Binge eating disorder treatments

Angelene

Not knowing how bad your binges are, it's hard to say. But what works for me is not making any food completely off limits. If I tell myself, ok, no more donuts ever again, I'll do fine for a few days. But in a week, I'll be sitting in my car with a box of entenman's donuts eating all of them and making myself sick., and I truly believe it's because I put unrealistic expectations on myself.

If you feel like you can't control yourself, then you have to prevent the binges from happening. If you do binge once in a while, you need to forgive yourself and not let it happen again. Try eating just a bit of the thing you crave every once in a while, or else the obsession with it will get out of control.

It might be hard to tell your mother, but seriously, if you think that you need outpatient or inpatient help, the best time to do it is now. Your mother can take care of the paperwork/bills while you concentrate on getting better. I know that sounds very shallow, but it's the truth.

Good luck and good health,

Angelene

coffeegirl2

Biocrazy....I am one of the people who posted recently about the drug Topamax earlier on this forum. I take the drug for a few reasons and one of the reasons is due to bulimia and binge eating. There are other medications that also can help with binge eating that are out there, however, the MD/pdoc, are best to help you find the medication that suits your situation and body system. It is in your best interest to seek out a professional, and not just an MD, but a pdoc (psychiatrist) and a tdoc (therapist) who work together as a team, because the pdoc is trained with better knowledge with the medications of the current ones that treat binge eating disorders, and won't just give you an anti-depressant, which is what most MD's do. That is what has happened to me and most of my friends in the past who have eating disorders and other mental ailements.

Also, it would be good for you to open up to your mom. She is someone who needs to know this. She is your mother, and she does care about you. I am a mom, and if my child was hurting in any way, shape or form, and was hiding something like this from me, I'd be devistated. I hid my eating disorder from my parents for a while, and it hurt my parents..... and then my parents went into denial for years about my eating disorder and acted like it didn't exist, which made things even worse. They refused to get counseling for me and them as well. Now my mom looks back and she feels horrible. We are best friends now. I still struggle with the eating disorder. Right now I'm trying to lose weight- the right way, and still have tendencies with the eating disorder, but I watch it closely with my pdoc/tdoc. If you feel comfortable, show this post to your mom.

Best of luck to you and your well-being. Take care of yourself.

Hugs,

Coffeegirl

coffeegirl2

Eating lots of food all at once by ones self in a short period of time and making yourself sick are symptoms of bulimia. I used to do this too, and it is horrifying and upsetting to do as well. How on earth do you ever share this with anyone in your family that you do this? Or do you? It took me years to share this with my DH that I did this after work or that I did this in high school with my best friend after school and after football games. Now I am on a medication that stops it in it's tracks by 90%. Hallelujah! The medication saved my life. Another friend of mine who is bulimic takes a different kind of medication called Lamictal. It works for her and has helped her quite a bit as well.

Sometimes in life one has to make decisions as to determine if you want to stop the madness or if you want to just stay in it because it is a safety net. I stayed there for years because I wanted to and didn't know how else to get out. I was in therapy but I didn't care if it worked or not; I was determined to make it not work, and one tdoc was out for just money, and she didn't care if I got better or not as well. Then I found my current tdoc and he stopped it right in it's tracks. Made me confront myself, the situation, and forced me to make a decision about myself, my life, and my family. Was I really happy with my life? Did I like where I was going? And I had to look at the past experiences I had that were causing me grief. That was the worst. I learned a lot, and still go to therapy often.

There are support groups out there. You have to contact the hospitals to find them and call the psychiatrict department. They will help assist you from there and direct you to the right people. Over Eaters Annonymous is for binge eaters only, and they are very strict who they will accept. They don't accept some bulimics; as they are very picky about that. In my area they didn't accept me. I assume I wasn't accepted due to having an anorexic past maybe. The best groups are the ones who are diversed, as they might be lead from tdocs/nutritionists from the hospitals or those who have been patients from the hospitals.

Hang in there. I know this is a rough road to go down. It is not one that any person would want to walk through nor chose to. It is one that just happens due to pure anxiety and depression and a reaction from all of those occurances. I'm sorry that this is happening to all of you. I wish that things were better. Take care ladies. (((HUGS)))

Many good wishes for today.

Coffeegirl