Treating Episodes of Binge Eating

In my professional experience, binge eating is one of the most frustrating and shame-inducing habits on the eating spectrum. It goes beyond simply "overeating" in its volume of food, intensity, urgency, and often, its cause. Binge eating episodes can vary a bit from person to person, however, there are certain identifying characteristics.

Did I just binge eat?

• Urgency: Many experience a sense of "the blinders going on," and a strong sense eating must happen right now. Some of my clients report instances when eating starts rather innocently and then morphs into more quick and urgent eating.

  Others report the strong sense of urgency straight-away.

• Intensity: I don't often hear a client speak about binge eating episodes as a relaxed, slow, and luxurious process. Far more often binge eating has an intensity about it. The manner in which food is eaten is intense. Most people only binge while alone. Some binge while driving or in their cars. Some binge eat at their office desk.

• Volume of Food: Another defining feature of a binge is the amount of food eaten in one sitting. This varies from person to person. Some eat until the food is gone. Others eat until they are literally so full they simply can't eat any more. Though, its worth noting that some might eat a couple items of food rapidly and with urgency and FEEL as if if were a binge due to feeling the urgency and intensity of eating, yet the volume is not quite as large.

• Physical survival state: People generally don't binge in a relaxation response. A binge usually occurs in a full blown stress response, commonly known as "fight or flight."

• Remorse/Shame: Most clients that binge report getting to the other side of eating, and feel deep regret, frustration, or even shame. "What's wrong with me?," and "Why do I keep doing something I know makes me feel so bad?, are common shame-driven questions. Many people feel so badly about the binge, they make a point to "hide the evidence" that a binge ever occurred, though seen or unseen, binge eating can take a physical, emotional, and psychological toll.

• Attempts to "clean it up": After a binge, some clients recommit to healthy eating, swearing off the foods they binged on. Doing so offer a bit of temporary relief, as does signing up for classes at the gym or a new diet program. Some looking for a sense of order and control after a binge and clean their house, tend to finances, work, or do something that creates a sense of order. Though the cause of the binge often goes unaddressed.

  
  

How I work with Binge Eating

I take a holistic, multi-dimensional approach to heal cyclical patterns of binge eating. As strange as if may sound, binge eating always occurs for a brilliant reason. Because there are often multiple contributors to binge eating, here are some of the areas I support my clients:

Chronic dieting and nutritional imbalance: Many women unwittingly set themselves up for a binge based on beliefs they have about weight loss (which we deconstruct), or simply because they have not learned to set up a nutritionally strong diet for themselves. Working in this area can be powerful, helping re-educate and realign years of mis-guided dietary programming. Sometimes working in this area alone resolves binge eating challenges, which is often a massive relief to clients.

High sensitivity/empathy: Many sensitive empathic children, are not acknowledged or seen in their gifts of deep feelings or ability to "read the room," left to believe that not only something is wrong with them, but not have the tools to manage emotional distress or negative energies from others. Later as adults, they may have gotten to out of touch with themselves, that binges on food have become the crutch and way to manage one's own emoptional and energetic needs.

Relational pain/trauma (past and present): Complex Trauma may contribute to painful episodes of binge eating. In these cases, I bring in my background and training in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy and Depth Psychology to assist clients in the deeper dimensions of healing, exploring relationship dynamics, past and present.

Seeing the Individuative Call behind the Eating Habit: Any addictive process is a call to deep integrity, a sense of aliveness, self-expression, truth-telling, self-acceptance, and grounded humility. To heal binge eating means to become more fully oneself. This shift in thinking alone can add a swift gust of wind to the sails of this inner work, which is entirely worth it.

Life-changing work

Healing Binge Eating is often life-changing, not only relieving the eating habit itself, but living out the inner transformations and newly shaped belief systems that support a much healthier relationship with food, body, and oneself.

Study with Laura here or work together one-on-one in Grand Rapids, Michigan or remotely via ZOOM sessions (Hours 9am-5pm EST, Mondays-Thursdays)

With Love & Respect, Laura