I pretty much starved myself for four years to be sexy in my 30s. I denied myself 😢 everything I wanted that was sweet. I also have many many years of physical and emotional abuse in my past. Thus, I began binging and gained Soo much weight. I'm 53 now, heavier than I've ever been, especially after quitting smoking, menopause and leaving my job. I can't stop having just one cookie or anything sweet. I will eat Soo much of it. People who don't have these issues don't get it and what's worse is my siblings would never understand and keep trying to put me on a diet 😢. and talking about being skinny. I feel Soo alone. Thank you so much for what you 😢!!
I suffered a major and prolonged trauma at age four. That is when my binge eating disorder started. I was in the hospital for a vaccine induced illness and the abuse was exactly as you described. Endless medical students using kids to practice procedures on and in those day no parents were allowed to be present. I left the hospital after three months with an eating disorder, chronic insomnia, and PTSD. As if that was not bad enough, I had two surgeries by the age of seven. Whenever I get angry, or fearful, or depressed, I start binging.
Usually your bad eating habits are to fill a hole, because something isn't right in your life, so look around you and see what isn't good for you, I.e, the people around you, the environment you live in and how you're living on a day to day basis, the connections you have with people is a big part of why your eating habits are bad, as humans we need to feel a part of something, and when we don't, we turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, food! Build relationships with people and spend time round the right people and you'll find everything falls into place. 😊
I had medical trauma while my husband was fighting a rare leukemia for almost two years. We were in the hospital or clinic for the majority of that duration and I was in constant fear of losing him. I did lose him unfortunately last August and that was extremely traumatic for me. I lost my best friend soul mate and it feels disorienting without him. I turned to food throughout the entire journey. Grew up with childhood trauma also and had dealt with this for years. Thank you for your video.
OMG! I had the EXACT experience with an LP too! I was in the process of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and the LP is a definitive diagnostic for MS. I got pricked about 20 times until the Dr. took over and stuck me once and it was done! Then I got shuffled off without rest so they could "practice" on another patient. I still cringe and that was over 20ys ago. I have been diagnosed with PTSD from childhood sexual abuse and the disordered eating and lack of emotional support in my coming up years. I know why (for the most part) I overeat/binge but learning how to react/resolve the feelings differently is the key. I have found that I can take on not only my own emotions/reactions to things but of those around me too and I often feel like self soothing with food over those too. SO All of these tips are a wonderful gift. I thank the person/s who requested it and you for speaking on it. VERY HELPFUL!
I recently discovered you on RU-vid and so very glad I did - absolutely love your videos and the content has helped me already (especially the 'tomorrow thinking' and 'aim to make a calm decision, not the right decision' - absolute gold). I must admit a TW on this (regarding your very painful medical procedure) would have been helpful for me.
Thanks Sarah, you have changed my life in so many positive ways, to hear someone talk accepting about food is extremely important and I think more people should. I have a question, my binging is triggered by stress, stress with work and school, things that I really can’t change… the stress leads me to a dark place where I am so much in my own head that I almost feel paralyzed by the stress and I don’t realize that I binged until my assignment and the stress has passed, this is very frustrating and I don’t know what to do … please make a video about how stay sane and make good decisions under stress ❤️
The thinking around relationships in your life is very good advice. We can be in unhealthy relationships with friends or relatives which trigger trauma responses without being conscious of this. Thank you 😊
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I can't say I've got a grip of my BED (I've had it for over 45 years now, so it's going to take a while to address this weird "bed fellow") and my weight increase has moved into the obesity zone, which creates its own exhausting triggers that reinforce my BED (namely a fear of getting fatter), but i just wanted to take this time to say that discovering your website makes me less scared. I'm sure this episode was challenging for yo to do, but your compassion, honesty and bravery in sharing your story does not go unnoticed, or unappreciated. As Martin Lewis is the people's man for helping the public understand their finances and make the world a better place... you deserve the same accolade for sharing, educating and supporting many of us through this complex, misunderstood, and challenging eating disorder. Thank you Sarah.
I'm really grateful you shared the story about your lumbar puncture. I've had therapy for PTSD for medical/surgical trauma (my baby and i almost died in childbirth) and I hope this makes sense but it's not something you hear people talking about much and I think its an area where its often hard to disclose because its so unsettling for other people to hear so I find just hearing it being talked about at all a really positive thing x
Hi Sarah, I just found you through your interview on Therapy in a Nutshell. I'm struggling massively with binge eating and self control around food right now, but its wonderful to have somewhere to go where someone understands it. Your whole manner is just so calming and reassuring. I look forward to bingeing (pun intended) some of these videos!
Thank you for this. I had a similar experience with an epidural during my pregnancy with my twins for a medical procedure. There was no student. The anesthesiologist had to try for a while. I nearly fainted due to having fasted for over 24 hours and pain is a trigger. After some time I was crying and begged them to stop. The nurse was nasty to me and told me I could stop it was over. Thankfully I had a better anesthesiologist for my c-section. Thank you for the tips. I'll definitely be trying them.
My therapist said I have PTSD , lots of reasons in my past and also 2 Autistic kids, one of which is really volatile (they're in their early 20s, youngest breaks the house on a meltdown) I'm on Amber alert quite a lot ! I'm about 12 stone overweight (probably more actually) and I'm just going nowhere with tackling my weight. Your channel is amazing, so generous of you to read out your book! I'm saving for a 1 to 1 if I can. Sharing your videos with as many people as I can. BTW the needle ordeal sounds like my 2nd epidural, it was a nightmare so I can relate xxxxx I'm so grateful for your content xxx
@@lovingintenttarot We have covered this on the podcast. If you go to the Life After Diets podcast episode 61, you’ll find a whole episode dedicated to it ❤️
Thank you for these tips. I know they are meant to be informal but I was wondering whether you have a take on neurofeedback and/or EMDR (which you did mention) for regulation of reactivity from traumatic experiences? I have a friend who raves about the helpfulness of neurofeedback. I never thought of it though in the context of healing from binge eating.
Thank you for making this video…it’s very helpful. Please could you do some personal research into Yoga and other New Age techniques. I’m a Christian and find those practices very triggering…it may be helpful for you to understand why and I think you’ll find it interesting too.
I have been doing yoga daily for 8 years and it has saved my life and been a part of my healing journey. I would love to understand alternate views though and I’m open to new/other perspectives. Is there something you would like me to read? Personal research is a bit vague so I’m not sure what I’m looking for. The kind of research I am aware of has shown yoga to reduce PTSD symptoms in sufferers like this piece of research: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5404814/ Feel free to recommend other sources and I will check them out with an open mind
Hi Fern, I am a Christian too and have also spent many years before finding Jesus in the New Age. I am also struggling (and have been for my whole life) with binge eating as a result of childhood trauma. From my research, as a Christian, prayer is the most important action for us to take to ask God to heal our ailments. Instead of Yoga you could try stretching/Pilates/walking. Still trying to figure things out myself but thought it may be of help.
When I have binge than I am disgusting those foods and don’t want to even eat for 2 weeks but then generally in every 2 weeks binge is happening Is it normal ?
Do you think that people who have experienced trauma from abuse and chronic stress since early childhood and used bingeing as a way of coping with these experiences need dopaminergic medications in addition to therapy? thank you
Possibly. It would probably help some and not others. I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying more than that on social media as these are medical interventions and people need to discuss this with a medical provider. I don’t tend to talk about medications on my channel as I don’t want to be influencing people’s decisions in this area. Ethically I need to stay in my lane, which is the psychological and emotional approach.
Hey Sarah, thank you for another great video. Lately my binging got really bad again. I have hashimoto's and it is advised to cut out gluten, sugar and dairy. This has really shaken me up and goes against what I've learned about binge eating recovery. Do you think it's possible to recover with these food restrictions?
Short answer is yes, but this is a big question with lots of nuance. I’ll be covering this in a podcast episode that will be released next week and I will directly address your question there. If you listen to next week’s episode of the Life After Diets podcast, you’ll get a fuller answer there ❤️
Had to accompany relatives to funeral home to see my moms body..held it together but felt it would be good if I could have screamed. Is that it? No outlet for strong grief?
I am so sorry to hear you’ve lost your mom 💔 Grief is a strange beast that many of us find hard to process. If your instinct was that it would’ve been good to scream then maybe that’s what you need. Grief can include rage, anger, fear, sadness and so many emotions. It’s no wonder we don’t know what we’re supposed to do with it. I used to work for a bereavement charity and they had a saying which was, ‘you don’t do grief. Grief does you.’ As someone who’s also lost their mum, this rang true to me ❤️🩹
