This goes out to all bingers

I have been struggling with binge eating for almost a year now, and have tried EVERYTHING i could possibly think of. What i've learned though, is that it helps to know your not the only one out there that's dealing with these problems.

If your a binge eater, feel free to talk about any problems that your dealing with. We can all help eachother get through this.

-morgen

so i was reading all these posts while thinking.... am i going to have issues with food all my life? i certaintlly hope not but if i am then i want to make it as unpainful as possible. my bineges are ALWAYS at night. when everyone goes to bed i make my move to the kitchen. its weird cause i like food yet im not in love with it. still its the center of my world.  i eat anything and everything. i was heating up a veggie burger once and was so inpacient i ate it a little bit still frozen. GROSS and SAD! if i eat one french fry i end up eating bad for the WHOLE day. i want this to stop! i always say that this time i will clean eat, i wont binge. as much as id like to believe it i know it wont happen. i should have faith in myslef but ive just failed soo many times its hard to believe what comes out of my own mouth.

oh and to the girl who talked about the journal and writing down how you felt when you ate. great idea will try!

good luck to everyone=]

I'm a binge-eater in the process of trying to beat the habit. I am using some of the skills I learned in therapy (for other issues.) When I feel like bingeing, I visualise a stop sign, or put my hand out and make a stop sign, then halt (whatever I'm doing), then breathe. I ask myself "what's happening for me right now?" Do I feel sad, angry, lonely, tired or some other feeling. I find most of my over-eating comes from boredom or feeling lonely, sometimes I'm anxious and the churny tummy feeling is confused with hunger. Sometimes I feel angry. I tell myself that its ok to have these feelings and that I don't need to shove them down with food. I remind myself that feelings come and go and to allow them to be there, won't kill me. I just sit it out until the feeling passes and the hunger goes away.

 SOme of it is bad eating habits too - see a pie, want to eat it. So, I started using a revulsion technique - Pie is 100's of calories of fat and dead animal, and grissle and white processed flour. I remind myself how none of this is good for my body and that if I want to take care of myself, I should not eat pies.

 Another revulsion technique to use when you got those hunger cravings and you want to turn that feeling into nausea - think of dead possum on the road, all covered in maggots, and rotten flesh and the stench - try it you'll find it turns off the hunger and makes you feel sick instead.

 Good luck everyone, this is a tough one to beat.

God I can relate with you all so much-I feel so so so lost...all I wanna do is cry right now. I had a bad binge last night and when I came down this morning my mum was like "you ate alot last night didnt you" and it just makes it so much worse. I will be fine during the day and then when it comes to the evenings it just all goes down the drain.....

No one else knows about it and I hate the way my friends have a fit over like 2 chocoltae muffins when its like that would be an 1/8th of what I would normally have! Its my first day at work today and I dont want to go as I feel so ugly and I just wanna lie in bed and burst into tears..I feel so flipping obese and I just HATE myself.

omg .. i just downed so much chocolate cake .. i think i'm an emotional binger .. my sister is leaving for japan and i'm going to be all alone at home with my dad who i hate .. and now i feel even shittier ..  like i just don't get it sometimes .. we all know it's wrong, so why are we doing it?! =( i'm going to make meal plans the night before and come onto this post when i need help from you guys .. we can all get through thisss! <3

yuck. i binged tonight. so disgusting. i've done so good the past three days, i guess it was bound to happen :(. ugh. i'm trying not to feel too guilty about it, but i just hate myself. i've stopped weighing myself recently, so i won't know what kind of an effect it's had on me, which is probably for the best. i just wish i could have stopped. i even bit my tongue as i binged...finally convinced me to stop. i am terrified of eating now. it scares me that i won't be able to stop. when i'm away, i'm fine, but when i'm at home i just want to go after all the food. i tried to convince myself tonight that the food will be there later, but it didn't help. at least it wasn't that horrible. but it just sucks eating 1000 or more of my daily calories at one point. why why why. i guess i'll just have to start over tomorrow.

Same here. I was so ready for today to be a fresh start for me, but when I got home from school this afternoon, I ate a plum and a banana as a snack, and then somehow convinced myself along the way that two more plums, another banana, a cup of vanilla yogurt,  two slices of toast with peanut butter and marmalade, and a piece of baguette with chocolate syrup was okay, too. I don't even know if I'm done there, if I'm going to eat more later, too. I still have to eat dinner, too. (My parents won't let me skip meals, even if they know I binge like crazy in the afternoon).

My binges have slowly been getting worse and worse over the past three weeks. Binging once in a while with a normal calorie diet would be okay, but I've been binging constantly on an  increased meal plan as it is. It's like... since I'm not able/allowed to control how little I eat, I compensate by overeating instead. Except I'm not really in control and it ends up just stressing me out more and making me hate myself for how unhealthy and unhappy and unfit and fat I'm getting.

I know I've gained five to seven pounds at least and a depressing amount of fat all over. It's starting to show. I can feel it on my face, on my stomach, on my legs, even in my fingers. I just wish I could eat normally and not think about food all the time and be HAPPY with myself.

I know I've got it in me to kick this, but... apparently not today.

Oh my gosh, I can identify with all of you in so many ways.

WE CAN DO THIS, it's going to be okay.

I, like many people on here, am a recovering anorexic who puts healthy weight back on through binges.

It's so terrible. Because I may not look overweight, because I'm not (in fact because of binging I actually look better because of the extra pounds) but I'm gaining weight in such an unhealthy way that it just feels icky.

I just had a binge today; I wont list what because that can be a trigger for some people and the acutal foods shouldn't be the focus, but I got some really neat advice that I'd love to share..

Throw away all of your trigger foods. Anything that you keep depriving youself of all day and end up going hog wild later, get rid of. Let me tell you, it feels SO GOOD to march over to a thrash can and chuck all that food out without eating it. It is almost cleansing..it's like you're throwing out all your frusterations and pain at that moment.

By keeping all that food in your house that you've been known to binge on, you're holding yourself back. It is almost as if you're enabling yourself. So just keep all those foods that leave you with terrible memories out of your house and out of mind. Focus on healthy foods that you enjoy, but wont binge on.

SO march yo your cupboards and cleanse yourself of all that food that has haunted you so many times!  TRY IT! I guarnantee you will feel WONDERFUL.

This is an everyday battle, hang in there guys! WE CAN DO THIS!

^ great advice and thank you.

but for many ppl, like me, who live with their parents, it's impossible to do so =( 

I'm sorry hummus86. I know how you feel, the only reason I was able to do this is because I live in adorm now..with my parents it would have been near impossible.

Hang in there, if you need to talk I'm here!

Yeah, same here, I'm still living with my parents and family, too. And we actually don't have that much unhealthy food in the house. I often just binge on ridiculous amounts of fruit, which makes it hard for people to take me seriously, because, well. Fruit. There could be worse things to binge on. But the calories add up and now it's started to escalate to bread and peanut butter and cereal and chocolate and stuff.
Also, my parents frown on throwing out food and I hate waste, too. I always feel so guilty throwing perfectly edible food out...but you're right, better in the trash than in me.

Thanks for your supportive words, though. And I didn't even think about listing foods being a trigger for some people; if I binge again (here's hoping not, though), I'll try to be more considerate and I won't mention 'em.

^ thanks finallymeagain.

^ i totally feel for you skippyskippy. my parents are actually notorious for being super super healthy (we rarely eat red meat. we eat whole grains, brown rice, roots, beans, you name it!). but the thing is, since there is no junk foods around the house, i tend to binge on the healthy foods (fruits, whole grain wheat BREAD, sweet potatoes, etc etc), but all those calories definitely add up!

:(

I couldn't but cry after reading some of these posts because it's so hard and I don't think I'll ever recover from this.  It's a battle everyday at every meal.  I'm really really tire of this.  I feel so helpless.

I feel the exact same way as all of you. I just want this to go away. I feel so helpless. I did so good today, took a nap, woke up and just started binging. I don't even think I was fully awake when I started eating. I just grabbed a bag of pretzels and salsa and started munching away. I almost choked on one but of course that didn't stop me. i just kept going to all different kinds of foods. i felt so out of control. i honestly felt like i could not stop, even though in the back of my head i know i can. i really need to work on that and realize that no matter how hard it seems, i really can stop. now i just feel so guilty and disgusting. i just pray that the rest of my life is not like this. it just sucks.

Everyone's saying that they know how you feel, so I'm not going to. :P But my problem is similar to many of yours: I live in an apartment with 5 friends, so I don't have much control over what food is here. I binge at night, especially after everyone's gone to bed so no one can see. . . and at the dining hall when I'm there alone (which is usually). that's the worst, because all the food I could possibly want (and then some!) is right there, and I end up eating and eating and eating until I feel so stuffed I don't even want to walk home. I usually go to the gym and try to burn it off afterwards, but i know it'll catch up with me. There's another variable too: going home. When I go home to my parents' house, I spend the entire visit like it's my last meal on Earth. Like this weekend I went home and I just kept going between the fridge and the pantry eating chicken, cheese, brownies, goldfish crackers, an apple, peanut butter, cereal, bread, you name it. I just couldn't seem to stop! Then when they dropped me off this evening I went straight to the dining hall and kept right on eating. Now I feel so gross I don't even want to think about myself. . . ugh. But I'm drinking tea and thinking optimistically: tomorrow is another day I haven't binged away. And that means another chance for ALL OF US to do better. Stay strong everyone! 

Hi I am new to the website. don't really know how it works but i need any help i can get. here is my story...

I have suffered my entire life with eating. From age 10 to 18 I suffer from anorexia. I was hosipitalized 3 times, put in an inpatient treatment center for 6 months, and saw therapists, doctors, nutritionists daily.  I am finally over anorexia. I am 19 and just finished my 6 menstrual cycle.  However, now i am a binge eater. An extreme binge eater!!! I mean an entire cake, jar of peanut butter, and bag of cookies. All the stuff i could never eat when i starvung. At first it was okay because i was trying to gain weight. But, know I have been binging for about a year. I have put on 15-20pounds over my ideal weight. I just want to know it anyone else is in the same boat as me. I feel so alone and misunderstood. My mother suffered from anorexia as a teen but never binged. She thinks it great that i am eating so much. But she doesn't know that in the middle of the night i sneak into the kitchen, or in the morning when she leaves for work, or when she is out shopping, I eat and eat, and eat. It sucks because she use to be able to relate to me but know she has no idea. 

PS i just binged and feel super sick. I am going to lie down. plop. 

first night of not binging!

what helped me is this: waking up that morning and promising that this is a new day that i would NOT binge or purge!! then i planned out my meals, made sure i ate healthy foods that were also filling and i didnt deprive myself, and if you feel liike binging, take a long shower!!

thats what helped me today, hope it helps and btw this is the first time not binging and purging in i dont know, like three years :D

please help! i dont know what to do! i have a problem with self-control and bingeing. i always eat whats in front of me; and its even worse when theres big portions. give me a box, and ill eat the whole box. i usually tend to binge on chocolate or chips or something, ANYTHING! i gain/lose weight all the time. i try to eat healthy for a week, and then by the end of the week its like i wasted all that healthy eating for nothing. i go crazy, and i cant stop. and i really really want to. i want to be normal. i want to stop eating when im full, eat healthy, indulge from time to time but not all the time. i want to stop counting calories; stop thinking about food every single minute of the day!! i wish i could be normal. i just dont know what to do anymore =/

this is amazing. i feel like i know all of you just by reading your posts....we understand eachother.

thanks for starting this thread. its helped me so much just by reading it

i was anorexic and gained all my weight back unhealthily by bingeing. i'v been doing better but feel very fat. im 120 lbs and 5'3. i am a ballet dancer and hate looking at myself in a leotard!!!

bingeing has turned into such a huge part of my life and am scared that im goig to keep doing it until im obese!!! it scares me so much.

i binged tonight.....not my worst one but i feel really gross.. the pumpkin pie put me over the edge....

i also hide my food! i am so ashamed of having my mom see me eat a lot!! its terrible :(

Oh, I was wondering why there were suddenly no more posts in the Bingers Anonymous thread!

I know it has been a really long time since this was posted, but I jsut came across it and wanted to just lend some advice...

I have also had a serious problem with binge eating, which got much worse when I entered college. I have also struggled with an eating disorder, and I am very ashamed to admit that.  I recently started buying healthier foods.. instead of a bag of chips I buy fruit bars and what not, basically I buy things that are satisfying but a lot less calories. My binge eating continued at first, but they went from 2000 plus cals to about 500 or less cals. This was really helpful, because I didn't feel so guilty. As I continued with this new only have healthy foods in my room, the binge eating was getting less and less, and over the past couple weeks my binge eating has almost completely come to a stop. 

Im not sure if these results will be forever.. but I am willing to try to keep up with this. By cutting out my binge eating, I feel a lot better about myself and I am happier.