8 things to look at when healing binge eating

Laura Burkett
11 minutes ago
3 min read

In a culture that values living your "best life," there's not much place for painful eating habits. But neglecting our unwanted eating habits is severing off an integral part of who we are and what's on the move inside us.

As odd as it may sound, binge eating is always correct, meaning binge eating always happens for a brilliant and well-meaning reason. Our work is shedding light on those reasons so we can meet our legitimate needs and bring some dignity back to the process of healing and empowering out eating.

Binge eating can be an incredible teacher this way.

If you fall into patterns of binge eating, here are 8 areas of focus to consider:

Nutritional imbalance
Deficiency in calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates can all contribute to binge eating as the body desperately tries to correct nutritional imbalance

Proper meal timing throughout the day
Rhythmic eating (spacing meals out in a predictable way in regular intervals helps mitigate unnecessary "hangry" binges

Working with perfectionism and black and white thinking
A LARGE contributor to binge eating, perfectionism allows zero room for dietary deviations. That means vacations, restaurant outings with friends, weddings, illness, or holidays all have the potential (in their imperfect circumstances) to contribute to a woman feeling defeated and, often awash with shame, then binge eats...the very opposite of what she was trying to achieve with her perfect eating plans

Address fear and confusion about body weight regulation
Many women still are confused about body weight regulation. They often need a professional intellectual intervention discussing meal timing, portions, macronutrient balance, pleasure physiology, and body cue awareness so they can feel more confident with tools to help stabilize their body weight minus the obsession or confusion

Work with your inner life, emotional life, and sense of authenticity
Binge eating often has an emotional dimension. In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy binge eating arises when a person is flooded by an overwhelmingly painful emotion like shame, powerlessness, worthlessness, helplessness, terror, or hopelessness. Binge eating is essentially an attempt to put out this emotional fire (no matter what the damage afterward). In these cases, we must work with unburdening relational trauma big and small so binge eating no longer becomes necessary.

Address nervous system sensitivity and any issues around overstimulation
Highly sensitive people who have not yet worked with caring for their sensitive nervous system are prone to overstimulation and overwhelm and can unwittingly reach for higher volumes of food to ground themselves or medicate their intense bodily sensations. Working with body care, boundaries, and lifestyle are a great boon here.

Fortify the will of the spirit to keep growing and learning
Many women that struggle with binge eating feel as if something is truly wrong with them or that things will never change. Strengthening the will of the spirit means believing in oneself, drawing on one's own resourcefulness and commitment to learning and growing, and allowing for binge eating to be one of the great teachers in their lives

Honor needs for The Sacred, depth, beauty, play, rest, and awe
These are legitimate human needs. When not met, women can try and meet their needs in a sideways fashion by reaching for food instead of resting, reaching for food instead of nurturing one's own soulful life, or reach for food in place of the nourishment of awe and beauty.

I hope you can see the multi-dimensional nature of binge eating. Though a loathed eating habit, it is one that deserves a great deal of respect as its often the body's and psyche's smart solution to dietary imbalance, pain, overwhelm, emotional injury, perfectionism, or boundary challenges.

I hope you find this helpful.

With love & respect,