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(c) Copyright 2011
Judy Lightstone
Binge eating disorder, or BED follows predictable
patterns. Compulsive overeating patterns can be understood by following
the diet/binge cycles described below
on this page. You may stay in one cycle or mover repetitively back and
forth between the two, alternating periods of
compulsive
overeating with periods of
compulsive
restriction, or you may never restrict, although the wish to do so
is part of what drives the bingeing. Whichever pattern you follow, understanding
the triggers to your eating and being able to slow down the binges are
the key to breaking the cycles.
Let’s start by defining compulsive eating as
any eating out of relation to physiological hunger and satiation.
This means that anytime one eats for reasons other than hunger or bringing
hunger to satiation, we say that eating was compulsive in nature.
Which is to say we all eat compulsively at times (i.e. for reasons other
than physiological hunger).
People with eating problems, however, eat compulsively
consistently and feel terrible shame about both the behaviour and the effects
of the behaviour (perceived or real) on their body size. In fact,
each compulsive eating episode tends to be accompanied by a great deal
of shame, as shown in the cycles below. Indeed it could be said that
shame is the main ingredient that turns a "normal" experience of compulsive
eating into a repetitive anguished pattern.
Recommend this article on Google Plus
For more
on this see March 2000 Newsletter article on the Binge and Diet Cycles
Individual Therapy for Eating
Problems
In my work with people with eating disorders,
I listen to them carefully as they describe their eating in detail to me.
Below is the common pattern I have distilled from underneath the many stories
I have heard. When you come in for your first appointment, you may
have a lot to say, or you may be so nervous that you don't know what say.
Trust is a key issue, and you may feel afraid to trust or you may want
to dive right in. Either way, we will both come to understand that trust
is not a static thing - it comes and it goes, and generally has to be earned
to be meaningful. While we are exploring these complexities, it's often
a relief to start talking. We begin by helping you explore your personal
experiences with food, feeding, fat, and body size, and why these issues
are so painful for you.
Group
Therapy for Eating ProblemsA group
for women with compulsive eating problems is now forming in Auckland New
Zealand. For more information
click here.
Techniques for Working on Eating
Problems
You may have been put on diets or diet pills,
forced to eat when you weren't hungry, weighed and lectured by well meaning
(or not so well meaning?) doctors or relatives, or felt otherwise disrespected
and intruded upon. I will not be weighing you or telling you what or what
not to eat. This may feel like a relief, or you may not like that. Some
people become dependent on others to tell them what to eat. I will simply
be encouraging you to sense your hunger and satiation points, and to notice
when you can follow them as guides, and when it seems too difficult.
We may choose to include journal, art, or movement
work, and guided fantasies to help you express what the eating problem
has been trying to say. Ultimately, you will learn to eat when you are
hungry and stop when you are full. But in the meantime, when you cannot
always do this, we will use the symptoms to point us to the triggers and
issues in your life that you have been using bingeing, and/or dieting to
solve. We work these through one by one, until you feel strong enough to
face these difficulties without depriving or punishing yourself with food. |
Auckland PSITM
