Our clients report the subjective sense of impaired control during episodes of overeating and any number of the following symptoms:
- Eating much more rapidly than normal
- Eating until uncomfortably full
- Eating large amounts of food, even when not physically hungry
- Eating alone out of embarrassment at the quantity of food being consumed
- Feelings of disgust, depression or guilt with overeating
- Continuing the cycle of overeating while believing that tomorrow they will have a fresh start on todays binge
- Becoming disembodied from the experience of the unhealthy foods they are feeding their bodies and minds
- An increased experience of unworthiness and poor self image in their personal, professional and social worlds
The primary goals of treatment should include:
- Recognizing the strategies and patterns of the problem
- Recognizing perfectionism and “all or nothing” thinking
- Reducing self-blame by separating the person from the problem
- Recognizing the cultural context that encourages binge-eating
- Identifying physical vs. emotional hunger
- Increasing capacity to tolerate feeling states (ie: identifying stress-driven eating habits)
- Acknowledging your pre-existing knowledge of health and nutrition and putting this wisdom to work in new ways
- Learning how to speak your unspoken needs to others and to yourself so that the need to “feed” and cover up the emptiness and anxiety is lessened over time
- Improving body image and learning self-care
- Identifying that eating slip-ups lead to a binge and an “I’ll start tomorrow” negative pattern of thinking
- Recognizing recovery as a “process” of patience and positive thinking
- Identifying and resolving depression, anxiety and fears that affect the problem
- Offering alternative emotional options and possibilities
- Involvement of family and friends
- Keeping a diary of all the destructive strategies and tricks the inner conversations of emotional eating suggest as solutions
- Keeping a diary of all the times you could have given way to the binge eating tactic but somehow were able to act on your own behalf and towards health