My take on the "Binge Eating Disorder"

I wanted to share with you, what worked for me.

I used to binge- ALOT! (and then starve or sometimes purge and somehow I always kept myself around the same weight.. just a little chubby and not thin like I wished I could be.) I'm chubby now, but its a result of regular over-eating.. where I am in control but just feel like eating more ice cream, lol.

Anyway, with the binging, I thought I was going crazy, because I couldn't stop it and it felt totally uncontrollable. I'm sort of ashamed to admit that their were times that I just felt absolutely COMPELLED to eat 6 donuts or rush off at 2am to buy Taco Bell or Burger King- and LOTS of it. And eat it all in 20 minutes! I read tons of self-help books on it..I felt reallllly desperate.

 I noticed that I binged more when faced with a situation that made me anxious or depressed. Unbeknownst to me the depression/lethargy/no motivation came from a hormonal imbalance. My doctors prescribed me prozac (i refused it...) and did thyroid tests and told me I was fine. I wasn't..  I had an underactive thyroid. Their lab results had me on the "high end" of "normal" and their values to determine normalcy were out of date and incorrect.

 Once I started taking the thyroid medicine, I had energy, I wasnt depressed and I felt motivated. The binging lowered a little bit.

I actually have hashimoto's disease, which is autoimmune in nature and so I started researching possible links to it, because I still felt tired at times.. and I discovered celiac disease which is a gluten sensitivity (its in a lot of things- its the protein found in wheat and some other grains.) My aunt has it and so I decided to go gluten-free and guess what? I NEVER BINGED AGAIN until ONE time a few weeks ago when I went and ate a few pieces of pizza. After that I was RAVENOUS and pretty much inhaling everything I could find and feeling out-of-control again...

I think there is some evidence that people actually crave the food they are intolerant/allergic to, but you will have to research that on your own.

Anyway I stopped with the gluten, fought nausea for a few days and went back to being normal again.

You guys can take my advice or leave it: But my advice is to stop beating yourselves up so much for your eating disorders and depression and get some blood tests done.

GET:

*TSH (for thyroid): normal levels should be .3-3.0  ASK what your levels were since some labs accept higher than that as "normal"

*Thyroid antibody test- to find out if its autoimmune in nature. sometimes the TSH will be "OK" but you are positive on antibodies. In this case, try to get put on some thyroid hormone!

*Gluten antibody test- I never got this because once you go gluten free you will be "negative". I don't need a test to tell me I'm sensitive to gluten after how sick I became after eating some after not having it for 2.5 months.

This is what I recommend. I also feel better when I take some Vitamins, like b-complex, a multi, and extra iron.

Please do a little research on what I told you to see if any of the symptoms sound like you..I don't think its all in your head and there could be other things affecting your success that you may be able to fix with just a few changes!

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com

http://www.thyroid.about.com

You can check those sites out if you need more info.

Let me know what you think.

I wish I could use medical reasons as an excuse for my binging behavior, but I've had all the thyroid tests, gluten tests, and even diabetes testing done and nothing seems wrong. I just seem to have an uncontrollable urge to eat!

me too :( I am a slob.... and I let things get to me way too much, thats all there is too it.. but I am glad in your case you have a good explaination, with me I am just pathetic. 

mir, don't let binging or control around food be any judge of your value. you're not pathetic, i doubt anyone thinks you're pathetic (:

Thank you so much for the information!  I've printed it out to discuss with doc on my next visit!  I'm glad you've resolved your issues with it! Cheers, united :)

I used to have a "very underactive thyroid" and I went on medication for I think two weeks before the doctor said it was back to normal and took me off it. I believe I still have one because I'm always cold/tired my COE is worse than EVER. 

I was tested twice for hypothyroid (once by my regular physician, another by an endocrinologist) and found to NOT have it, despite having most of the symptoms. Even despite the test results, I still believe that I have it, however both my doctor nor the endocrinologist will prescribe me thyroid medication and the fact that one of my results (TSH if I remember right - not 100% sure of which result) was a 3.6 which, despite reading to the contrary (I did a lot of research about it before requesting the tests) both the doctors told me that my reading was "normal" -- and the endocrinologist pretty much tried to tell me that I just needed to get more will power and control over my eating.

I even went to these sites, printed out the information and brought it with me to both the doctors: 

TSH:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/artic le/003684.htm

Hypothyroidism:  http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000353.htm

and http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/hyperthyro idism-000088.htm ;

Symptoms of: 

http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_sy mptoms_of_hypothyroidism_000038_3.htm

Thyroid Hormone Information & Recommendations to Help Achieve Weight Loss:

http://www.nutri-linkltd.co.uk/documents/Thyr oidProtocols.pdf ;