Why Is There Not Much Help For Binge Eating Disorder (and if there is, where is it?)

Person_one

suki1964 wrote: »

Actually no we don't

We get AA, which is self funding

WW and from what I can't tell from other diets follow the steps of AA in some shape or form

Over drinker, over eater, we are the same.

We have to learn to control our excess, or die, simple really

No diet plan I've ever followed uses the AA 12 steps, thankfully!

Fire_Fox

oopsadaisydoddle wrote: »

Thanks for replying and thanks for the support. On the whole this thread has been amazing. I really appreciate all of the help that people have offered and am grateful that people have shared their experiences. This helps me to feel like I'm not alone. There have only been a couple of unhelpful responses. Also judging by the amount of responses makes me realise that it's probably more common than i thought.

I know that my diet as it is probably does me no favours and that if I was nourishing it properly, I may not get the cravings and urges as much.

I haven't completed the plan I am aiming to make but I am going to give running a try. I have decided too that I am going to ask my GP for a referral at least for CBT. I had thought about paying privately because the sessions on the nhs are limited to 6, however I'm not sure I can afford it.

I just checked out the b:eat website and there are no groups near me :-(. Maybe I should set on up lol! And go on my own!!

Like I have said before, I am NOT making excuses, I HAVE attempted to help myself. I just haven't yet done it successfully. That's why I'm here asking for advice and tips.

I'm not sure this is the same in every area, but here the Community Mental Health Team is the gateway service. GP cannot diagnose many mental health issues and cannot refer directly for CBT, they write a letter of referral for an assessment with a view to diagnosis and treatment as CMHT deems appropriate. If they don't put enough on the letter the CMHT could say you don't need to be seen, although I don't know how common that is.

If you can't get any of the GPs in your practice to help consider changing practices even if it's further away or more difficult to get to. I have done this and know of a good few that also have done likewise - all had no regrets and received a service/ treatment closer to what they felt they needed.

Whilst I think talking therapies and medication can be extremely beneficial for many conditions, my experience personally and in the workplace is those who who help themselves get by far the best results. That works for numerous physical health problems as well, it's not being dismissive of mental health. You sound very positive about trying different avenues which is great.

I believe in some organisations you are encouraged to make 'God' your own, a higher power like mother nature, humanity, family/ community, an afterlife/ your ancestors, modern science or something else that is bigger than and meaningful to you.

Humans have been worshipping deities for a long time, some of us believe they are a metaphor for explaining how the world or universe works, that the concept predates most current organised religion. Not all have gods that are in the form of a sentient being, and not everyone who is spiritual or religious identifies with a named belief system. I don't mean to offend anyone religious by saying that, I genuinely apologise if I have put my foot in it.

sophlowe45

Hi Firefox

You replied to a post of mine earlier in the thread, thanks for replying.

No I am not doing the most of the eating well plan, I find getting 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day difficult to manage, yet alone 9!

I think I have had a few portions today, more than I have had in a day for a long time.

With protein, I got lots of tins of chick peas, red kidney beans etc. I read the tins and chose beans with the highest protein amounts, haricot beans I think didn't have so much protein so I did not get them.

I do like fresh fish, I got some today and cooked it with a huge amount of vegetables, it was delicious, I cooked it at my friends house who has a gas cooker, I cannot believe how much easier it is to cook on a gas cooker, the food tastes so much better and cooks faster. However, continuing the pattern when I am alone is the problem.

I have to say whenever I hang out with other people, even if they are really slim, they eat crap food, all my friends seem to eat huge amounts of bread every day. I had a cigarette and a coffee today with my friend, I don't even smoke or drink coffee, I have even been trying little amounts of alcohol in an attempt to find different ways of de stressing and coping. BUT I don't want to end up with additional addictions and I am really scared I will.

Fire_Fox

sophlowe45 wrote: »

Hi Firefox

You replied to a post of mine earlier in the thread, thanks for replying.

No I am not doing the most of the eating well plan, I find getting 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day difficult to manage, yet alone 9!

I think I have had a few portions today, more than I have had in a day for a long time.

With protein, I got lots of tins of chick peas, red kidney beans etc. I read the tins and chose beans with the highest protein amounts, haricot beans I think didn't have so much protein so I did not get them.

I do like fresh fish, I got some today and cooked it with a huge amount of vegetables, it was delicious, I cooked it at my friends house who has a gas cooker, I cannot believe how much easier it is to cook on a gas cooker, the food tastes so much better and cooks faster. However, continuing the pattern when I am alone is the problem.

I have to say whenever I hang out with other people, even if they are really slim, they eat crap food, all my friends seem to eat huge amounts of bread every day. I had a cigarette and a coffee today with my friend, I don't even smoke or drink coffee, I have even been trying little amounts of alcohol in an attempt to find different ways of de stressing and coping. BUT I don't want to end up with additional addictions and I am really scared I will.

You are welcome. Congratulate yourself on what you are achieving, every step in the right direction is well worth taking. Gas is amazing and I miss it, but an electric induction hob is not too bad if you have decent pans. Regular electric hobs and grills are awful, I used my slow cooker/ steamer, George Foreman type griddle and microwave A LOT when I had that!

Fruit and vegetables to me is a major key, it crowds out a lot of the bad stuff if you get that right. Maybe try basing every meal around produce rather than thinking of the carbs first, start at breakfast. I live alone and many meals I make are one pot or one frying pan, many are reheated I don't cook from scratch for every meal! I eat plenty of frozen veggies and fruit, some canned and dried too because that is so easy to use. Five is a good goal to begin with, you have the rest of your life to work towards nine, if you don't get there it's not the end of the world.

Bean and lentils are a great source of carbohydrates, fibre and minerals they are not the best source of protein. Look at meat, fish, eggs and many dairy products for that.

People can indeed be slim and unhealthy, and eat 'bad' or high calorie dense foods and be slim. And yes, very few people in this country meet the healthy eating guidelines, let alone exceed them. That is partly why we have an explosion of lifestyle health problems. Also partly why 'minor' health problems are considered normal - stuff like skin complaints, hayfever, constipation, winter colds, stomach upsets. It can even contribute to depression and stress.

You have to follow people 24 hours a day for days at a time and look at their lean mass to understand why some remain slim. For example my ex lived on takeaway or sugary junk, cigarettes and weed when I met him, never did any exercise and was as thin as a rake .... but he worked as a chef (!) so was moving about all shift, ate just one or two meals a day relatively often. If you did the maths he was regularly below the calories needed to to sustain his activity levels, and that had been going on for years.

Others fidget a lot or have an active hobby, never snack or rarely drink alcohol, eat low calorie at some meals and high at others. Even a tiny 100 calories too much or too little a day is 36,500 calories a year which could translate to eleven pounds of body fat. Weight is not as simple as just calories, but it gives you a rough idea.

daska

I'm not sure I agree 100% with the notion that WHAT you're eating MUST be in some way secondary to an (as yet only self diagnosed) psychological problem.

I ticked every box on that BED checklist: quantity, speed, secrecy, the lot! But, like you I also have confirmed diagnoses for other physiological problems and like you one of mine is insulin related. Another is depression. (And yes I was also obese!)

But...

What a person eats can have a very strong influence on both insulin related problems and mood. To be simplistic, if you have a problem with insulin then your body will be reacting to the carbohydrates you eat inappropriately - whether that's over or under production. And it's primarily insulin that controls storing your excess carbs as fat and stops the body releasing that fat. Hence the enormously and fast weight gain that people on PCOS can experience.

So I think it's dangerous to rely on getting a BED diagnosis to solve all your problems.

Going on a low GI, low GL or low carb diet to gain health is NOT the same as going on a diet to lose weight. Changing your way of eating may well result in some weight loss (look at my signature for mine) but it doesn't mean going hungry or restricting calories and there'll always be something to binge on so you'll soon get additional evidence as to whether BED is the major problem.

For me it obviously isn't even though, as I said earlier, I ticked every box on that checklist. But my reason for starting to eat low carb wasn't for weight loss, it was because I had what felt like a hypo and I scared shitless of having to go back on the insulin (been there, done the injections, didn't enjoy LOL). What I have discovered is that if I avoid sugar and high carb foods I am no longer compelled to eat them. I do sometimes eat when I'm not hungry, just because I fancy it, but the quantity I eat is less. If however I eat high carb foods regularly over a period of a week or so my bingeing returns. So I know my binges are very much related to what I'm eating rather than to food generally.

I understand and sympathise with the difficulties you're having with food, I've been there(!), but you're obviously not lacking in will-power, your success on WW, SW, Cambridge attest to that. A lot of people would give their eye teeth to lose as much as you already have! What you do seem to struggle with is adjusting your way of eating to one that isn't so prescriptive and which requires you to make choices or to understand how to tell the difference between low GI foods and not.

If there was a plan telling you what to eat for each meal would that make it easier for you?

oopsadaisydoddle

daska wrote: »

I'm not sure I agree 100% with the notion that WHAT you're eating MUST be in some way secondary to an (as yet only self diagnosed) psychological problem.

I ticked every box on that BED checklist: quantity, speed, secrecy, the lot! But, like you I also have confirmed diagnoses for other physiological problems and like you one of mine is insulin related. Another is depression. (And yes I was also obese!)

But...

What a person eats can have a very strong influence on both insulin related problems and mood. To be simplistic, if you have a problem with insulin then your body will be reacting to the carbohydrates you eat inappropriately - whether that's over or under production. And it's primarily insulin that controls storing your excess carbs as fat and stops the body releasing that fat. Hence the enormously and fast weight gain that people on PCOS can experience.

So I think it's dangerous to rely on getting a BED diagnosis to solve all your problems.

Going on a low GI, low GL or low carb diet to gain health is NOT the same as going on a diet to lose weight. Changing your way of eating may well result in some weight loss (look at my signature for mine) but it doesn't mean going hungry or restricting calories and there'll always be something to binge on so you'll soon get additional evidence as to whether BED is the major problem.

For me it obviously isn't even though, as I said earlier, I ticked every box on that checklist. But my reason for starting to eat low carb wasn't for weight loss, it was because I had what felt like a hypo and I scared shitless of having to go back on the insulin (been there, done the injections, didn't enjoy LOL). What I have discovered is that if I avoid sugar and high carb foods I am no longer compelled to eat them. I do sometimes eat when I'm not hungry, just because I fancy it, but the quantity I eat is less. If however I eat high carb foods regularly over a period of a week or so my bingeing returns. So I know my binges are very much related to what I'm eating rather than to food generally.

I understand and sympathise with the difficulties you're having with food, I've been there(!), but you're obviously not lacking in will-power, your success on WW, SW, Cambridge attest to that. A lot of people would give their eye teeth to lose as much as you already have! What you do seem to struggle with is adjusting your way of eating to one that isn't so prescriptive and which requires you to make choices or to understand how to tell the difference between low GI foods and not.

If there was a plan telling you what to eat for each meal would that make it easier for you?

Thanks again!

I agree with the things you are saying...I really am just confused by everything I suppose. Maybe because I've tried so many different things over the years, it's hard to know what to think for the best.

When I said my binges were probably made worse by my un nutritious diet, I just meant thinking of a 2 pronged approach so to speak.

There are pyschological reasons why I binge of course but I do recognise that some of the cravings i get are actually probably my body crying out for proper food. Examples of this are if I haven't eaten much during the day and I get home and binge (which is probably triggered by lack of decent nourishment as well as a bit of stress/tiredness) but then that binge will continue sometimes long into the night.

I hope that makes sense!

Like I said earlier, I'm not necessarily wanting a label - just help - that's why I thought CBT might be the way to go. I have come to realise that my self esteem has a lot to do with it because I've always put my worth down to what I look like/weigh.

It started when i was at school when I was going out with a boy and all of his friends used to call me ugly (was as thin as a rake then so they didn't have that on me)! Then when I was cheated on in a relationship at the end of my teens. Then my son's father left me because 'I didn't do it for him anymore'. Then another ex cheated! My husband is the only person who has ever loved me properly regardless of my size, so I should be happy! I hope that doesn't make me come across as some kind of tart lol!!

All of the times I have tried to lose weight, I have done it thinking that by doing so I'd become more attractive, more worthy.

In response to your question about meals etc - I would love someone to tell me what to eat - in fact if they came and cooked it too, I'd be very happy!

I think that's why I was succesful on Cambridge - because i didn't have to think about and be confused by what i should/shouldn't eat.

WantToBeSE

Morning Daisy, me again
how are you today?

I am just wondering if you go through restrictive phases of the ED?
You mentioned that you come home and binge, after a day of not eating enough. Is that a regular thing?
Have you tried taking a packed lunch to work with you, so that you are not starving hungry when you get through the door?
I know that wont solve your BED, just i am just thinking of ways that MAY reduce the binges that are caused only by actual hunger.

oopsadaisydoddle

WantToBeSE wrote: »

Morning Daisy, me again
how are you today?

I am just wondering if you go through restrictive phases of the ED?
You mentioned that you come home and binge, after a day of not eating enough. Is that a regular thing?
Have you tried taking a packed lunch to work with you, so that you are not starving hungry when you get through the door?
I know that wont solve your BED, just i am just thinking of ways that MAY reduce the binges that are caused only by actual hunger.

Hi again!

I'm feeling quite good today, apart from tiredness...DS up half the night full of cold!

I do take lunch sometimes but not always. I only get a 15 mins break so don't have much time to enjoy anything. I bought a food flask (which is fab) and had been taking my soups in but then got bored of them!

I want go for my first run today - only very easy but my head is so foggy from being up every hour of the night, I'm finding it hard to get over the door step. I am determined though so think I will go
After lunch. It's a lovely day here so no excuse!

Just need to eat something decent to keep me going.

oopsadaisydoddle

Also I had thought of signing up for the Beyond Chocolate 12 week online course which deals with body image. It's £50 a month for three months so thought that was quite reasonable compared with therapy costs. I am undecided though because I haven't found any reviews yet, apart from those on the website which of course, say it's good.

If anybody has any experience of it, i would be grateful to hear about before I decide to take the plunge.

WantToBeSE

Maybe a nice bowl of porridge, or some peanut butter on toast would be a good idea for breakfast if you are going out on a run-high carb to give you some energy

Maybe rethink the lunch thing. By not eating lunch, you are setting yourself up for a binge, as your body is crying out for food. By the time you get home, your body doesn't care about HEALTHY food, it cares about ANY food, ASAP. Maybe just start off small with a banana if you can't face anything else?

Have a lovely run-it's very sunny here too today, so i am determined to get the kids out for a walk in the sunshine!