....but i have it heard recommended to not start a diet until you are happy with your body/self. that way you are putting less pressure on yourself and not freaking out during set backs

I was a binge eater from about the age of 15 to my late 20's/early 30's. Mine was triggered by an extremely restrictive diet at age 14 and for the most part was because of trying to restrict what I was eating, but also became a crutch when dealing with uncomfortable feelings. I read books about it, did workbooks, and even went to therapy.

I can't tell you exactly when or how I made the shift from someone who binge eats to someone who just overeats occasionally, but I can tell you some things that I know helped. For me, I had to stop focusing on how much I couldn't eat if I wanted to lose weight, or feeling sorry for myself or jealous of people who didn't have this same struggle as I did. I think when I started to make peace with myself and my body,and focus more on what I could eat and what I could do it helped shift my focus from negative to positive. I also started focusing more on eating for health than for weight loss. I think for me that was huge, as someone who has struggled with weight for most of my life. Sometimes even tracking food for me would trigger anxiety, so when I started up again I made it more of just being aware of what I was eating, not necessarily doing it to try to lose weight. Just that act of being more mindful about what I was eating--even if not with the goal to lose weight, was very helpful for me. Eventually (and pretty quickly) I started eating in a deficit--but a mild one, as anything too restrictive for me will trigger obsessive thoughts about food, calories, etc.

I think practicing mindfulness in general is a great thing for our overall mental health, and especially when used in conjunction with our eating. It takes a LONG time to do this and it's something I'm still working on. I think for me (and a lot of people who struggle with this, really) is that I didn't like dealing with uncomfortable feelings, so I would do what I could to avoid them (and still do). One of these things was binge eating. Just being aware of and sitting with uncomfortable feelings can be really powerful. Maybe even something like journaling would be helpful, if you're into that kind of thing.

Practically speaking, if there are foods that you are more prone to binge on, I probably wouldn't even keep those in the house. Or if you do, get the single-serve packages. I now can keep pretty much any foods in the house and won't binge on anything, although may overeat those favorite foods from time to time.

It does take time to get over binge eating and you'll have to find what works for you, but it can be done. Good luck!

Same boat here x