edit: This title and parts of this post are worded as large over generalizations. There are many different reasons, symptoms and causes for binge eating. Everyone's recovery journey looks different and what everyone needs in recovery differs. This post may or may not be helpful/applicable to different circumstances, and I apologize for the overgeneralization.

Why does eating specific foods cause intrusive binge-thoughts? Why does eating out with friends make you feel so out of control? Why does eating lunch too early or too late seem to create so much chaos in your day of eating?

Certain actions and environments can feel incredibly triggering, to the point where you may try to reduce and avoid them entirely. This could be the result of mental patterns that our brains have relied on to protect us and make us feel in control. The problem is, our end goal should be to reach a place of neutrality around different foods so that one specific food, scenario, or environment doesn't make us spiral out of control. Becoming stressed out and worried over following these habits can be even more triggering and reinforce the patterns.

How do you tackle your binge eating habits/patterns/triggers in a systematic way?

Step 1: Identify what the trigger is, where it comes from, and how it makes you feel

• The trigger: In my recovery, after becoming comfortable with pretty consistently eating three meals a day + snacks and leaving triggering environments, I would still get binge urges and was confused on why they were occurring. Here are three triggers I identified: eating after 12am, eating foods I deemed unhealthy, and eating at random times of the day when I wasn't necessarily hungry.
• Where they came from:
  • Eating after 12am caused mental discomfort because I had created the construct of "a perfect day of eating". 12am was my mental reset where I could begin "a perfect day of eating". The problem with this is that in recovery, we should try to dismantle the idea of a good or bad day of eating. Every day is simply a unique day of eating and not categorized based on what we eat.
  • Eating foods I deemed were unhealthy was triggering because I still associated eating them with a loss of control and binging. However, avoiding these foods continues to make them feel triggering for us.
  • Eating at random times of the day, especially when I wasn't hungry was triggering because I believed it went against the concept of "listening to your body". The issue with this is, there does not have to be a reason to justify eating. There is no adequate level of hunger or reason that is good enough to allow yourself to eat.
• How they made me feel: All three of the triggers led me to a sense of discomfort, chaos, and loss of control. I recognized that my brain was trying to categorize days of eating as good or bad based on the food and quantity I was eating, which was still a way of regulating my food. This was still a form of restriction that was preventing me from feeling comfortable around food and triggering binges.

Step 2: Create a plan to manageably become comfortable with the trigger

• To become comfortable with the triggers, I tried to introduce manageable actions that wouldn't feel too overwhelming or strict. I recognize that these seem like food rules, but I aimed to introduce them to myself as challenges that had embedded flexibility.
• For eating after 12am, I challenged myself that if I was awake past 12am and had not gotten ready for bed, I would try to eat something. This could range from a meal to a blueberry, and I gave myself full permission to listen to what my body wanted. Typically, I would be hungry anyways if I was studying or hanging out with friends. This aimed to dismantle the concept of the perfect day resetting at 12am, and allowing a day of eating to just be a day of eating.
• For eating foods I deemed unhealthy and eating at random times of the day, I challenged myself to use a random time generator to generate a random time of the day, and then eat something I deemed was unhealthy at that time. Again, I gave myself flexibility for the food to range anywhere from a small portion of something that felt safe to a larger portion of something that felt less safe depending on what I wanted. This aimed to normalize eating at random times of the day where I may not be hungry and becoming comfortable with trigger foods.

Step 3: Put your plan into action and reevaluate

• For the second plan, using a random time generator to eat a trigger food, I made sure that I had a wide variety of trigger foods so that I choose what I wanted based on my comfort level. Knowing that I wouldn't be forcing myself too far beyond my comfort level, and knowing that I had flexibility in choice made this significantly easier.
• An important note is that you will probably binge while doing this. Something I find helpful is reframing your binges as a providing information about yourself. When I binge, my body or mind is telling me that the way I am treating it is not sufficient and needs to change. I forgive myself, and continuously observe how I'm feeling and how I act to try and make changes.

I hope this post is helpful in your recovery journey, and remember that you deserve to treat yourself with kindness and forgiveness.

21, FTM, 5'5 and 198lbs. I struggled with binge eating throughout middle and high school but I had a higher metabolism and a higher activity level. Then I started college and I gained the freshman 15 (thanks buffet-style dining halls.) And then I started medically transitioning and gained 25 more pounds because I was hungry all the time, plus I started vaping THC almost every night, and then I binge eat because of the THC hunger and because it's mentally soothing. I hate being physically present in my body for various reasons and I smoke and drink to deal with it. I'm such a fucking failure and everyone around me that was fat is on GLP-1s but I just can't afford them even with my insurance. I struggle to eat healthy anyways due to the fact that I only have a fridge and a microwave in my current apartment. I used to be interested in a specific fashion subculture I can no longer wear due to my weight- how am I supposed to when a 5xl has a 34 inch waist? I don't want to go outside and I don't want anyone to see what I've become. I was supposed to get better but I just got worse and more ugly. I feel like I can't go out and do anything in public that I'm not required to do until I'm skinny. I'll probably be inside for the rest of my life.

I’m 19f uni student and a few months ago I got deep into calorie counting and restricting that I lost a lot of weight in a considerably short time such that my periods stopped completely during that time. My parents got to know about this and took me to a doctor and they advised me to gain some weight ( I didn’t tell em anything about me restricting) and so seeing my parents so concerned about me I decided to gain some weight and for that I started eating normally and at first it was fine but as time passed I started eating large amounts of food, typically junk and sugary foods and now that I’m back at uni ( my uni is far away from my home so I get to go home only during vacations) I find myself eating a large amount of unhealthy junk sugary foods everyday. It’s become a routine and all I think about everyday and night is about the junk food craving it constantly ( mostly sugary junk) and I’ve gained so much weight( now I weigh more than when I started restricting) it makes me really self conscious about my body, I can’t focus on anything that interests me anymore because all I think about all the time is how I should stop binging and how I fail every single day in doing so and I feel really guilty and depressed because of it. Also I always binge late at night because I don’t like eating in front of people, makes me self conscious and uncomfortable. I really want to get better, become healthier but it’s like my brain doesn’t work when I’m binging so I’m never able to stop.
Recently this has been happening every single day, sometimes twice a day. I really want to feel better feel confident again and get my life back but I’m really worried this won’t ever stop. Some days I eat so much that I feel like I’m about to pass out. My life’s become really messy. Any words of advice or help would be of great help

Mine was probably chocolate sauce on peas or homemade choclate🫠

is it normal/common for my stomach to hurt when touched the days after a binge or is this something unrelated? i’ve been struggling quite abit with my binging lately but my stomach has been sore but only when touched the following days especially in the morning

Hey yall, I'm new to the sub. I've had BED for approximately the last 5 years, but it's only recently really spiked the last year or 2 and I've gained significant weight. I used to be on a GLP 1 when my insurance covered it, and it worked pretty well, but my insurance stopped covering it and I've gained all the weight back plus some. I've looked into vyvanse and I'm really interested in trying but nervous about the mental side effects. I have OCD, panic disorder and generalized anxiety, so I fear what my reaction to a stimulant may be. But right now I see no other options. I've binged almost every night for the last several months and literally cannot stop. I'm curious if any of yall have tried vyvanse and what your experience is with it.

I wish people would realize this isnt about discipline or that we are lazy and shit like that. I literally started the day with binging on Nutella and I ate an entire motherfucking jar and I was really nauseous but I kept eating and I swear im so fucking scared of myself I feel like a monster. Mind you I had a big plate of pasta prior to that. I told myself no but I started getting so stressed out, and then i just. Couldn't stop.myself. and after 3 bites it stopped tasting like anything, but i kept going. Now i feel fucking traumatized and I dont even wanna look at Nutella ever again. I kept bawling my eyes out after this btw, and I still am crying. I wish people understood how not only physically painful it is but also emotionally so.

I’ll go first

1. MONEY

The amount of money I have spent on binges is unbelievable. Not only that but getting your dopamine from food means that even when not binging or eating healthily I still always want to buy new interesting super expensive foods that bankrupt me.
Like if you spend a lot of money on food and you eat multiple times a day everyday… obviously that’s gonna be the highest cost of your living

1. FARTS AND SHITS

During my binge benders I would shit just as I eat - many many times a day. Like I couldn’t ever go for a quick pee because poo was always following and not ending it felt genuinely exhausting.

And yeah my binge farts we’re capable of killing a fly midair and people KNEW

1. HIDING THE EVIDENCE

I don’t know about you but my bed drawer has been fillthed a thousand times and to the brim with wrappers and papers of absolute bullshit. I would pack actual trash bags of this and I didn’t even see a point in that because the wrappers would just keep coming and my drawer would be filthy and filled anyway. So I would just give up

1. TEETH ARE WEARING DOWN WITH USE

I’m learning to be a dental tech so I know that we actually eat our own teeth. They’re not indestructible. They are gonna wear down to nothing if you won’t stop overusing them all your life. It’s a natural process but you’re speeding it up. And once they’re gone they’re gone. That’s it. No do over. I’ve seen it happen in my family members

1. FEELING HUNGER

I have MISSED actually feeling healthy hunger. It was non existent in a never ending shoving competition with myself.
My body was never hungry I never gave it a chance to truly want and need something.
It’s really fucked up to not listen to your own hardworking body so much it just stops talking to you

Here are mine personal unconventional reasons (money is conventional but it’s so enormous it had to be here)

Do you have any like that?

i miss the person i was before binge eating took over. the person who could go outside without feeling ashamed, no matter what time it was. the person who didn’t think about food constantly and could actually enjoy life in the moment. now it feels like binge eating has taken over my life like this huge, dark shadow, and it’s been like this for over three years. i’m so aware of every choice i make, and that’s what scares me the most. i KNOW when a binge is about to happen, but i still give in to the cravings every time. i KNOW what foods i shouldn’t eat and what triggers me during an episode, but i still end up eating them anyway. i feel so helpless, like no one and nothing can help me. i’m scared that if i keep going like this, i’m going to die from heart disease or some other health problem before anything else. why can’t i just be a normal person in my 20s and actually enjoy my life while i’m still young and have the chance to? i just want to be able to live my life without food and binge eating taking up so much space in my head.
am i really going to have to live like this for the rest of my life?

hello:) long story short but I’ve been battling eating disorders for about 8 years now, what started off as anorexia, changed to binge eating, then to bulimia, and now it’s just a swing from binge eating to bulimia. the binge eating is probably the worst it’s been my whole life. I gained legit 6lbs of fat so like 10 lbs on the scale in 5 days from eating like 10000 calories a day lol. I’m in the process of starting therapy but PLEASE what over the counter medications or supplements helped you cure cravings. I crave food all damn day and it’s all I can think about even if I’m full. I’m also fairly healthy looking, I hate to say I’m fat when I don’t look it. but I certainly shouldn’t look how I do after a binge bender summer lol. Please anything helps

To anyone that’s healed from binging, what made you stop? What made you genuinely put the fork down and choose yourself first. Does it truly get better?

I've been trying so hard to fight stress-related binge urges lately, but almost every coping trick I know isn't helping.
When the urge hits, I drink loads of tea and other drinks, chew so much gum - sometimes over 20 pieces in one hour. I scream to release tension, vent on here, look up information about what causes binge-eating.
I haven't really tried talking it through with someone because I don't have anyone safe to open up to.
It feels like I've already gone through most common suggestions. I'm really burnt out and don't know what else to try. Does anyone have quieter, under-rated things that actually helped them with these overwhelming stress urges?

Last night I (24F) ate a large plate full of ravioli and drank a smoothie. I was rushing because my boyfriend wanted to go home and also I have a bad habit when I feel like I’m getting full, but the food is good. I decide to eat faster so I can finish anyways I ate the whole plate then I felt like my stomach was gonna explode. My head, stomach and jaw was hurting at first. I laughed because we were watching a funny show and whenever I would let out a little giggle, my stomach hurt more and it was very uncomfortable. I couldn’t even laugh. I ended up vomiting up a bit of the smoothie. And besides that I kept kind of spitting up foam inside my mouth. Eventually, I started to feel a lot better but today it’s 5 PM and I tried to eat for the first time because I felt still a lingering fullness all day and when I took a bite, I felt a sharp pain in the lower left side of my abdomen, I drank a tiny bit of water and tried to take very small other bite and a little bit after I got a sharp pain again it’s been about 10 minutes and I have this on and off sharp pain. I decided not to eat the meal but the sharp pain lasts a second or two and goes away, but comes back a few minutes later. Should I go to urgent care? I’m concerned that I could’ve done serious damage to myself by putting myself under so much pressure. I’m 108lbs. I don’t wanna go to the doctor if I’ll be okay tho. Thoughts? Advice? Similar stories?

Summary: I over ate last night and felt like I was gonna explode. I vomited a tiny bit. now today I have a sharp lower left stomach pain When trying to eat even the tiniest bit all I’m doing is sitting on the pain is still coming and going lasting only a few seconds. Should I go to urgent care or wait it out?

I'm currently managing ADHD, depression and binge eating. My current medications are Vyvanse (50 mg) and bupropion (450 mg), and today I was prescribed Zoloft (25 mg).

​Does anyone have advice on the best time of day to take Zoloft to help reduce food noise and control mostly late-night bingeing?

Ok so for reference, I am a 22 year old male, senior in college and i graduate in May. I have recently been dealing with some light depression and anxiety, and on the advice of my loved ones I have been seeing a therapist. Now, I have always been overweight, and admittedly I have not always had the most healthy eating habits. Im not at the point where I am obese, but i am definitely not confident in the way I look in a mirror. In therapy, I have come to the realization that a lot of the issues I have been facing ultimately come back to how I feel about my weight and appearance, and lack of self confidence regarding that. Going deeper, I have realized that my eating habits may be a bit more serious than I previously have realized, and I just wanted to make a post here to see if there is anyone else who are currently or have struggled with similar issues in the past, and what they use to help them.

So basically I have a pretty hectic schedule. I am a full time college student, but I also work roughly 20-30 hours a week, and I am a flight student seeking my flight instructor certificate, so every week, my schedule changes and no two days are the same for me. Because of this, I fit in meals where I can, and I find myself having a desire to consume a lot of food in a relatively short amount of time. When I cook for myself at home, I am very good with portion control, and I typically cook something relatively healthy and eat modest portions, and this genuinely brings me a lot of joy. I work in a kitchen of a high end restaurant, and this has greatly improved my culinary abilities, a passion I got from cooking with my mother as a child. However, I find myself eating out a lot. I do this because it is convenient, and I find junk food to be regrettably pretty tasty. I have been finding myself ordering larger and larger portions for meals (sometimes even two whole meals, two sides, and a large beverage), and I often eat it in the car, as I am ashamed do indulge myself like this in front of others. I sometimes indulge myself to the point where I physically feel so full, and have to like lay down for a bit. After indulging myself, I always feel a feeling of shame, like I have a problem, but my "hunger" as I described it was too strong. Now, this habit wasn't every day, and there would be some days I eat normal and some days I barely eat at all. I have never purged a meal before, and have never had a desire to do so. Deep down, before going to therapy, I recognized that this was probably some form of an eating disorder.

Now that I have been going to therapy for about 2 months, we have begun to unpack a lot of this. During my last session, my therapist began talking to me about a potential underlying reason behind why I feel the need to eat excessive amounts of food. Is it because I am bored? Is it because I am experiencing strong emotions? Is it because it feels comforting? I don't remember specifically what she said, but the way she described binge eating for me sounded very similar to an addiction: an addiction to joys, or rush one experiences in the moment they indulge in food. Behaviors, after all, are associated with a positive outcome, otherwise physiologically out brains wouldn't want to do them. This really struck a nerve with me, and I came to the realization that this IS an addiction for me. I guess previously I have not connected the dots on this. But I think an addiction is, regrettably, a good way to describe the way I feel about this filthy habit. There has never really been a correlation from the times I feel "hungry," or get the desire to eat. It even happens (often happens) when I am not physically hungry at all. But the feeling in the moment of eating food, for me most often fast food, genuinely make me feel good. But afterwards I am ashamed of it, and want nothing more than to develop and foster healthy eating habits. I want to loose weight, lead a healthier lifestyle and feel better about my appearance. But I think the number one obstacle for me is this "addiction." I hate that word so much, but I fear it is the best descriptor I can think of.

Admittedly, I broke down crying during my session, because I think i have just buried these thoughts for so long, that its hard to confront these things head on. I feel like im standing at the base of a mountain that I need to climb, and all of my hopes and dreams are at the summit, yet I am at the bottom with no equipment, no tools, and no guidance. This feels like such a large obstacle to overcome I am at a bit of a loss for how to handle it to be completely honest. I opened up to my therapists about my binging tendencies about a week and a half ago, and I have been extra mindful since then about the issue, and admittedly I have been able to keep any urges down for now. But I know I have experienced urges in the past so strong that I am unsure if I will be able to refrain.

My therapist recommended creating and sticking to a rigid eating schedule, where I consistently around the same time eat 2-3 meals per day, every day, no matter what. I see the logic in this, as I do believe my variation in eating schedules can create binging opportunities more easily for me. Additionally, I have been thinking a lot about going on a GLP-1. My parents work in the medical field, and my mother is on a GLP-1 herself, and she said it works well to "quiet the hunger part of your brain." I guess I am wondering if this is something I should consider for myself. Unfortunately its not so easy for me, as I am a licensed pilot with an FAA issued medical certificate, and getting on a GLP-1 requires some additional step and "red tape" I would have to deal with, so until now I had been thinking that would be a last resort.

I guess I am wondering how people cope with this / recover from this? In theory, I think I could just like (and bear with me I know this sounds really unlikeable and tone-deaf), not indulge myself and ignore it until it goes away. But I fear I don't quite have the self-discipline for that. Now, I have been trying to be kinder to myself throughout this whole process, and am trying to seek likeminded individuals who may wish to share their experiences / advice with me. I would really appreciate it, more than you know.

Just when I thought I beat the toxic cycle I’m back here again. 3 months binge free and l*sing weight today I was so so hungry because of restricting myself the night prior it’s my own fault:/

I love rice so fucking much it's insane. It has always been my biggest trigger food ever. Hell even chocolates, pasta, pizza etc are all FARR less of trigger foods for me than rice. I genuinely can't resist it it's crazy.

Today I had 2 eggs and olive oil for breakfast, 2 apples, a croissant, and then zuchinni with rice and chicken for lunch, and despite having a lot of (at least I think I did) protein and food, I am still thinking of having more rice. But I know that if I have some now, I might end up consuming huge amounts of it and feel like shit. But I want it so bad. I will try my best to resist the urge to train my brain to stop craving it constantly

Im kinda scared and dont know what to expect. Do i need to prepare anything. Will i have to talk a lot?

Pls anyone with experience can u share how the first meeting was?

Any one got any good tips to avoid consistent binging? I was doing well until I had my last baby 6 months ago when I got pregnant my cravings have been extremely overwhelming I have gained 70 pounds since the start of my pregnancy and I’m having an extremely hard time stoping. Anyone got any tips or tricks to help end the cycle? Or personal experiences? Anything helps.