A Guide to Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder
*Please note that this is general information, and is not meant to replace treatment for binge eating disorders. Please reach out for support if you are struggling.*
Binge Eating Disorder is the most common Eating Disorder, impacting more people than Anorexia and Bulimia combined. At Reclaim Therapy, our therapists specialize in treating Binge Eating disorders because we know how hard it is to find specialized, quality treatment for this often misunderstood disorder.
If you’re here, you likely know the pain that comes along with binge eating; both emotional and physical. The shame that binge eating is steeped in is upheld by our culture. It is taught to us at an early age, and reinforced over the years everywhere we turn- doctors’ offices, gyms, social media, and yes- with family and friends. We’re taught that food is to be feared because of its potential impact (the culture’s narrative!) on the body- and when we’re bombarded with messages that bodies should appear and function a certain way- it can feel like there’s no other option but to fear food.
why is this important?
When people are in fear of food because it is taught to us and upheld so strongly over the years many individuals find themselves struggling and remaining stuck in binge eating behaviors.
is there more to overcoming binge eating disorders?
Of course! This is why we’ve created this post. We want to help you get a feel for this work, and what we have found to be some of the most common points of recovery from binge eating disorder.
That being said, we also want you to know that this work is nuanced and individual. So, consider this a bird’s eye view- a place to start in considering this work and what it *could* entail for you.
Let’s get into it- the steps in recovery that we’ve found move our clients closer to a more peaceful relationship with food.
Take a deep breath and get curious
The work of recovery from binge eating disorder is challenging and extremely brave. It invites you to recognize the many layers of complexity in your human experience, in how you care for yourself, and the intersection between your lived experience and the cultural expectations of bodies and perfection.
starting with curiosity allows you to shift out of guilt and shame and turn toward yourself in a whole new way.
Being curious about your emotional and lived experiences, the stories in your mind that elicit bingeing as a response to overwhelming emotions and external triggers allows you to see them for what they are- pain and suffering. Instead of pathologizing the behavior and spiraling with shame stories of being epically flawed or a lost cause, curiosity allows you to see how behaviors may have become an adaptive response, a way to survive and care for yourself in tough moments, or even a way for your body to get what it needs.
Curiosity allows you to invite empathy and compassion into your lived experiences- both of which are antidotes to guilt and shame.
When you’re curious about where you are, how you got here, and how you can support yourself to see your way out, you can move toward change. Without curiosity, we (as humans!) tend to stay where we are, cycling through painful behaviors and self-beliefs.
Do the hard work of addressing how you may be restricting food.
When we begin binge eating disorder treatment one of the most common starting points is taking a long hard look at restriction. Hang with me here- you might be rolling your eyes and shaking your head saying, “Sarah, restricting is the opposite of my problem!” I get it, I’ve heard it hundreds of times.
but, as I shared earlier, most people struggling with binge eating disorders are restricting in some way.
This is where we, again, can get curious. Restriction can occur in a number of ways, some of which you likely haven’t considered.
Let’s start with the obvious- dieting
Most people we work with who are struggling with binge eating have a history of dieting. Many recall starting their first diet as early as the age of 8 and cycling in and out of diet throughout adulthood. If you’re one of these people, you know the cycle all too well:
Start the diet → see some ‘success’ → life gets in the way → emotional and physical hunger strike → binge → guilt and shame spiral → jump back on the diet.
And, repeat.
The reality of restricting food (ie dieting) is that it sets you up to binge. Dieting is unsuccessful for 95% of people because your body fights against it. Your body is smart. It is hard-wired to survive. When it senses famine, it shifts into survival mode and propels you toward food.
A great study that speaks to this experience is the Minnesota Starvation Study. Check it out here.
When we work to end restriction through eating frequently and adequately, most people see significant improvement in feeling more in charge of their eating experiences. Will binge eating simply stop? For a few, maybe. For others, there could be more binge eating disorder symptoms of restricting to address.
Restriction can also manifest in food rules.
Most of us have been taught that there are good foods and bad foods. That you’re good if you eat your veggies and bad if you eat processed or highly satisfying foods on the regular. These beliefs about food and you as a person in relation to these foods are a symptom of restriction. And again, where there is a restriction, there will likely be a binge.
How do we address this? By slowly legalizing all foods by challenging your personal food rules. We need to even the playing field so that brownies and carrots are both simply seen as food, one not superior to the other. For most people when the “bad” label is neutralized, they can make decisions to have the brownies or carrots, instead of rebelling against what they feel like they ‘should’ have because of external standards that were created for them, not by them.
When weight loss or body change remains a goal, restriction stays on the table.
And again, as long as the restriction is on the table, you’ll probably remain vulnerable to binge eating disorder. When we work with clients, we support them in how to put weight loss on the back burner and move to a more neutral relationship with their bodies so that normalizing eating patterns can be the priority.
Address restriction post-binge.
This can feel so counterintuitive to most people because they’ve been conditioned to dive headfirst back into their diet after a binge. However, when working to recovery from binge eating disorder, it is imperative to feed yourself regularly after a binge. Not hungry? I get it. But, what can you feed yourself that feels safe and will remind your body that nope, there’s no famine happening here?
Skipping meals or snacks after a binge only reinforces the cyclical pattern of binge eating. The way out is pushing to break the cycle by feeding yourself.
Acknowledge when an intentional or unintentional restriction has played a part in a binge.
This is where getting super curious about your experience is helpful. Maybe you skipped breakfast because life got crazy and you felt you didn’t have time, or maybe you skipped breakfast because all you had was bagels and historically they’ve been ‘bad. Curiosity allows you to see things for what they are and offer yourself space and grace, letting yourself off the hook. This allows you to make the next best decision for your recovery.
Practice the language and skill of self-compassion
Offering yourself self-compassion on the heels of a binge can be enough to interrupt the binge cycle. Self-compassion acknowledges your humanity, your in-the-moment experience, and your suffering. Practicing the language of self-compassion and honing the skill of being able to provide yourself with grace and compassion over judgment and self-beratement opens up a world of possibilities. Most people know all too well that beating themselves up doesn’t produce change, but we aren’t taught how to be with ourselves differently. Honing the skill of turning toward yourself with kindness and compassion allows you to access an entire toolbox of ways to cope and care for yourself.
Reconnect to your body so you can manage any emotional overwhelm
For many people who are suffering from binge eating disorder, their body feels like a battleground. Whether that is because of a lifetime of dieting cycles, the experience of feeling overwhelming oppression and shame because of their body shape or size. Or, because they have experienced trauma in their body, it can feel like an unsafe place to reconnect to and experience.
In our work with people struggling with binge eating disorder, we help them find a safe point of entry to reconnect with their experience of being in their bodies.
This can look like acknowledging discomfort in the body non-judgmentally, practicing grounding exercises, checking in around mealtimes to get to know hunger/fullness/satiety cues, and experiencing emotions in the body. Reconnecting to the body can also look like understanding the story of your body and reclaiming what it means to you and how you hope to experience life in your body.
Many people describe binge eating disorder episodes as feeling like they’re totally disconnected or dissociated. Regularly practicing ways to reconnect mind and body can help with these moments, making you feel more in charge of your eating experiences. Mind-body therapy can help support this.
Disconnect weight from health
Learning about Health at Every Size® is a supportive tool in recovering from binge eating disorder. The Health at Every Size® paradigm supports people to focus on creating health-promoting behaviors, over continuing to strive for body change and weight loss. HAES® also celebrates body diversity and acknowledges the role that social determinants of health have in people’s ability to access those health-promoting behaviors.
Conflating body image issues and health typically lands people in restrictive patterns and exacerbates the binge-restrict cycle. When we can disconnect the two, there is an opportunity to engage in self-care practices from a place of respect and honoring of the body and our most value-driven selves.
If health is what you’re after, weight cycling and self-beratement are a recipe for increased inflammation and stress. Stepping outside of the typical weight loss paradigm allows you to define what health means to you and get curious about what has intercepted your ability to engage in behaviors that are in alignment with that.
Add tools to your coping toolbox helps manage the emotional overwhelm of binge eating disorder.
If turning to food has been your primary way of coping, it’s important to keep the behavior on the table. Yes, that sounds counterintuitive! But, if we take away the only way you’ve been coping, what will you do when things get really tough? (sounds like another sneaky way restriction can bite you in the butt!)
If simply replacing the behavior with another behavior worked, my bet is that you would’ve done that already. You’ve probably already tried following the advice of those well-intentioned folks encouraging you to drink tea, take a bath, or take a walk when you feel an urge coming on. And hey, maybe it worked a couple of times. But for most folks we work with, the binge comes circling back around later, oftentimes with more intensity.
Instead, consider adding in coping tools post-binge, or throughout your day. This allows your brain to start to build new neural pathways in response to stressful experiences and/or emotions. This is important because as you practice new ways of coping in less emotionally charged times, the more they become legitimate options for when things feel intense, allowing you to choose what will best soothe your nervous system when you need to.
What is holding you back from getting binge eating disorder support?
This blog is meant to give you a new lens through understanding your binge eating. Binge eating disorder is complex and looks different on everyone, therefore, this is a focus on the most common ways to begin to overcome binge eating. However, we recognize that it can’t capture the many nuances or specific challenges that most people face. Binge eating disorder therapy will help you create a plan to get you started on a path to recovery and normalizing your relationship with food.
Ready to Begin Binge Eating Disorder Treatment?
Our eating disorder therapists will help you define what recovery means to you and will be here to support you as you do the hard work of uprooting old beliefs about food and your body. At Reclaim Therapy in Pennsylvania, we hope you will be able to find a safe and non-judgmental space here to discuss a wide range of issues, if you’re ready to begin therapy, then get in touch with us and learn more about our eating disorder and binge eating therapists today!
if you’re struggling with binge eating disorder, please know that you’re not alone, you’re not flawed, and that you deserve support.
We’d be honored to support you as you embark on your road to recovery
🧡,
Want more concrete support? Grab the 4 Week Binge Journal here!
looking for a different kind of support?
We know that facing your struggles with body image, disordered eating, and trauma is difficult and can be painful. That is why our mental health clinicians offer a number of different services that will support you exactly where you are in your process. We offer counseling services to Pennsylvania residents for body image issues, binge eating disorder therapy, eating disorder treatment, and PTSD treatment and trauma treatment. All of our counseling services are offered in person at our Horsham, PA office and via online therapy in Pennsylvania.
We also offer group coaching for women struggling with binge eating and body image. Find out more about our 13-week online group, The Dieter’s Rebellion, here. If you’re looking for one-on-one coaching support, get in touch and see how we can help!