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