Similar Behaviors/Patterns Between Two Friends With Different Eating Disorders

I had lunch with a local friend recently. We both live with eating disorders (ED), and we discovered that although we have different types of ED’s, we think very similarly. She has recovered from anorexia and possibly a touch of bulimia (yes, people can migrate between ED’s.) I have a binge eating disorder.  (Note: she has completely recovered, thus the commonalities mentioned below refer to the time in her life when she was battling her ED’s.)

It was so nice to talk to someone that understands what is going on in my head. I can’t really talk to people about my eating issues because they really don’t understand how I feel. People generally say something like: “Just stop binging.” They also might say, “if you really wanted to stop binging, you would.” Well, there’s more to it then that. I usually just start piling on the guilt and negative self talk when discussing binging with folks that have never experienced it, thus causing me to binge even more to cope with the guilt.

Four common thoughts/behaviors that we share:

• Do well during the day, but binge at night. We both would be fine all day long, then at night there’s a switch that flips, then LOOK OUT! THE BINGE IS ON!
• Obsess about one certain area in life, and ignore everything else. For example, I’ll focus so much on not binging, that I ignore my fitness, business, and home responsibilities. Later, I’ll switch my focus to another area, like my business, then my binge prevention and all the other items get ignored. There’s a lack of balance.
• We both search for the next big quest, make huge plans, and then easily give up. For example, there have been numerous times when I blogged about my future plans, and that I was going to do xyz every day. I would follow through for a couple of days, then finally forget to do something, and totally abandon the project.
• We both have long spans in which going without a binge is easy. Then all of a sudden, we fall off the wagon and go back to our old habits. For example, I did incredibly well in December. I was binge free for a while, logged my food, and exercised regularly. I was on track to get to the my next milestone of losing 300 lbs, and then all of a sudden, unexpectedly, things changed. I struggled to get my workouts completed, stopped logging my food, and resumed binging.