Support please?!?!
Question: I am 17 & lost weight over a year ago. my parents and doctor thought I was going anorexic so they said gain back all of the weight or go to the hospital. ever since gaining that weight back I seem to have developed a knack for binging. I don't want to purge, but I'm about to cave under the pressure. How can I stop? Also, my parents keep lots of snacks & goodies around. I don't even like them but I pig out in secret. Help?
Answers: I am 17 & lost weight over a year ago. my parents and doctor thought I was going anorexic so they said gain back all of the weight or go to the hospital. ever since gaining that weight back I seem to have developed a knack for binging. I don't want to purge, but I'm about to cave under the pressure. How can I stop? Also, my parents keep lots of snacks & goodies around. I don't even like them but I pig out in secret. Help?
I still have that problem.
Do not start purging as that becomes yet another addiction, you cannot compensate an addiction with another one... it does not work. In the end you would have to have TWO habits to recover from, not one - binging AND purging.
I have found that you can break any habit after around 2 weeks of not doing it. My New Year's resolution is to stop doing this, because it's become a serious problem.
Some things that have always helped me:
1.) Don't let yourself be hungry! Usually I get an urge to overeat because I'm just not eating enough... when you have tiny meals or nothing at all everything is appetizing and you can easily overeat.
2.) Talk to your family and ask them not to keep these foods around, and explain what has been going on. This takes the most courage because sometimes we don't WANT to give up our behaviors, and talking about it doesn't let us keep it a secret. Don't let your ED talk you out of opening up.
3.) Find out the underlying causes of why you overeat and then stop yourself before you reach for food... like, do you do it when you feel lonely? Do you do it when you feel depressed? Etc.
I heavily recommend this book, it really helped me when I was spiraling into the binge-purge cycle:
http://www.amazon.ca/Was-Food-Vs-Me-Won/...
I find that this lady has really worded it better than I ever could - the methods of finding the emotional reasons behind binging, the methods of stopping yourself in time, etc. Take it out of the library, buy it if you can - I did, there's worksheets in there that are helpful to fill out !
Eat fruits and Vegtables. And drink water. And have 3 straight meals a day. So that way you wont really be hungry for snakes and treats.
Ask your parents to not get the bad snack foods. Then if you eat regularly at meals you'll be to full to snack later. Whatever you do: DO NOT PURGE.
What a lot of people don't realize is that the pleasure they get from eating food they can get from excersize. Pick something fun like jumping on a trampoline or swimming and you'll be surprised how much you enjoy "working out" and you'll get your body into a much healthier condition.