How Can I Stop Eating When It Feels So Bad!

[Taina]

I'm in that 'it gets worse before it gets better' phase. I learnt I had PTSD 2-3 months ago and since then I've made great steps towards recovery, but my daily mood is much more fragile.

In the 10+ years I've had PTSD, binge eating has been a real problem for me. Especially in the last five years where I become seriously very ill with it, doubling my body weight in a few years. It's something that needs to stop, but it's one of my main ways of relaxing the anxiety, and now I'm feeling more anxious, I want to over-indulge even more.

Has anyone overcome PTSD related food addiction? Or any addiction, who can here help me.

 

[Intrepid]

As of now I have overcome. I know the addictions can always come back.

I had a gaming, food, and isolation addiction. Each helped me with one form or another of anxiety. They were my medicine when nothing else worked. Of course there were side effects, some pretty bad. It was also really humiliating that I couldn't just stop.

These addictions started when I was 12 years old, at the time the physical abuse I'd been experiencing stopped. The beatings had helped me dissociate from the memories and fears around the beatings. When they stopped I had to find something else to dissociate with. I turned to these other addictions.

I overcame these only after unknotting years of justification, denial, self loathing, and real need. I say need because I had nothing else to turn to. Just stopping put me where I was vulnerable again to the flashbacks. My only real hope was directly addressing the PTSD.

 

[Taina]

well done for your progress :)

it feels like a catch-22. I know stopping binging will help my PTSD, but I seems impossible to stop until PTSD is dealt with (which could take a while)

 

[The Albatross]

Binge eating is my mother and MIL's motus operandi... I went the other way and was under eating in my 20-30's. My bone density bears witness to the difficulty of that era to this day.

You acknowledge the behavior/tendency... and that is a big plus. You are here and asking for feedback, another big plus. It can improve... it can. My MIL waited til a chronic diagnosis... my mother is only recently back to dietary compliance for her ailment... type 1 diabetes cuz she graduated due to binge eating to requiring Insulin.

Being here and getting peer support can get you some traction/assistance/motivation, but yeah the underlying issues do eventually need to be addressed. Welcome and glad you're here.

 

[Friday]

I go back a step, typically.

If it's one of your main ways of moderating anxiety? Sounds like its time to put energy into findin other ways to moderate your anxiety. Easier said than done.

 

[Truthful_Whispers]

Sweets are my weakness, and are mostly my go-to food when I am stressed. If you are stressing, never keep processed sweets or other junk foods readily available at home. If you must have some real sugar, go to the store and buy a serving size of cookies, etc, to get it out of your system. Not a big pack. Fresh fruits, canned fruits in natural unsweetened juices, unsweetened fruit juice, baked chips, crunchy veggies with light ranch dip, flavored water, and even sugar free chewing gum are good alternatives to binging on fattening things. Eating something very high in protein, such as lean meats, some peanut butter, or nuts will help kill your appetite. Dark chocolate has some health benefits. Just make sure that, on the ingredients label, cocoa is listed before sugar. That is the healthiest dc to eat.

 

[Fadeaway]

If you are willing to go through the hell of 2 weeks of sugar detox, then start intermittent fasting, there is a good chance you'll find that the urge to binge eat completely disappears. It worked for me for a while.

 

[Flossy]

I'm in that 'it gets worse before it gets better' phase. I learnt I had PTSD 2-3 months ago and since then...

I also have gained weight, 20 kilos since diagnosis. What works for me is the 5:2 way of eating. I was doing very well on it last year until i was retraumatised and regained the 8 kilos I lost.

I found the first week hard. But after that it is a breeze.

It actually changed my whole relationship with food through knowing I could eat whatever I wanted 5 days a week.

So bizarre how I chose to make an effort with better foods than before, tastier and yummier.

Watch the Michael Moseley you tube video on it.

I just started back on it. Give it a go for two weeks. I promise you it is worth a trial for someone who is an emotional eater.