If you've ever experienced the torment of binge eating, you know it can be an incredibly distressing and frustrating cycle. The relentless struggle, the overwhelming guilt, and the seemingly uncontrollable urge to binge can make you question your self-worth and willpower. You might wonder why you can't break free from this pattern despite your best efforts. Reaching out for binge eating disorder treatment is a critical first step. This guide is designed to answer common questions related to binge eating and give you guidance on how to stop the cycle of binging.
Who is Most Likely to Binge Eat?
Binge eating is a common and complex eating disorder affecting people of all ages, though often hidden due to shame. Binge eating can be triggered as a way of coping with strong emotions, painful experiences, and past trauma. People might turn to food to numb emotional pain, relieve stress, or regain a sense of control during chaos. Dieting and food restriction history can make you more susceptible to binge eating, leading to cycles of guilt and shame. Sociocultural factors, such as societal beauty standards and media messages, can contribute to binge eating. Those with low self-esteem or poor body image are particularly susceptible to binge eating. They may use food as a means to cope with feelings of inadequacy. Some individuals may not have learned healthy ways to cope with stress, emotions, or life challenges, leading them to turn to food as a default coping mechanism. Biological and genetic factors may also play a role. Binge eating often co-occurs with other mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety disorders.
Why can’t I stop binging?
People have various reasons for binge eating, and your specific reason may not be listed here, but that doesn't diminish its validity. Common reasons for binge eating include:
Coping with Emotions
Binge eating is often a way to manage strong emotions, such as stress, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, or boredom. It can provide a temporary distraction or comfort from overwhelming feelings, even if it starts as emotional eating and later feels out of control.
Seeking Pleasure
Binge eating triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward, in the brain. Over time, the brain associates binge eating with feeling better, creating a powerful incentive to continue the behavior. People may turn to binge eating when they lack other sources of pleasure in their lives, and this tendency can be more pronounced in individuals with ADHD.
Restrictive Eating Patterns
Binge eating often stems from restrictive diets or food limitations rather than a lack of self-control. Strict diets or elimination of food groups can lead to intense cravings. These cravings can eventually overpower self-control, resulting in binge eating episodes when individuals allow themselves to eat, as the body seeks the necessary nutrition and energy.
Trauma History
Those with a history of trauma may turn to binge eating as a coping mechanism. Trauma can deeply affect how a person copes with emotions and memories, and binge eating might provide a temporary escape from those distressing feelings. Additionally, it triggers brain chemicals that offer short-term relief.
Guilt and Shame
Feelings of guilt and shame can contribute to binge eating. When individuals feel guilty about their actions or appearance, they may use food for comfort. Binge eating temporarily soothes these feelings but can also exacerbate them afterward, creating a cycle where guilt or shame leads to more binge eating.
Negative Body Image
Negative body image can lead to binge eating in multiple ways. Disliking one's appearance can evoke feelings of shame, sadness, and frustration. Binge eating might offer a temporary escape from these emotions, despite being short-lived relief. Subsequently, guilt and shame often follow binge eating, intensifying negative body image feelings. Comparisons to societal standards can also exacerbate these emotions, making binge eating a way to find comfort or distraction from challenging thoughts and feelings.
Understanding these underlying reasons is a crucial step in addressing binge eating and seeking the necessary support and strategies for recovery.
How do I stop binging?
Breaking free from binge eating is possible with the right support, strategies, and self-compassion. Remember that seeking help is a courageous and important step towards recovery.
Work with a Binge Eating Disorder Therapist
Seek professional help from a therapist or counselor who specializes in binge eating disorder. Therapy can provide crucial support and tailored strategies to identify triggers and manage emotions effectively.
Build a Support System
Share your struggles with trusted friends or family members. Binge eating thrives in secrecy, and opening up to others can make a significant difference. A supportive network can offer emotional assistance and encouragement during challenging times.
Try Mindful Eating
Practice mindful eating by being fully present during meals. Pay attention to the sensory experience of eating, helping you recognize true hunger and satisfaction without resorting to restriction.
Cope with Stress
Stress is a common trigger for binge eating. Implement stress management techniques like deep breathing, yoga, meditation, or journaling to support your nervous system and reduce the urge to binge.
Avoid Dieting
Restrictive diets can backfire and trigger binge episodes. Recognize that dieting is often a contributor to the binge cycle, and focus on intuitive eating instead, of listening to your body's natural cues.
Identify Triggers
Keep track of situations, emotions, or events that trigger binge episodes. This information can help you and your therapist develop healthier coping mechanisms.
Use Intuitive Eating
Adopt intuitive eating, emphasizing listening to your body's hunger and fullness cues rather than adhering to rigid diets or rules. This approach can be instrumental in overcoming binge eating.
Practice Self-Compassion
Be kind to yourself throughout your recovery journey. Understand that setbacks may occur, but they don't define your progress. Practice self-compassion and acknowledge your efforts and achievements along the way.
Why do I keep binging?
People often wonder why they keep binge eating, feeling frustrated and perplexed by their recurring struggles. Understanding the reasons behind binge eating is a vital part of addressing the issue. Some common factors that lead to binge eating include:
1. Emotional Stress:
Binge eating is often triggered by emotional stress, as food can temporarily provide comfort or help manage overwhelming emotions. However, this relief is short-lived, and the underlying emotional distress remains.
2. Dieting and Restriction
Ironically, strict diets and food restrictions can lead to binge eating. When you deny yourself certain foods, your body starts to crave them more, creating a cycle of deprivation and overindulgence.
3. Unmet Physical Hunger
Ignoring or suppressing physical hunger cues can result in binge eating. Waiting too long to eat can lead to excessive hunger, anxiety, and overeating.
4. Negative Body Image
Poor body image can contribute to binge eating, as individuals seek comfort in food when feeling dissatisfied with their appearance. This negativity can also lead to dieting and restriction, perpetuating the binge cycle.
5. Coping with Trauma
Binge eating may serve as a coping mechanism for dealing with past traumas. It can provide temporary relief from emotional pain and distress, helping individuals numb difficult feelings.
6. Unconscious Eating:
Unconscious eating, or mindless eating while distracted by other activities, can lead to eating past your fullness signals. This often occurs when eating in front of the TV, working on the computer, or scrolling on your phone.
It's important to remember that each person's experience with binge eating is unique, and multiple factors can contribute to this behavior. Recognizing these underlying causes is the first step towards making positive changes and seeking support when needed.
Is binge eating addictive?
Binge eating shares some similarities with addictive behaviors, but it's important to clarify that it is not a substance addiction. Instead, it's often described as a behavioral addiction or a compulsive eating disorder. Food addiction has been debunked as being real.
It's important to stress that binge eating is a complicated behavior influenced by many factors like emotions, psychology, and societal pressures. Unlike substance addiction, where people get hooked on a particular substance, binge eating doesn't revolve around one specific thing.
Please note not everyone who binge eats feels like they're addicted, and not everyone who has trouble with binge eating shows all the signs of addiction. Each person's experience is different, so it's essential to look at binge eating in a comprehensive way, considering how it affects a person emotionally, mentally, and physically. Here are some points to consider about binge eating.
Compulsive Nature: Binge eating typically involves consuming large quantities of food in a short period, often with a sense of loss of control. This compulsive behavior resembles some aspects of addiction.
Emotional Triggers: Binge eating is often triggered by strong emotions, stress, or difficult life situations, similar to how some people turn to substances for emotional relief.
Dopamine Release: Binge eating can lead to the release of dopamine in the brain, which is also associated with the reward system involved in addiction. This can create a cycle where individuals seek out binge episodes for the temporary pleasure or comfort it provides.
Tolerance and Withdrawal: Some individuals may develop tolerance to binge eating over time, requiring larger quantities of food to achieve the same emotional relief. They may also experience emotional distress or withdrawal symptoms when attempting to control or stop binge eating.
Cravings: Like addiction, binge eating can be associated with intense cravings for specific foods or food combinations.
Why do I binge at night?
To better understand and address this behavior. Here are some common reasons why individuals may binge eat at night
Reasons for binging at night
Emotional Eating: Binge eating at night can be a response to emotional stress, loneliness, boredom, or other strong emotions. In the evening, when the day's activities wind down, people may have more time to reflect on their emotions and may turn to food for comfort or distraction.
Restricted Eating During the Day: Sometimes, individuals might follow strict diets or restrict their food intake during the day. This can create increased hunger and cravings, which are more likely to be expressed in the evening when self-control is lower. It's important to listen to your body's hunger cues during the day and nourish it adequately to prevent extreme hunger at night.
Habitual Patterns: For some, nighttime binge eating can become a habit or routine. If you've consistently engaged in this behavior, it can become ingrained in your daily schedule.
Lack of Distractions: In the evening, there are fewer distractions, and individuals may find themselves with more idle time. This can lead to overthinking, which may trigger binge eating as a way to fill the time or cope with racing thoughts.
Emotional Regulation: Nighttime can be a vulnerable time for emotional regulation. If you've had a challenging day or unresolved stressors, binge eating may serve as a way to cope with these feelings and provide a temporary sense of relief or numbing.
Hunger Cycles: Some people naturally experience increased hunger in the evening due to their circadian rhythms. If you've been suppressing hunger during the day, you may find it more challenging to resist eating later in the evening.
Mindless Eating: Engaging in activities such as watching TV or scrolling through your phone while eating can lead to mindless eating. You may consume more food than you intended without being fully aware of it.
From an intuitive eating perspective, it's essential to reconnect with your body's hunger and fullness cues and develop a more balanced and mindful approach to eating. Avoiding strict diets, practicing self-compassion, and addressing emotional triggers through healthier coping mechanisms can also be beneficial. Working with a therapist specializing in binge eating and intuitive eating can provide valuable support in addressing nighttime binge eating and fostering a healthier relationship with food.
Do I have binge eating disorder?
Determining whether you have binge eating disorder (BED) typically requires a comprehensive assessment conducted by a therapist specializing in eating disorders. Here is some general information that might help you evaluate whether you should seek professional guidance and assessment for BED.
Binge eating disorder is characterized by recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food within a short period, accompanied by a sense of loss of control during these episodes. To be diagnosed with BED, the following criteria need to be met:
Symptoms of Binge Eating Disorder
Recurrent Binge Eating Episodes: You regularly engage in binge eating episodes, which involve consuming a significant amount of food within a discrete period (e.g., within two hours).
Loss of Control: During these episodes, you feel a loss of control over your eating, meaning you can't stop or control the amount of food you're consuming.
Emotional Distress: Binge-eating episodes are often associated with emotional distress, such as guilt, shame, or disgust, both during and after the episodes.
Frequency: Binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for three months or longer.
Absence of Compensatory Behaviors: Unlike other eating disorders like bulimia nervosa, individuals with BED do not typically engage in compensatory behaviors such as vomiting, excessive exercise, or fasting to counteract the binge eating episodes.
Significant Distress: Binge eating causes significant distress, affecting various aspects of your life, including emotional well-being, physical health, and relationships.
It's important to note that only a trained healthcare provider or eating disorder therapist can provide a definitive diagnosis of BED based on a thorough assessment of your symptoms and history. If you suspect that you might have BED or struggle with problematic eating behaviors, it's crucial to seek professional help. A therapist or counselor with expertise in eating disorders can work with you to assess your situation, provide guidance, and develop a personalized treatment plan if needed. Early intervention and support can significantly improve your relationship with food and overall well-being.
What happens to your brain when you binge?
When you engage in binge eating, your brain goes through some important changes that help us understand why this behavior happens. During a binge, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine, which makes you feel good and satisfied for a short time. This makes you associate binge eating with feeling better and can make you want to keep doing it.
Binge eating can also be a way to deal with your emotions. It offers temporary relief from feelings like stress, sadness, or anxiety, giving you a short break. But after a binge, you often feel guilty, ashamed, or regretful, which affects your brain and can make you keep binge eating.
Repeating binge eating episodes can turn it into a habit, making it hard to stop. Over time, it may even change your brain's structure in areas related to controlling impulses and making decisions, making it even tougher to resist the urge to binge eat.
Remember, while these brain changes are part of binge eating, they don't explain everything about it. Binge eating is influenced by many factors, like your genes, your thoughts and feelings, and your environment. If you're struggling with binge eating, talking to a qualified therapist who specializes in eating disorders can help you understand and address the emotional and psychological aspects of binge eating, so you can have a healthier relationship with food.
Binge eating disorder treatment in Utah can help you stop binge eating
Binge eating disorder treatment can be a powerful and effective tool to help you stop binge eating and regain control of your life. In treatment, you'll work with an eating disorder therapist who understands your struggles and will support you every step of the way. You will learn new ways to cope with your emotions, so you don't turn to food for comfort. You'll also learn to recognize your body's natural hunger and fullness cues, so you can eat in a balanced way without the need for strict diets. By breaking free from the restrict-and-binge cycle, you'll find relief from the guilt and shame that often follow binge eating episodes.
Most importantly, binge eating disorder treatment provides a safe and non-judgmental space for you to explore the root causes of your binge eating. Whether it's stress, past trauma, or negative body image, you'll gain valuable insights and develop healthier ways to handle these challenges.
Start working with an eating disorder therapist in Utah
You don’t have to keep struggling with binge eating on your own. You don’t have to stay stuck binging every night and then hating yourself the next morning. You deserve better. Binge eating disorder treatment can help. This Utah Eating Disorder Clinic has an eating disorder therapist specializing in treating binge eating disorder. To begin counseling follow the steps below:
Meet with a binge eating disorder therapist
Begin recovering from binge eating
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Utah
Online therapy in Utah is a great choice for treating binge eating disorder for some important reasons. The best part is that it's easy to access and very convenient. You can get therapy right from your home, so you don't need to worry about traveling or dealing with transportation problems. This is a big help, especially if you feel nervous or embarrassed about going to therapy in person.
Online counseling in Utah also means that wherever you are located in Utah I can work with you. I work with clients in St. George, Cedar City, Provo, Heber City, Logan, Salt Lake City, and more.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt, LCSW, is the founder of Maple Canyon Therapy, based in beautiful Utah. With a profound dedication to helping women struggling with eating disorders, Ashlee brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her practice.Ashlee's educational background is rooted in understanding the complexities of human behavior. She holds dual bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Family Life and Human Development, both earned from Southern Utah University. Building on this foundation, she pursued a Master's degree in Social Work from Utah State University, solidifying her commitment to making a positive impact on people's lives. With her extensive expertise and genuine empathy, Ashlee Hunt provides invaluable support to those seeking recovery from eating disorders, anxiety, trauma and more.