Welcome to my channel, The Binge Eating Therapist. I'm Sarah and I am a former binge eater turned psychotherapist. My mission is to use this space to share content with you that will help you to make sense of your struggle with food and break free from compulsive eating and binge eating.
Neither of the reasons why I would have eaten two pieces of cake sit well with me. Neither are "good" reasons. I just "shouldn't" be eating cake (binge food) never mind 2 pieces.
Over deprivation equals binge back lash! Eat reasonable portions,drink water,fill up on fruits,veggies and lean proteins and move💪Repeat. Sounds easy,but so challenging when we are surrounded with so much junk foods☹️
Yr. 2024. Just seen your video. I appreciate this info. Im trying to get a time in the day to listen to these clips about emotional eating. It leaves a refreshing start to a new day. The words continue on in my mind, thus helping with my fight with this addiction.
In the beginning, when adding our fear foods back in, when we may be overeating them.. I love your advice about making them a cognitive choice and allowing yourself a distance to make that choice. How though, at this time, can I tell the difference between an urge or compulsion and a craving? At this point even when something maybe begins as a craving, and I have that space to make a decision to get a food, I'm feeling like those cravings usually turn into binges/ overeating. But maybe I'm not sure if it's a craving or an urge. Or is this just normal at first with foods that were avoided before? I feel so out of control that it scares me and then I'm throwing the foods in the garbage to stop myself. :(
I'm then feeling guilty about eating so much of these foods. Which probably isn't helping, and I then often feel like I need to cut these foods out again. Because the lack of control is so upsetting and I'm afraid I'll always overeat/ binge on them. Do you still keep that distance for decision making with certain foods, or can you keep those foods in your house now?
And yes.. something seemingly simple like sitting at the table, without distractions while eating, is so hard. Most of my binges and over eating are likely as you've described a way to numb out. I usually binge while standing at the counter, eating right out of bags or boxes. Even when I thought I could stop binging by stopping the binging, I recognized that plating my meals and sitting down would be beneficial. Even when we have the tools and know what we need to do, it's hard to actually implement them.
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Do it matter if I ask you both if you were overeaters or bulimics/anorexics. I just think the process is different and so is the mindset. Im an overeater and dont focus on body image. I just want help for constant fixation on food.
How is it if Im binge eating the minute I wake up, that Im not eating enough? The problem is Im overeating all day. This does not make sense to me. Can you comment to help me understand this episode please?
I started binge eating when I was 6 or 7, when I realised the World was not always a nice place. There was alcoholism in my family, so it was an anxious place to be. I found food took the anxiety away, and later, I used food to cope with shift work, no sleep, as a reward, to cope with grief. My latest binge was 2 years ago, when my ex-husband died suddenly, I ate so I was calm enough to support our son. Thank you for this. I've just found your channel and it's really helpful.
Sarah, thank you so much for your videos. Do you recall one you’ve done that I could search that addresses overeating at mealtimes. I wouldn’t call myself a binge eater. I just don’t like the emotional satisfaction of meal time to end it seems… And I eat until I’m too full. Thank you!
As others have said, I’ve gone my whole life feeling like an exception, never truly connecting to the thoughts and experiences of others. That is until I discovered this channel a few months ago. I don’t have to try and fit myself into these descriptions- I am them, I recognise them. So thank you for making these videos. I’ve actually been cultivating a friendly head voice this year. I call on it when I’m struggling and it’s so calm and patient with me, and I know I can trust it. I didn’t hear it very well at first, but I kept at it, despite how unnatural it felt to me; it’s now quite clear, and really helps me to not get overwhelmed by everything. The idea of trying to work out what my needs actually are seems difficult, but I’ll keep at it and hope for success.
Thank you, but I don't think the author of that book really understands binge eating. Too much intellectualizing IMHO. A better book (by Dr. Vera Tarman) is "Food Junkies".
You are stating exactly why I have been resistant to injections. I know that until I figure out how to change my mind set, any weight loss strategy/tool is just a bandaid. Thank you for the discussion.
Ive been there too. Once I got there, I could feel myself losing control and was never able to get back in control and gained the weight back. I am currently 75 lbs lighter but I struggle daily with bingeing.
Ive been there too. Once I got there, I could feel myself losing control and was never able to get back in control and gained the weight back. I am currently 75 lbs lighter but I struggle daily with bingeing.
Big struggle for me is when i can't define and recognise my own emotional state and become overwhelmed..than i stuff myself with food to feel grounded 🥹😥
1) butterfly technique ( calm lower brain) 2)now or later on ( avoid saying no and creating a rebellion battle) 3)asking a question - what happens if I don’t eat this food right now ( ask brain to imagine another outcome) 4) plan to eat MORE ( instead of less) Law of reversed effort
Ah, thank you! I think you've identified my problem. I really appreciate this video! I've been using food to transition. I have autism and experience intense anxiety if I don't eat before I go to bed. If I avoid eating, I end up staying up much later than I intended and ultimately give in and eat something so I can go to sleep. I wasn't sure where this anxiety was coming from, but it's very likely just a transition issue. The only time I don't need to eat before bed is when I'm so exhausted that my brain gives me no choice but to sleep. I'll work on developing a new bedtime routine for my brain to latch on to.
You just hit every point for me, thank you🙏🙏. I‘m a health food junkie, eat loads of veggies and Whole Foods, keep my Insulin/Sugar levels low, yet I binge eat and I am an emotional eater. Thanks to you, I now know where to change and observe myself differently😊
I am working whole day like from 9:00 to 18:00 so breakfast quickly lunch quickly and snacks so I don’t have that much time to eat or to spend time to eating. And when I arrive home 7pm of course I have more time to eat so dinner like I can eat while watching but then it can so easily go to the overeating I don’t know but maybe it is better to be busy all the time 😅
Okay my problem is I don’t understand which one is binge eating. Cause I can finish so easily one ben and Jerry ice cream pot and one package of cookie while watching Netflix or even big ice cream sundae bowl So is this binge eating over eating or normal And even if I ate dinner still later I can have space for desert and for ice cream one scoop not enough at all 😅 I can finish whole What is calling this ?
I think the feeling of wanting to binge is addictive desire for the highly addictive junk food. You either satisfy the desire and eat it..or feel the unpleasant feelings of unsatisfied desire to binge. I don't see how it has anything to do with and other feelings such as self worth etc. that's far too complicated
Compassion even when you don't understand it might be just what the doctor ordered for a more harmonious world in general! "Thinking is hard, that is why most people judge" I strongly dislike defending my coping mechanism behaviors, eating might seem a mundane activity but it is at its core so intimate and private. ✌️
This is a great video. I was for over 15 years on my ideal weight. Than my father died and I started to go up and down with my weight, and I am someone who gains weight very easy 😂 Than I was on a good weight some time, and after that I gain lot's of weight in a short period of time. When I started to analyse what is happening here, I realised that I got fed up of different food restrictions and I was watching people around me that was literally eating anything what they want at literally any time and they didn’t gain any weight! And myself, if I eat 2 days what I want I can see the weight gain immediately 😂 I am on a weight loss journey again, but I still fight with this feeling that is absolutely not fair that someone can eat any type of food during day or night ans stayed in a same weight 😂
The "one more" thing!!! Part of my brain says that if i haven't been satisfied with the first 10 then what is 1 more going to achieve. I still can't resist. One more biscuit, one more glass of wine, one more episode, one more website to check if I have the best price for something that i don't actually need. When i was a kid I was constantly thinking about what i was going to eat next, even if i wasn't hungry. I relate to the reading too but study has always been hard. 1hour for most people takes me maybe 3 or 4. Takes more effort than exercising! Especially when they use paragraph long sentences.
its true when i go through times of overeating and binging ,if i fight it i can hit upto 10k caloires our more .But when i except and reason with myself i eat a lot more nurieshing food and not so much high calorie foods which helps more with the negative health effects and gives me progress in the gym fitness ect.
The opening section of this c where you describe your own experience is like magic. I feel so understood and hopeful hearing someone else put words to what I feel. Soooo right on. Caving “feels” so inevitable that I have a LOT of “F’it” behavior. And now I see how through my experienced reality of course it’s actually completely logical, sanity preserving behavior! But seen differently I see a glimpse of hope of how a different experience could actually happen!!
Not everyone who is overweight overeats. I'm so tired of the binge eating argument. It ignores metabolic issues and when i started focusing on weight loss, I lost 60 pounds and kept it off for a decade. So tired of this rhetoric.
I feel like in addition to not catastrophizing eating the wrong thing, I also need to not catastrophize my weight struggles. I am obese and have been since I was 21, for almost 30 years. It's been like waking up to a daily nightmare the whole time as I fail to recognize myself in every reflection and photo I see. What people see is just not how I see myself. It's miserable. How do I stop feeling so extreme about it? And on top of it, knowing that the world believes it's my fault, my choice, my weakness, my sin, my failure, and my punishment, despite a lifetime of trying, trying, trying...knowing way too much about the health properties of every food and exercise routine. Nothing I know matters. This is a prison.
