Depression and Bingeing

I was wondering if anyone had good advice on preventing binges when depressed.

I deal with depression and am not medicated for it. Often when I get in a very down mood, I reach for food and want to stuff myself and I just quit caring...I am angry with what I have done to myself, and even as I watch myself rapidly gain weight (I'm 5'5 and went from 110 to 130 in a month so the weight gain is very obvious) when I get in "binge mode" I reason with myself that it will somehow be okay.

I was just going to see what other people have done to stop bingeing even when fighting depression.

Also, I realize 130 is not unhealthy for my height, but the manner in which I have gained weight is very unhealthy. I am also an endurance athlete with a small frame; I was very comfortable at 110 and had no trouble maintaining until I started binge eating frequently.

hey lucy 

i know EXACTLY how that feels and i firstly want you to know that you are NOT alone and that i understand the depth of your despair, especially afterwards.

i never got propper treatment for my depression but i came out of the worst of it in the end. For me it was getting out of the worst of the depression that stopped my binging and for me that was finding the love of my life and my messed up life just cae right on its own.

my point is that i never was able to stop my binges so perhaps the best course of action is to go and see a doctor or somone who can treat your depression becasue therein lies the cause of the binging and so that is what you must treat. treating the binging is treating the symptoms and that gets you nowhere.

that being said i found tht certain things were bound to "trigger" a binge. the "quit carring" that you spoke of only happened to me once i had eaten somethig VERY calorie dense or somethign that you know you shouldnt have had so for me the best way to avoid the binge was to get the hell away from any trigger fods whenever i felt really down and eventually i got very good at recognising when i was headed for a "bad mood" and i would get out the house, go for a walk, a jog or go play squash, do anything to get away and out of "danger"

i really hope you found something in my post that you can use and that you go see someone qualified to really help you. depresssion is ugly and i have the scars to prove it so i wish you the best of luck and my sympathy

Hi to both of you!

I too have had depression muck around with my weight/eating/bingeing.

When I was very very depressed I just didn't eat. I wasn't hungry. Food didn't taste good.

When I felt a little better, I did eat. The weight piled back on :( And I developed a bit of a binging problem. Sometimes I would feel like I wanted to 'eat myself to death'. It was kind of a coping mechanism to try and deal with the intensity of feeling I was feeling inside.

Now I think I have the diet/weight part of my life a bit more under control. The only way I can manage is to keep myself very very busy all day. I stay out of the house, I go to the gym, and I keep away from the cupboards. I also eat lots of little snacks in the day, which prevent me getting really hungry and thinking 'what the hell' and eating my own body weight in muffins or anything!!I had trigger foods too, so as long as I keep eating healthily I dont have very many urges to go off on a crazy munching spree. And it makes me feel a bot better to have control over at least one aspect of my life.

So my advice would be keep busy, plan out meals and snacks for the day, and hopeully this will avoid some of the binges! And seek out as much help as you can, depression is a terrible thing to go through and you deserve to be happy! Never give up :)

Ugh.  It's so familiar.  I haven't found a way to deal with this completely for myself either, but I am starting to recognize things that make it better or worse.  I've noticed that sleep makes a big difference.  I'm able to regulate my moods and my binging much more when I'm getting enough sleep.  And staying on a routine.  If I can keep myself on a regular schedule that is consistent and reliable, then I do better.  Exercising regularly helps a lot too.

All that said, I encourage you to talk to someone.  Therapy has been a big help, even if I'm not "cured" yet.  I also have read lots of self-helpy type books and I keep a good journal.  The journal has helped me recognize patterns that trigger certain behaviors.  Out of all the books I've read, some are great and helpful and some are annoying and completely out of touch, but they all force me to be more aware of myself and what I'm dealing with.  Which is a big part of it.  You should feel really proud of yourself that you recognize what's going on and want to do something to make it better.

Good luck.

I find it half comforting & half really annoying that the problem I have is not a unique one!!! I love to think I'm a very complicated person with deep inset problems that no-one else will understand but everyone in this forum has been through the exact same feelings as me. I had the worst day today. I'm a "recovered" anorexic, was very bad 3 years ago, but had been great up until Nov/Dec 07. when i say "great", I mean kind of pleasantly plump, healthy looking, definitely not skinny, maybe 10lb overweight - I stopped weighing myself altogether after I regained as far as my target, but I guesstimate I was about 140lb at my heaviest last year. Now I'm back to 120 because of old habits, skipping meals, exercising a lot, blah blah. it's brilliant because I can fit into skinny clothes etc (i'm uk size 8 again) but I'm so pissed off at myself for doing it in the wrong way. then today, I broke. i spent all day, literally, binging & purging, binging & purging. I purged so much I passed out. that has never happened to me before. it scared me so much. the rational side of me and the side of me that does that **** have no relationship with each other. my depression always follows the binge tho, not the other way round. I think. sometimes they're so intertwined I don't know which is which. chicken & egg scenario. do any of you remember having a normal attitude to food? i forget what it's like to have just a breakfast lunch & dinner with a couple of snacks without counting every calorie & freaking out if I have any refined sugar or full fat milk. If I was watching someone else do it, I'd be branding them as having some kind of personality disorder. It's just heartbreaking because I was doing so well & now I feel worse than ever. Size doesn't matter a ****, I think these **** up feelings are mine whether I'm 120 or 160 lbs.

I can't even imagine having a normal relationship with food.  I feel like I wake up each morning and get ready to go off to war.  It's the first thing I think about - how am I going to handle this today? 

Although many of us haven't found it yet, I do think it's possible to one day have a healthy relationship with food.  I feel like I have wasted so much mental energy on keeping track of what I ate and how many calories it has in it.  I could have cured cancer had I put the same mental energy towards that.  Such a waste of our lives.

Thank you all so much for your replies. I had my first somewhat "normal" eating day yesterday. I had a banana before I left for an eye doctor appointment, came in and had a small lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with milk, took a nap because I realized I was not hungry, but just tired. (also feeling down.)

I made myself get up and change into my workout clothes. My mom got a flat of delicious looking strawberries and I had some strawberry shortcake...I did end up having some trail mix and when my boyfriend called me I had a spoon in a container of ice cream.

My friend called on the other line and said she had made a cake and was having a birthday party for her boyfriend that night and invited us to come. I realized that I should go over there and have cake and icecream and enjoy it...but not stand there alone with a container of ice creamn knowing I would regret it as soon as I made myself put it away.

I told my boyfriend what I was doing and actually felt proud of myself. I put the ice cream away, brushed my teeth, and got on my elliptical. I probably did more than I should have, I tend to do everything to extremes. It felt a lot better than eating myself sick, though...I just have to find a balance.

We had a healthy supper of baked fish with steamed vegetables and baked potato. We went to my friend's house and I had a small piece of cake with a small scoop of ice cream, and honestly didn't have much desire to go back for seconds. We hung out with our friends all night and played in the snow...and I realized I didn't have a single sad thought or down moment the whole time I was with them.

I will be going back to college tomorrow and won't be able to be with these friends, but I have other friends at college. I just have to get myself out and do things and not focus on myself so much.

Sorry for the diatribe, I just had an eye opening day and wanted to share it. I know that I'm by no means better because I slip easily, but I feel optimistic.

Good luck to everyone!

There are a long list of foods that actively help alleviate depression.  Ironically, the types of foods people typically choose for a binge when depressed..... sugary, starchy, fatty junk ... are the ones that make depression worse.   You might find some of the information in this article useful.

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/cook/health/ar ticles/0,10103,177268_187554,00.html

Wow. This is such a surprising post honestly. Every single comment essentially describes me perfectly. No matter the degree of "down-ness" I am feeling, I will personally sabotage diet. It has gotten so bad that I cannot even keep food in the vicinity or else I will find a reason to make it ok to eat it. It really is so awful and the food I reach for is food I would not normally eat really.

Like you lucyluck, I too have recently gotten really bad and have gained about ten pounds from eating entire packs of cookie dough or boxes of cereal. I have the "finish the package" complex going on in my head and obviously it is not working out for me. While I am stil a perfectly acceptable weight for my height as well, it is definitely not going to last until I get myself in check.