Women, Food & God... and Binge Eating Disorder

Recovery from Binge Eating Disorder is a winding and challenging road. On the one hand, the bingeing behavior has to be managed by techniques, tools, and prevention strategies. On the other hand, the issues beneath the behavior have to be discovered and worked through for true healing to take place.

This week at group, we read a few excerpts from Geneen Roth’s “Women, Food and God.” First, she explains the need to sit with yourself and whatever emotion is going on beneath the urge to “bolt” by coping with food. This can be incredibly challenging if we’ve learned that “bolting” with food is the quickest solution to the alleviation of whatever it is we don’t want to face. Secondly, she explains that self-acceptance and respect right now today, just as we are, is imperative for recovery. The answer we think we are looking for is not losing 30 pounds 100 times over 80 years of our life! The answer is not external in a size or a number; it is within us. Once we can accept who we are (and acceptance does not mean you are choosing to stay the way you are forever), we naturally begin to love our bodies differently. Our worldview changes as we are no longer slaves to the scale or the attainment of a “perfect” body image, but rather we can open our eyes to see life in a different, freer light, and begin to live out of the person we truly are (which doesn’t include disordered eating). 


Today, I hope you can begin to delve a little deeper into what’s going on beneath the urge to binge. Entertain the possibility that you are of immense worth simply for who you are. As you continue on your journey, look inward instead of “out there” for the answer, and unveil the beauty that is uniquely your own. 

Written by Kathryn Hamrick, Counseling Intern at Positive Pathways

Strategies To Overcome Binge Eating Disorder

This new Binge Eating Disorder Support Group has been a very powerful source of encouragement for those who’ve attended recently. Many group members have found relief just knowing there are other people who really get  their struggle with binge eating. It’s been a safe place for members to come and share their weekly successes and challenges, and receive support from the rest of the group to keep on walking forward on their journey towards recovery.

This week, the challenges that arose concerned the "mind battle," which all group members could relate to as very frustrating. For example, when we’re not truly hungry, but we are internally struggling in our mind because we want to eat anyways. In relation to this, members also discussed the need to ask the “right” questions about eating behavior, like “what is really going on when I have the urge to binge?” and identifying the emotions underneath the behavior. Especially if we’ve struggled with binge eating for a long time, it can be difficult to replace the “quick fix” (coping with food) with something that is more helpful and nurturing for ourselves. But members seem to be doing that by reaching out to others for help, journaling,  being completely honest with themselves and others, and setting plans in place to make it easier to make choices that will propel them forward on their path towards recovery. 

Some of the successes included more mindful eating, picking ourselves up after we’ve had a slip up, not allowing shameful/guilty feelings overtake us, and discovering alternative ways to reward ourselves that are non-food related. Next week, a member plans on bringing the topic: “so how do we stop in the middle of, or once we’ve already started bingeing?” when the tendency is to think “well you’ve already blown it and might as well go all the way!” The group will discuss ideas about how to stop and be present, challenge that black and white thinking, and turn away from the behavior in the moment.

I’m very impressed with the courage this group has shown in seeking support from others who understand this struggle, and working towards their own recovery. I hope you can join us in Denver at a meeting, Wednesdays from 7-8:30pm, or get support by reading this blog!  If you'd like more information about this group, please call me at 864.430.6369 or email me at kathryn4825@aol.com

Written by Kathryn Hamrick, Counseling Intern at Positive Pathways