those three little words I fear the most
and you thought ''I love you'' was tough.

I've been a compulsive eater since I was around 12 years old. I eat my emotions, feel bad afterwards and sometimes eat until my belly truly hurts. I eat so fast you wouldn't believe, tried a zillion diets and failed.. and many other of the things associated with the disorder. but for some reason I refused to get help before, now I am thinking of going to a meeting.

told my mom about it and she didn't say anything, she was like --meh you shouldn't be eating so much! just stop eating. have the will to do so-- it makes me sad and powerless to not have any kind of support..

I am just hiting rock bottom lately and I can't stand it. this is not only tampering with my weight loss efforts..it could seriously hurt my health.
have any of you guys tried the meetings or anything related to them, did they help?

Hey,

I absolutely and completely know where you're coming from because I have struggled with Binge Eating Disorder for four years (and even before that my relationship with food was never healthy). I know that worst part can be that people just don't get it. They think you just need to go on a good diet and toughen up a bit. But it's not like that. In fact diets just make it worse because when you restrict the urge to binge or to overeat just becomes stronger.

The best thing you can do is to get help from people who understand the disorder. And don't be discouraged by people like your mum who just don't understand. After several years of suffering and making myself depressed, sick and incredibly overweight I finally got help and it was the best thing I have ever done.

I got to learn about the reasons why I was binging, and, as is often the case, it wasn't about the food at all. It was to cover feelings of rejection, frustration, anger, sadness...A lot of the things that I realised were a problem I would never have thought about without getting help.

I recommend checking out the forum at Eating Disorders | Anorexia | Bulimia | Binge Eating Disorder | Compulsive Overeating | The Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders , I post about it a lot on this website but that's because the things I learnt from reading about and speaking with other people people who have gone through and are going through the same things as me have been invaluble.

One thing that I do want you to think about is putting your focus on weightloss on the back burner for a while. As I said before, a restrictive diet (ideas of good food vs bad food, sticking to a calorie limit etc) is a major trigger for binging. Rather than thinking about losing weight try to think about developing a healthy relationship with food. Once you've been able to do this weightloss will follow eventually, without the urge to binge all of the time.

People on the forum will talk a lot about legalisation. Try to read up a lot on this. It made such a difference to me.

I hope i've helped! If you ever want to pm me with any questions i'm totally happy with that. I'm so glad to be at a point now where i'm finally making some great progress and moving away from my ED. But I know how awful it can feel at it's worst so i'm always glad to help out.

Happyandhealthy

thank you very much that is really informative and sweet of you

I am so glad you managed to control it. accepting I need help is definitely the first step because I feel a little bit better already and hadn't had an episode today, keeping myself busy and fighting sadness helps too.

the forums are cool I'll check them out
xoxo!

I wudnt call myself an emotional eater, but I'd call myself a STRESS EATER. I started BINGEING out of stress when I felt like there was nothing good in life except food. So I caved to food for companionship, for pleasure, for comfort. (Exam time, in med school. hardcore study time. bhwahaha). And the bingeing during exams became more horrible with time. The more weight I put on...I'm in my 150's now but I'd like to be in my 120's and fit into my jeans again! Its the best feeling ever!

For you I'd sugest starting to workout!! Thats a very positive thing to do. I swear when you workout, you will have less urge to binge. Its not about the weight, its about being healthy! I know I HATE IT when moms and friends think its so easy. I know it is not. It took me a month to process the fact that I had gained so much weight and that I was going to make all these life style changes. I've gone a month, with no mistakes and I'm extreemly proud and I know that I can do it! And if I can, so can YOU! You controll what you eat, what you eat does not controll you. Reading about diet, nutrition and nourishment also helped me a great deal. Dont go hardcore into dieting rite now, coz thats never a good idea. Eat decent amount of calories and workout. You will see that those exersize will get you producing endorphins, which makes you so happy that negative comments (which u wont get then lol!) or anything atall wont bring you down and have you resorting to food!! YOU CAN DO IT! I wish you all the best.

Jana

aww thank you jana that is very sweet of you

I think over all I am more of an emotional eater too, but I can eat quite a lot given a day I am feeling a little down. artichoke extract helps because it makes me thirsty and not crave food but it is a bit expensive so I might go back to it after a couple of weeks of exercise, I still want to find a group and help myself with other people´s experiences